Pyrocat-HD No Stain

[timbo10ca]

That is correctd. If you have adjusted your time and temperature to get the desired contrast with rotary development at 1X, then the other factors should give you approximately the same contrast at the dilutions indicated. In other words, if rotary development is X = 10 minutes, intermittent would be 11.5 mins, minimal 15 minutes, extreme minimal 30 mins, semi-stand 40 minutes and stand 50 minutes.

Determing what is the best type of development is a highly subjective decision but the examples you provided are are quite appropriate. In addition I would add that semi-stand and stand might be recommended for situations where you need to milk every bit of shadow density possible out of the negatives. And Steve Sherman uses semi-stand to enhance micro-contrast in mid-tone areas when working with subjects of very low overall contrast.

However, avoid semi-stand or stand with any type of subject that contains a lot of large even tonal areas, and even more so subjects that contain large areas of even shadow areas adjacent to large areas of mid-tones or highlights. The only exception would be if you are willing to make two or three negatives of the scene and are willing to sacrifice one of them for the very special qualities you might get with stand. But be aware that there are always some risk with stand development.


Sandy

Hi Sandy:

During a search on reduced agitation techniques, I came across this thread. The way I understand the technique, is to give increased contrast to a negative of a low contrast scene, correct? When I read your post on the dilutions you use for each agitation type, I thought you meant that to reach (for example) a contrast of 3 times your normal, you would use Extreme Minimal agitation and a dilution of 1:1.5:200 (for some unmentioned time). But you actually mean that the same contrast is maintained by making the dilution stated, and developing Extreme Minimal for 3 time the normal time. I don't understand why a person would bother, and not just do normal development, if they're wanting to maintain the same contrast in the neg. Or am I misunderstanding this second post, and had it right initially (I'm trying to find times and dilutions to try reduced agitation with FP4+)? I read also that reduced agitation with Pyrocat HD will give box speed for a film- is this true?

Thanks,
Tim

[timbo10ca]

I have found the answer to this question in Steve Sherman's VC articles- great stuff! So a different question for Mr King: Are these times and dilutions you use specifically to create a denser neg for your carbon, or perhaps Pt/Pd printing, or could they be used to print "normally" on grade 2 VC paper?

Thanks,
Tim

[eddie]

I have found the answer to this question in Steve Sherman's VC articles- great stuff!

Thanks,
Tim

so what is the answer?

[timbo10ca]

so what is the answer?

Hmmm- good point.

To condense a very good couple of articles, the various permutations of reduced agitation development (as I understand it) don't increase or decrease overall negative contrast (although you can do N-1 and N+1 dev times if needed), but rather increase local/micro contrast to give the overall impression of a sharper more separated negative while keeping detail in highlights (wherever you happen to want them to be).

Tim

[sanking]

I have found the answer to this question in Steve Sherman's VC articles- great stuff! So a different question for Mr King: Are these times and dilutions you use specifically to create a denser neg for your carbon, or perhaps Pt/Pd printing, or could they be used to print "normally" on grade 2 VC paper?

Thanks,
Tim

The adjustments to time based on type of agitation apply to any process. I start with the idea that 1 is for continuous agitation with rotary type processing, as determined for your process, and then increase times for various type of reduced agitation and more diluted solutions.

The highly dilute solutions are recommended for semi-stand and stand development because there is less chance of bromide drag with very dilute solutions due to a highly technical reason that I won't go into here.

Sandy King

[sanking]

Hmmm- good point.

To condense a very good couple of articles, the various permutations of reduced agitation development (as I understand it) don't increase or decrease overall negative contrast (although you can do N-1 and N+1 dev times if needed), but rather increase local/micro contrast to give the overall impression of a sharper more separated negative while keeping detail in highlights (wherever you happen to want them to be).

Tim

Tim,

What you say is essentially correct, with emphasis on the fact that with any given type of agitation N- and N+ controls are also possible. This has to be determined by testing for processes that have different exposure scales.

Sandy King