Tips, Tricks, Best Practices for Tray Development

[Kevin Klazek]

After a few years of 4x5 and a Combi tank, I have just started shooting 5x7. I have tray developed two sets of exposures (4 and 6 sheets) so far. The first set I did emulsion side up and had only a few scratches. The second set I did emulsion down and had no scratches on the emulsion side, but had some good ones on the other side. I have not done any printing yet on the second set so I do not know if the scratches will show or not. All negs came out evenly developed.

What I am looking for are any tips, tricks or best practices that other tray developers have found usefull to eliminate scratches, obtain even development, keep track of time, agitation etc. I am trying to improve my process and get up the learning curve a little sooner.

Thanks for your input.

[lee\c]

you don't say which film you are using but if you start to use Efke PL 100 you will want a drum to use as this is a film that will scratch in a heart beat. Practice is the key to tray processing.

good luck,

leec

[chris jordan]

Are you using the shuffling the deck method, or one piece of film at a time? I've had some luck shuffling a deck of several negatives, but its takes a lot of practice to get a feel for it, and I've had some unfortunate events. Eventually, I got fairly good, most of the time. Processing one sheet per tray is labor and time intensive, but I used to do this when I couldn't risk any problems (how often is that!). I'd go emulsion up, process the film like paper. With two 8x10 development trays going at once (one for each hand), I could double the production rate, but still...it took forever! My stack of undeveloped film never went away! Then there's John Sexton's "Slosher" device which I've never gone with, but my friend Joe built one and likes it. It allows several sheets per tray, kept spread out over the area of the tray, so they don't collide. I now just go with my JOBO expert drum and forget everything else like a...I wouldn't say a bad dream, but certainly a prolonged one. I think you can still get Expert drums, and one model (I forget...) will do 5x7. You then need something to rotate it, although you can just roll it on your floor. Of course it takes a while to work out development times and tweak film speeds, etc., but I never get any scratches...

CJ Jordan www.jordanphoto.com

[Brian Ellis]

My suggestion would be to switch to BTZS tubes (or build your own tubes if the expense of BTZS tubes bothers you) or a Jobo system if you have the space, can afford it, and don't mind making multiple runs for different development times. I used to develop in trays but finally decided that life is too short to stand in the dark inhaling chemical fumes while shuffling film and nervously inspecting the final result to check for scratches (which, in my experience, you will never totally get rid of, you might only scratch 1 in 100 but inevitably it will be a negative you otherwise really liked). Scratches aren't critical if you print digitally, they're easily removed from the print, but if you still print in a fume room they're hard to deal with.

[Bill_1856]

Use LOTS of developer, always presoak, don't slide them in the tray initially -- plop them down (emulsion up) on top of each other, when you leaf through them be sure the notches are on the end where you grab it.

[David A. Goldfarb]

If you're shooting a soft film like Efke or J&C Classic, then it's not impossible to do it in trays, but it takes practice and excellent technique, and even then, you might be getting micro-abrasions that you'll be able to see with a loupe and possibly on very big enlargements, but that you might not otherwise notice as scratches. If you're shooting Kodak or Ilford film, the emulsion has a protective layer that makes tray processing a bit easier.

Be sure you've got plenty of solution in the trays. Wear surgical gloves to protect your skin from the chemicals and to protect the sheets from your fingernails. Start with 2-4 sheets, and work your way up to more as you become more confident.

I process face up, shuffling from bottom to top. When inserting a sheet into the tray, lift the leading edge to prevent scratching and pass the sheet with a sweeping motion from the front of the tray to the back and pat down with the balls of your fingertips.

Don't go too fast. Depending on the film/dev combination, I'm usually trying to do one cycle every 15 sec or every 30 sec.

If it doesn't work for you, another option is to set up a tank line. An attraction of the tank/hanger system is that, like tray developing, you can have mixed batches of sheets processed for different times, and you can also easily develop by inspection if you do that. If you have to process a lot of negs, it's a very efficient and underrated method, and used 5x7" tanks and hangers are very cheap. With a set of 5x7" tanks, you can also get 4x5" hangers if you shoot 4x5" and you can process rollfilm on reels with lifter rods. I often process film this way. I keep a 5 quart tank filled with Acufine that I replenish, and another with TF-4. I use a water rinse instead of a stop bath. I have 1 gallon tanks that I can use for other developers that I use like ABC pyro (I get consistent results running 3 batches of up to 10 sheets through ABC, since the quantity of solution is more than I would use typically in a tray).

[Brad Rippe]

Hi Kevin,

There are 3 common ways to scratch negatives in a tray. Sharp fingernails, a rough tray bottom and scratching the lower negative with a corner of the upper film. I lift the bottom negative (emulsion side up!) out while gently lifting the corner of the film stack with my other hand, a finger on the corner, so it can't contact the lower negative. Use an adequate amount of developer so you're not sliding the negative on the bottom of the tray. Even if the tray is smooth, it's not good to slide a wet negative across anything.

I've been tray developing for over 30 years and have scratched 2 negatives! The other tube systems have various risks such as sliding film in and out of tubes, etc. I once considered a Jobo, but it seemed like an expensive and large thing that probably wouldn't have helped me very much, but many people use them with perfect results. As in all of these techniques it will take some practice. Tray developing is very simple, and if you rotate the stack occasionally during the development, you will get very even development. I use 4 by 5 and some 8 by 10 Tri-X in HC 110. Sometimes T-Max in readyloads.

Also, be sure to presoak the film for about 1 min, and lay the films flat in the water individually until they are completely submerged for several seconds or else they will glue themselves together and will be very difficult to separate.

Good Luck,

-Brad

[Kevin Klazek]

I am doing the shuffle with 6 negs. I use FP4+ and HC-110 in 8x10 trays. I realize there is no substitute for practice, but I want to be practicing the right things.

David and Brad, a couple of good tips re insertion into the tank and lifting out the bottom neg. This makes sense to me for avoiding scratches.

I did not presoak and I was was going through the stack about every 30 seconds for the entire development time, while rotating the stack occasionally. I guess there are still two camps on emulsion up or down. Either way, the goal is no scratches.

Thanks to all.

[Louie Powell]

Kevin -

As Brad noted, there are three sources of scratches. Fingernail scratches can be avoided by wearing rubber gloves. Scratches from the bottom of the tray can be avoided by making sure that there are no sharp protrusions on the tray bottom. That leaves film corners. In my view, the best way to avoid scratching the film emulsion with the corner of another sheet is to make sure that the corner of a sheet doesn't come in contact with the emulsion side of another sheet of film.

In the shuffling method, the best way to do this - in my opinion - is to process the film emulsion side down. To agitate, you lift the film out of the tray, separate the bottom sheet from the stack at one edge, and then hinge that sheet away from the stack a bit. Then, you can remove that bottom sheet without dragging it across any other sheets. Drop the stack back into the tray, and then slip what was formerly the bottom sheet on top of the stack.

In theory, that should eliminate scratches on the emulsion side of film. In practice, however, I found that scratches were still possible. That led me to adopt a radically different approach to processing sheets - the slosher.

A slosher is a plastic cradle that fits inside an 11x14" tray. The cradle is divided into six compartments, each slightly larger than a 4x5 sheet of film. To use the slosher, load six sheets of film, one sheet into each compartment, emulsion side up. Drop the slosher into the presoak (Ilford does not recommend a presoak, but they also do not recommend against it.) tray for a minute. Agitate by lifting the front left corner of the slosher a bit and then dropping it back into the tray. Then lift the back right corner, and drop it back into the tray. Continue "rocking" the slosher in the tray, perhaps occasionally alternating to the front right/back left axis.

After a minute or so, transfer the slosher to the developer. Agitate continuously for 30 seconds, and thereafter for 5 seconds in each 30 seconds of development. Then move the slosher to the stop, agitate for 30 seconds, and finally move it to the fix. Agitate continuously in the fix for one minute, and then turn on the white light while continuing to agitate intermittently for the remainder of the fixing time. When fixing is complete, shift the slosher to a tray of plain water, agitate a bit, and then to a tray of hypoclear and agitate continuously for one minute. Then place the slosher in a tray of plain water and let it sit for five minutes. Follow this with five more trays of plain water for five minutes each. Finally, put the slosher in a tray of photoflow for 30 seconds, after which individual sheets can be removed and hung to dry.

The beauty of the slosher is that the only thing that touches the emulsion side of the film from beginning to end of the development process are the development solutions. That means that there will be no scratches - at all.

I have not tried to do stand development in my slosher - I have noticed that the individual sheets tend to float to the surface of their compartments during the wash sequence, which leads me to suspect that stand development would yield uneven results in a slosher.

You can buy commercial sloshers, but I made mine from plexiglass that I bought at Home Despot. The design was copied from one that Chip Forelli made after seeing one that John Sexton uses.

[David A. Goldfarb]

I divide the development time into four sections and rotate 90 degrees for each segment of the time. If you're doing 6 negs without much trouble, you're doing fine. If you're getting scratches, then cut back to 4 and work back up to more. I don't presoak in general, unless it is a film like Classic 400, which has a blue dye that comes out best with a presoak.

[steve simmons]

There is a step by step description of my tray processing technique on the View Camera web site

www.viewcamera.com

go to Free Articles

steve simmons

[Jay DeFehr]

The only time I develop film in trays is when I want to develop by inspection, and then I process one sheet at a time and use brush agitati0n. Slow and methodical, to be sure, but absolutely reliable. Never a scratch, never a sign of uneven development. I use a variety of other methods, depending on the circumstances, all of which I prefer to tray development. Good luck, and enjoy yourself, whatever method you choose.

Jay

[robert_4927]

learn brush development....you'll never scratch another negative.... just do a search on this site and it will give you all the details

[John Kasaian]

Kevin:

Unicolor Processor---costs not much more than a set of trays and you don't have to stand around in the dark! Takes up less space, you don't have to stick your hands in the soup and uses less chemicals to boot. While it kind of limits the # of negs you can develop at one time, you can have a Guiness---and a second and a third---while developing your negs. Brilliant!

[James Bleifus]

I use tray development with Efke and, after practice, have good luck. Certainly I'm not perfect and still get occasional scratches but it's now unusual. The cool thing about LF is that you can retouch the negative. One strange thing I find is that I scratch my 8X10 negs less often than 5X7. I think it's because I take the 5X7 size for granted and am a little sloppy with it whereas my 8X10s I have to be cautious.

I use the emulsion up method. Having the emulsion pointed down towards the bottom of the tray scares the bejesus out of me.

Cheers, James

[David Karp]

I use a homemade slosher to develop my 4x5 negatives too. It works just fine. I can't see any reason it would not work for 5x7 negatives.

[steve simmons]

25 years, emulsion down, thousands of negs, one scratch. Read the process on the View Camera web site. I leanrned it from Jim Galvin and Morley Baer.

www.viewcamera.com

steve simmons

[Bill_1856]

The trouble with the Slosher is that the 5x7 model requires 16x20 trays.

[Michael Kadillak]

Infrared monocle - nitrile gloves and a slow methodical cycle from the bottom of the stack to the top and a gentle push down to get the sheet under the surface of the developer.

Being able to view the process like the lights were on in the room is a great asset both from being able to manage the sheets within the trays, but to also use development by inspection and process different films of the same format at various processing times greatly improves the efficiency of my darkroom time.

Find out what works for you and stay with it until a better process comes along.

Cheers!

[John Boeckeler]

I have been developing sheet film in trays for over twenty years, usually shuffling 6 to 10 sheets. When I started, I developed emulsion side up, in accordance with Kodak's recommendation. But scratches were a problem that didn't end until I started developing emulsion side down. That put an immediate end to the problem.

[marcookie]

These are the 15 tips/tricks/errors to avoid that I think afflicted me most when starting out. Having a list like this would have saved me money and frustration I think. I also made a video about these:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8wvFWmWyBI


1. Even before development: Get rid of dust
a. Wipe holder every time with anti-static brush
b. Clean changing bag or surface every time
c. Clean internal of your camera often
2. Use gloves:
a. Safety
b. No finger oils
c. No warming up spots on the negative (the develop faster)
3. Always use the same tray for the same function
4. Pre-soak the negatives for a more even development start
5. Practice how to transfer a stack of negatives
Wet negatives get slippery, especially from the development bath, transferring more than 4 is difficult
6. Don’t develop too many sheets at one time
a. It is very difficult to transfer a stack of negative
b. You want consistent and rapid shuffling of the negatives, so fewer negatives is better
7. Use a development time that is sufficiently long, ideally more than 7 minutes
If the dev time is long enough, any uneven development that can happen at the beginning or end of the procedure is not going to be very important
8. Use fresh chemicals
a. Single use development (e.g HC-110, that use very little amount of chemicals)
b. Properly seal your stock solution
c. Check expiration dates
9. Shuffle negatives often, every 30 seconds ideally
10. If you develop one single negative, still process two negatives by using a dummy one
a. If you don’t shuffle the negative the procedure will change and there will be the risk of
getting different results, or the negative floating on the surface
11. Push down negative thoroughly – don’t let it float
12. Check your edges – practice shuffling without scratching (see video linked above for a visual explanation)
13. Transfer all negs together
a. (avoid cross contamination and marks)
b. quickly shuffle and stop all negs
14. Washing: Use surfactant at the end of the washing to avoid streaks
a. Consider also to use de-ionized water if water is hard (lots of salts) in your area
15. Use proper stainless stain clips to avoid contamination while drying the negatives