Procedure/s for establishing the correct developing time?

[l2oBiN]

What is the procedure for establishing the correct developing time using a particular film with a particular developer/diluted developer?

[Bill Burk]

1. Expose several pieces/strips of film to a known amount of light. A sensitometer is an excellent tool for the purpose. 2. Develop the different pieces/strips for different amounts of time, keeping all the other variables as consistent as possible. 3. Measure the results. A transmission densitometer is an excellent tool for the purpose. If you use Pyro, choose a compatible densitometer. 4. Interpret the results. These forums are an excellent tool for the purpose.

[Sirius Glass]

Or follow the manufacturer instructions and deviate if you do not like the results.

Life is too short to get into the endless testing of everything in every possible permutation. Better to spend your time on photography.

Steve

[Ken Lee]

You might find this short article (http://www.kenleegallery.com/html/tech/testing.html) to be helpful.

[BetterSense]

1. Swag
2. Look at your pictures. If you like them, you are finished!
3. If you want more contrast develop longer. If you want less, develop less
4. Jump to 1

[ic-racer]

Many ways to do it. Some not mentioned yet:

1) Develop so that a Zone VIII frame prints as just "off white" when exposed for minimum exposure to obtain maximum black on film base plus fog.

2) Develop a control strip of the 'unknown film' so that it has a gamma around 0.7 (this is how I do it currently)

[Brian Ellis]

I'd suggest that you go here: http://www.viewcamerastore.com and click on the "testing films and paper" link on the upper left side of the page. Let them do the testing for you. They'll provide more and better information than you'll get doing it yourself for a very reasonable cost ($45).

But I'd also suggest that rather than just taking their information and blindly following it you also do some reading just to understand what's going on when you develop film and what the tests are designed to show you. If you have access to Ansel Adams' book "The Negative" that would tell you all you need to know. Another good source but harder to find is Fred Picker's book "Zone VI Workshop." Or you can do an all-words Google search using "film" "test" "development" and "time" as the words and find a wealth of information about testing for film speed and development time.

You'll see that there are various method for doing the tests and they range in complexity from the simple to more sophisticated tests that require use of a transmission densitometer. If you want to do the testing yourself pick one that looks feasible for you given the equipment you have and the time you have available and have at it. Doing even the most rudimentary testing is going to give you more consistent and better negatives than you'll get if you just "look at your pictures" or "follow the manufacturer's instructions and deviate if you do not like the results," two suggestions that I think are singularly useless.

[Sdrubansky]

If you do not have a great amount of time to devote to testing there is a lot of literature
regarding various film/paper and developer combinations.

Not just "manufacture's instructions" texts etc. but professionals who have published
test results and preferences and will provide you with enough info for a decent start.

To the books mentioned I can add Practical Zone System and Way Beyond Monochrome.

Have fun,
M

[Cor]

I like this article (an pdf I found some time ago):

Use Your Eyes!
Zone System Testing Without a Densitometer
by Paul Wainwright

Can't find it back on his web site though, haven't tried it myself yet, but I will soon..

Best,

Cor

[ki6mf]

A good step by step process is located at this web site. Jerry walks you through all aspects of the process with test equipment, without test equipment and using Wild Ass Guess method!

Zone system Development Test
http://www.jerryo.com/teaching.htm

[ki6mf]

I personally like to use a diluted developer with 14 minute normal development time. This allows for 2 minutes difference between zones. So if you are over exposed by 3 stops, a common occurrence when shooting landscapes with the sun shinning, you still end up with an 8 minute development time! Shorter development times make it hard to stop development. This is a personal preference!

[John Bowen]

www.circleofthesunproductions.com sells a film/paper test kit for a few $$ Well worth the time and few $.

The film test page is here http://www.circleofthesunproductions.com/filmtestkit.htm

I would suggest you purchase Bruce's "Finely Focused" as well. A VERY well written, useful, how-to e-book.

[cjbroadbent]

Jack's site. http://www.jackspcs.com/index.htm

[Pawlowski6132]

Here's another option which I recently started and practiced just last nite: Developing by Inspection. It will only work if you're with sheet film though. It's really easy. Basically, develop you film to 50-75% of the generally recommended development time then, turn on your safelight and monitor your density development. When it looks good (this is the part that will take some experience to judge), plop it in the stop.

Never have to worry about testing or over/under developing again.

Why wouldn't everyone want to do this?

[Brian Ellis]

Here's another option which I recently started and practiced just last nite: Developing by Inspection. It will only work if you're with sheet film though. It's really easy. Basically, develop you film to 50-75% of the generally recommended development time then, turn on your safelight and monitor your density development. When it looks good (this is the part that will take some experience to judge), plop it in the stop.

Never have to worry about testing or over/under developing again.

Why wouldn't everyone want to do this?

I don't know about others but since you asked, I didn't do it because after learning how to do it at Michael Smith's workshop I thought it was too much trouble for no reason (i.e. after proper testing you never have to worry about over/under developing anyhow so why bother with acquiring the necessary equipment and maybe ruining some good photographs as you gained the necessary experience).

[Pawlowski6132]

I don't know about others but since you asked, I didn't do it because after learning how to do it at Michael Smith's workshop I thought it was too much trouble for no reason (i.e. after proper testing you never have to worry about over/under developing anyhow so why bother with acquiring the necessary equipment and maybe ruining some good photographs as you gained the necessary experience).

Brian, it's really no trouble at all as long as you're tray developing to begin with. If you normally use rotary, etc. It would be relatively more work.

And, unlike me, you prolly have a good handle on PEI and exposure technique. I'm not using Zone system, just incident metering right now. So...DBI works for my situation.

[Ken Lee]

You can use DBI and know your exposure/developing times too. Then you have the best of both worlds.

Michael Smith mentioned on this forum, that such is his approach.

Using an affordable Infra Red Viewing Device (http://www.kenleegallery.com/html/tech/index.html#Monocular) makes DBI effortless. Not just a brief look with a faint green bulb: You get to see the whole process, from the moment you turn off the lights until you turn them on again. That's unloading the film, soaking it, developing, stop, fix, etc. It's fun to watch. :)