stand development

I'm interested in experimenting with stand development. Some people on this forum have had great success with this. I have a few questions:

What developer, what dilution and how long?

I develop 4x5 and 8x10 in large tanks by dip and dunk. That means that the tank is open on top, and the darkroom is completely dark. But I don't feel like sitting in the dark alone for an hour or two. If I open the darkroom door to go out, this will ruin the whole job. How do people solve this?

Thank you in advance.

David

Develop in a light proof tank.

I use for some years this:
Rodinal 1+100 for 1 hour
Or 1+300 3 hours (my favorite)
Keep enough room in the tank for 250 ml developer for each film sheet.
Small tank (jobo or Paterson)

Use a piece of blackout fabric draped over the tank.

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Originally Posted by david@bigeleisenlaw.com

I'm interested in experimenting with stand development. Some people on this forum have had great success with this. I have a few questions:

What developer, what dilution and how long?

I develop 4x5 and 8x10 in large tanks by dip and dunk. That means that the tank is open on top, and the darkroom is completely dark. But I don't feel like sitting in the dark alone for an hour or two. If I open the darkroom door to go out, this will ruin the whole job. How do people solve this?

Thank you in advance.

David

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I do stand development two ways, depending on whether I'm at home or away:

1) I bought a Yankee daylight tank for 4x5 from Freestyle. Despite what some have said about it my experience with it has been great. It works as advertised. This way I can let it sit on the kitchen counter for 30-45 mins as needed.

2) I went to Walmart and bought some cheap plastic sandwich containers. I fill those with developer and fixer and put them in my dark bag (along with the holders). I unload the paper negatives into the developer, agitate for 30 secs, then take my hands out of the dark bag. The container sits there for however long I need and I can agitate if I want by simply grabbing the container from outside the dark bag (though I usually let them sit). I have a towel and/or a tray in there as well because the containers I use don't really seal tight against liquid (they're for sandwiches, after all). Put my hands back in the dark bag, transfer the negative from devel to fix, then after about 2-3 mins, I can take the container out of the dark bag and inspect it through the clear plastic (I put them in the containers emulsion side down so I can see them from the bottom of the container since the lids are opaque).

You may need to get a pretty large dark bag if you're using 8x10 in a tank. I got mine from Freestyle but there are some pretty big ones on the 'bay as well (from China).

As to developer: ask 10 photographers and get 15 different answers. :) I've started using Caffenol for my developer and I like it better than traditional developers. It's not as consistent but I'm not into LF for replicating the qualities of digital. I'm perfectly happy with the quality of my Fuji X-T1 and if I want high fidelity then I just use that. I'm into LF for the unique character you can only get by shooting negatives imprecisely and developing them with some inconsistency to produce truly unique results. No filters can reproduce that.

That's not to say I'm sloppy about things on purpose. But I recognize that LF and stand developing are not as predictable as other forms of highly-controlled, by-the-book development processes. Some people are into that sort of thing but I'm not. I'm interested in making images not spending time developing the film or paper.

I have the "Caffenol Cookbook" which has a bunch of recipes in it, along with instructions on various workflows. I use a variation of the Caffenol Volumetric and Caffenol-C-L for stand developing (it basically comes down to using less washing soda). I have to let film set about 10x longer in the developer than paper but I can use the same formulation for both. I don't use it one-shot, but pour it back in the jug and reuse it until it starts to take longer to develop.

I tried semi-stand yesterday with D-76 @1:1(Because I had it mixed). I made 2 tubes out of 2" ABS pipe 6"-7" long with a glued cap on one end and a threaded plug on the other end. I used 9oz. of developer to fill the tube for the first test.

The 4x5 "Isopan 24" developed for 24 minutes (inverting the tube every 3 minutes). I transferred the developer into the second tube in total darkness and ended up with two decent test negatives, considering the film expired in May, 1969. I will try stand development in these tubes with fresh film and a more suitable developer like Rodinal.

Attachment 134348Attachment 134349

Here is what i did using semi-stand developing and HC-110.

http://www.largeformatphotography.in...and+developing

Quote:

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Originally Posted by david@bigeleisenlaw.com

I'm interested in experimenting with stand development. Some people on this forum have had great success with this. I have a few questions:

What developer, what dilution and how long?

I develop 4x5 and 8x10 in large tanks by dip and dunk. That means that the tank is open on top, and the darkroom is completely dark. But I don't feel like sitting in the dark alone for an hour or two. If I open the darkroom door to go out, this will ruin the whole job. How do people solve this?

Thank you in advance.

David

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I would suggest you share with us the reasons you are drawn to a process that demands so much time to realize results. From that we may be able to offer some practical experiences and suggestions.

Cheers !

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If I open the darkroom door to go out, this will ruin the whole job. How do people solve this?

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Simple: Just place a heavy black towel over the tanks.

Thomas