In my own experience, the most frustrating aspect of processing multiple sheets in a single tray of developer (no, it ain’t scratches!) is that there is really no way to effectively achieve anything other than continuous agitation, and even then things are chaotic at best. Think about this…no matter that you are moving a single sheet at a given time - the whole stack is always moving, furthermore introducing developer in between “non active” sheets in an inconsistent, chaotic fashion. And even if you leave a pile of say, six sheets alone for three minutes or more - you’ve still just moved them together for thirty odd seconds to get through the stack. Also…do you really know that what is happening between the sheets, from top to bottom, is truly consistent from sheet to sheet for this “interval of stillness?”
While I find the inherent smoothness of some other Pyro-based formulas to work fine while developing multiple sheets in a single tray, I find Pyrocat developers to be a bit more responsive - rewarding me greatly when I can achieve known consistency of process and biting me when I cannot. My experience…yours might vary from this.
But in light of the preponderance of vertical tube processing of sheet film (I get it, especially for doing semi-stand and stand for films that will be scanned) - I want to chime in in favor of a specific tray processing (prior to wet-printing) method which allows for great flexibility, control and consistency, while developing multiple sheets, while maintaining good efficiency and economy.
Its a very simple technique, and my guess is that lots of others might already be doing this. Then again, for those of you who are not, you might appreciate this info: For my typical six sheets of 5x7 FP4+ or Delta 100 in 1:1:100 Pyrocat HD (in glycol) I start in an 8x10 tray for my presoak as usual - with just a bit of photo-flo added for lubricity, then transfer each sheet, face up, in clockwise sequence, to its own, individual 5x7 tray - to each of which 10 oz. of 1:1:100 Pyrocat has been added. Thus my total developer volume (60 oz) is basically the same as that which I’d earlier been using for six sheets in a single tray.
The six 5x7 trays (or 4 8x10 trays) fit perfectly inside a 20x24 tray - and to agitate I simply rock the large tray…top to bottom then side to side, for one minute initially - then rock twice in each direction (about 8 seconds) once every three minutes. Sheets then go, in the same sequence, into a single tray of very weak stop bath, followed by a tray of plain water…to de-acidify in preparation for the next tray of TF-4 fixer - then wash for 25 minutes.
12 minutes in the developer at 70f with minimal agitation gets me a great N minus…so, for example, for a 15 second to one minute (or more) exposure of a rocky brook, I can realize great substance in rock shadows while water highlights remain very reasonable. Plus, no unevenness/mottling (I think some photo-flo carryover might help with this), great shadows, mids, and highs - with nice microcontrasts/adjacencies yet also nice and smooth. In other words, I’m realizing the better effects of minimal agitation (even with N minus at 12 minutes total) while tray processing multiple sheets, with the further advantages of control and consistency afforded by the fact that each sheet has its own tray. While the idea of single sheet processing had earlier sounded discouraging, I’m finding that I can now effectively do single sheets while keeping up with my old, multi-sheet per tray numbers for a given time period - furthermore maintaining equal cost efficiency.
Again, keep in mind that I’m wet printing…so find no advantage in going further with either semi-stand or stand - which might be indicated if I were scanning my negatives.
And about those scratches? Right now I’m batting close to 100 percent clean, and I suspect that those few drops of photo-flo in the presoak helps!
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