help developing problems 8x10 - WITH PICTURES.

[Clieben]

Thank you Pere and Willie. I will look into the D76 or XTOL. I chose rodinal because I once saw an incredible low contrast (...) print on here that had that as the developer... Printing out this entire thread and following every suggestion as well. Thank you.

[Clieben]

Well that video gets straight to the point... Ty Pere.

[Pere Casals]

I once saw an incredible low contrast

There are low contrast developers, but in this case (Rodinal) Low Contrast comes more from how we use developer that from developer itself.

Rodinal is not a low contrast developer. A main feature rodinal sports is that it isn't a solvent developer, so grains shows well. Other developers have solvent effect, so grains are less perceived (specially in small formats), in the Xtol case this is conbined with high "sharpness" what is not not a common combination, as solvent effect usually adds an slight blur.

Anyway in LF grain is way less important, of course.

Let me point that I consider Rodinal an excellent aesthetic tool, also there is nothing worth in starting with it, just saying that starting with a D-76 or Xtol it's a bit easier because they are more (say) "general purpose" rather than specialized.

Of course Xtol/D-76 allows custom specialized usage, but D-76 is the standard to what all developers are compared, so it's a good reference in a learning process, with Xtol adding 1/3 stops advantage in the shadows.

Regards

[pepeguitarra]

I enjoy the way this (actual) college professor explain thing. Here is a video that may apply to what you are doing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdpfRqDDZyw