8x10 film processing

[Pere Casals]

A Jobo is usually going to be more consistent both in agitation and temperature control in most normal circumstances.

I've chem and air room temperature at 20ºC, so total consistence.

In most cases it's irrelevant having a little shift in the development degree, 20s more or less equivalent development is irrelevant, you adjust paper grade later.

What I obtain with reduced agitation, when I use it, is relatively less dense highlights compared with the mids. There are situations where you want that, night photography for example.

I night photography film sensitometric curve is deformated by the higher LIRF in the shadows and mids, while highlights don't have LIRF, in that situation you want to slow development in the highlights by not removing free bromide from the emulsion, so you obtain easier to print highlights that have been developed with a locally higher restrainer concentration.

As for all the fluff about semi-stand etc, it's a half-assed, inconsistent non-solution for people who apparently want to waste the time they could use more usefully learning how to unsharp mask instead - which will always have a greater impact on apparent sharpness.

What is a waste of time is having to make masks because we have not crafted the right printable negative. No doubt that USM masking adds acutance, and that masking is powerful, but if we make a negative that's easily printable like we want then we have an advantage.

I guess that we have two different ways, one is making a bullet proof linear negative that has flexibility for intensive image manipulations in the printing. The other way is crafting a negative that prints easy like we want, at the possible cost of less flexibility, because the compressions we make in the toe/shoulder have no way back.

No way is better than the other, it's just a personal choice, each way requires different skills, IMHO.