Topic: Stand Development

[charles binns]

I have been trying out stand development with some success recently.  I have been trying it out on a batch of Orwo b&w film I got off ebay using Rodinal diluted to 1+100 with a development time of 1 hour at 20C.

My question is this.  Can I use the same development time for all b&w films using the same developer and temperature or do different films (or more likely film speeds) require different times?

Also if all films have the same development time then I can process, say, TriX with PanF together using this technique? 

Would be interested to hear people's feedback.

[LT]

there is likely to be some fluctuation, but only minimal.  The whole point of stand development is that it is self limiting and compensating in nature. So, as the highly dilute developer exhausts in the highlights, it continues to work in the shadows bringing the negatives into an acceptable contrast for printing. When you are talking about hours/ minutes instead of minutes/ seconds, it is much less critical.

As there are also so many other variables in developing, it is always best to work out your own times ... having to use grade 5 too often? Develop for longer (and vice versa).  Having to force the s-curve too often in photoshop? same again.

[sapata]

I have been doing stand (and semi-stand) development with Rodinal for quite sometime, some with success and some not (specially with roll film). One of the few things I like (problably the most) on this process is the fact that I don't need to be nursing the tank and it's also very economic, I've done 1:200 ratio 2 hours which is less than 2ml of developer (so little Rodinal you use that you need an eye dropper!) with incredible results on 35mm. I use always when I processing 4x5 because the tank takes quite a lot chemicals.

Like everything in traditional photography, there's quite a lot different opinions and methods of how to that drives me crazy everytime I search for information!

I've used same time (either 1 or 2 hours) 20degrees for different film brands/speed.

Here's an interesting arcticle about this process...
http://www.flickr.com/groups/rodinal/discuss/72157625216183761/

[Urban Hafner]

1h at 1:100 at nominal speed always worked fine for me. For push I've used the rule of adding 1/3 of the time per stop (or rather multiply the time by 1.33^N where N is the number of stops to push).

[Francois]

I always do stand developing: I don't have a chair in that corner of the lab 

[charles binns]

Thanks for your comments - Like everything with analogue photography it looks like there's an element of trial and error involved. 

Up until now 1+100 Rodinal for an hour is working really well with my Orwo film.  I will have to try it out with some of the other films I use. 

[Terry]

I do a lot of stand development too.  Usually Rodinal/RO9 at 1:100 for one hour.  The only films I've found so far that didn't seem to like it were Tri-X and FP4.  (Big grain!)  But Delta 100 loves it as does Fomapan.  As Mauricio said, it's great for 4x5 because it saves money.  Making up 1700ml of 1:100 is way less stressful.

[Terry]

Leon,

Thanks for the explanation of the way stand development works.  It seems that if I wanted maximum detail in both the highlights and shadows I'd go for 1:200 at 2 hours.  Does that make sense?

[LT]

Leon,

Thanks for the explanation of the way stand development works.  It seems that if I wanted maximum detail in both the highlights and shadows I'd go for 1:200 at 2 hours.  Does that make sense?

It all depends on how contrasty the negatives are.  If you have a whole roll of "normal" 4-5 stop subject brightness range shots, then you won't be gaining anything by using stand development - contrast wise at least.  But if you have a whole roll of wildly differing subject brightness ranges, then the more compensation, the better to bring them all under control.

There is another benefit to do with grain and acutance/ perceived sharpness. Barry Thornton discusses this idea at length in his Edge of Darkness book.  The stand development operates on a micro-level to cinrease local contrast too and this can exaggerate the liminal points between shadow and highlight.  This increases the "edge sharpness" by almost creating a black line between the two - sometimes called Mackie lines. these gives an overall greater perception of sharpness without actually increasing resolution. This is why prints from faster grainier films can appear to be "sharper" than those from slower and higher resolving films - because a grainier neg will demonstrate Mackie Lines more obviously than a smooth grain-free one - or so the notion goes.

So if you are looking for the edge sharpness effect, it might still be worth going for stand development even if contrast is not an issue.