Topic: joining the home dev crew

[formica]

after talking about it for what feels like forever, i finally managed to get the neccessities for developing  bw at home.  i'm happy to say the roll didn't turn out completely blank and i don't seem to have killed myself with the use of chemicals. i did manage to give a nasty scratch to one shot, but other than that things went quite well.  i'd shot a test roll with the holga while on a spur of the moment daytrip to kenting/maobitou(maobitou being one of the southern most tips of taiwan) on saturday and processed the roll sunday night. my favourite shot from the roll should be below.

 i've heard that there are ways to increase grain while developing, any advice out there?

                           
                                          william

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[LT]

Congrats on your first trip into home developing - it's good fun isnt it.

getting grain

1. Use a grainy developer and film combo - hp5+/ Tri-x/ delta 3200/ tmax 3200 with rodinal at 1:25 should do the trick.
2. under exposing and over developing increases grain (either using longer times or warmer developer temperatures (see step 5)).
3. In conjunction with number 1, enlarge a small are of the negative to get a really gritty picture.
4. Sticking to 35mm will make you picture seem grainer because of the magnification factor.
5. Reticulating the film gives a grainy texture or pattern by causing the silver grains to group together  - eg develop quite warm, then use a cold stop bath (at least 5 degrees difference should do the trick) or wash water to provoke a physical reaction in the film.

anyone else got any suggestions?

[This-is-damion]

push 400 asa film to 800 or more.    this might be covered by leons point 2,  but he blinded me with science.

[moominsean]

use diafine...pretty much always grainy.

[eddie]

Some of the cheaper 400asa films are grainy. For example Fortepan 400 has nice chunky grain if you can find it .  Rodinal at 1:25  works well with these type of films and gives good sharpness with good sized grain.

[Francois]

he blinded me with science.

Thomas Dolby Fan?

Tri-X has lots of "grain power" packed inside.
Processed in HC-110 can also make it quite punchy.

I looked in my Big Formulary and found a few things you might like...

Take Tri-X, expose it at EI3200 and process for 6 minutes at 21?C in Dektol.
Yes, you read right, Dektol, the paper developer. It will give you lots of grain by developing every bit of exposed silver in the emulsion.

Another one is Tri-X, exposed at either EI3200 or EI6400 (what a push ). Process in HC-110 diluted 1+12 for 10 to 12 minutes (depending on the EI) at 32?C...
You will get a negative with a very visible chemical fog that, when printed on Grade 5 paper will show a real grain storm!

The high chemical activity in those 2 processes will cause grain to become excessive. This is due to both the temperatures used and the high concentrations used. Both those tricks come from old time news photographers...

You can also use an overlay texture screen... but that's like cheating...

[formica]

thanks for all the suggestions everyone! i suspect the water temp trade is probably the easiest way for me since finding tri-x in medium format around here isn't very easy(mainly it's tmax or ilford films(the shot posted was ilford). and i've only seen the ilford chemicals locally so far(though i'm pretty sure i can get diafine on line)  i just discovered today after developing my second roll that i'd mixed up the dilution on the developer and fix but it doesn't seem to have caused any major problems...

                     william

[Francois]

As a rule of thumb, Kodak is easier to find in America (or at least in most stores).

Processing film in paper chemicals will always give you big grain and contrast. I know these tips are probably valid even for Ilford films and chemicals. The reaction with the film is so great that I don't think time will be a major issue. Don't forget that just about every grain of silver that has received even minimal exposure will get developed! If you have a spare film, you could always try it.

Increasing the temperature makes for bigger grain because of the more active reaction.

Using film of at least 400 iso and underexposing it will always give excessive grain (provided you push process the film) even in normal developer.

[beck]

I think everyone basically anwsered your question....I don't have anything to add.....but, I found one of those old Kodak home developing film kits with tank, thermometer, packets, film holders, etc., in a thrift store and was able to make a brew with these packets of fixers and things...though it required more than what was there, I still made up a concoction and rolled the film onto those plastic curly pull out spools...actually, I didn't know what the heck that thing was but managed to figure it out and was successful....I shook the tank silly and let the film dry and found two frames that were visible. That plastic spool hicky left some marks from the curls of the plastic but who cares...it developed my film! Arf.

Here's one of those frames....I couldn't stop laughing.



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[Francois]

You found a Kodak tank with the spiral apron? (that's what is called the plastic sleeve with corrugated edges that keeps the layers separate.)
I didn't know any of these were still in existence! These are wickedly old!
The oldest tank I've got is an old GAF single reel tank. The reel is transparent on one side for inverting slides... (you used to expose the reel to light at one point in the process to invert the image).

The thing has no gasket around the lid so you have to be extra careful with the agitation. If you don't, you'll smell like a mix of old French fries and expired fix for days