 BetterPhoto Member |
chemical standing life Once I have set up all of the chemicals in my darkroom in trays, for how long can I use them? Can I leave them standing out overnight? Can I rebottle them (in a new bottle and use them again the next day or a week later)? Thanks. -Eileen
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Michael H. Cothran |
Are you referring to b&w chemicals? If so - The developer (Dektol, for example) should be discarded at the end of the evening, or when it begins turning dark. You should normally mix your developer @ full strength, and then dilute it 2:1 in your tray. You should never pour this dilution back into your full strength bottle. If you had a very short printing session, you could pour the used developer into a new bottle, and reuse it at a later date. When you pour this old developer into the tray, it should still look fairly clear - if not, discard it and mix a new batch from your concentrate @ 2:1. If you're using a modern Indicator Stop bath, you can pour it back into the same bottle at the end of the evening. It will turn purple when exhausted, hence the name "Indicator." Discard it once it begins turning purple. Fix can also be re-bottled and reused in the same original bottle. There are some test strips you can buy to check the potency of your fix. However, I believe this is only crucial if you are printing fiber paper. RC paper needs very little fixing, and even somewhat exhausted fixers are still potent enough to fix RC paper.
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Justin G. |
Great info from Michael, but just want to add a little point. Don't pour your diluted fixer into the working solution of fixer. You will start to dilute it since fixing paper with Kodak fixer is 1:1. You'd be adding water to the working solution. While we're on the topic of darkroom chems, I've been reading about rodinal and how it's good on film at 1:50 with decent contrast but from what I read is that you can dilute it to 1:100 for even finer grains (and less contrast of course). Anyways, my question, can this same technique be used with HC-110. I usually use Dilution B (1:7) or Dilution E (1:11). Can I use a halved Dilution E w/ a doubled time for finer grain. Example: Fuji Acros 100 calls for 7 min at 68° with Dilution E (1:11). Can I use 14 min at 68° with a 1:22 ratio? or is it just properties of rodinal that you can use different strengths?
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Michael H. Cothran |
Justin, Without knowing it, I believe you have just volunteered to experiment with a few rolls, and then share your data!! When I submitted the original post about Rodinal @ 1:50 ~ 1:100, I left out an important factor that would apply to ANY developer diluting (my apologies for that). Let me share that with you now. I'm speaking of your FILM EXPOSURE. As you weaken your developer thru diluting, you compensate to some degree by INCREASING your developing time, and can help increase your contrast with more vigorous agitation. However, it also becomes necessary to INCREASE your film exposure. This is crucial to maintaining adequate shadow detail. At some point in your dilution process, you will need to increase your film's exposure by DECREASING its ISO setting. You will need to go from ISO to 80 to 64 to 50 as your developer dilutions increase. All this is assuming that you obtain correct exposure and film density @ EI 100. With Rodinal @ 1:100, you will need to halve your ISO. Now, about the HC-110. I've never been a true fan of it. I've used it on occasion, but always @ Dilution B (which, if memory serves me, is a 1:31 dilution from the concentrate). It is a good film candidate for weaker dilutions, but I don't think it will hold a candle to Rodinal. HC-110 is a compensating developer, and its strong points are its super fast developing times, the fact that it comes in a liquid concentrate, and is very contrasty. I don't believe it shares the same accuteness powers of Rodinal. The reason I have always liked Rodinal is that it is NOT a compensating developer. That said, it would be fun to experiment with weaker dilutions of HC-110, but don't forget to also increase your film exposure!!
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Justin G. |
I will defintely read up on him. I'm a fan of sharpness by a ton...well it comes with the territory of loving big prints, 16x20 being my portfolio size. I usually do shoot increased. my normal film is acros 100 which I just play around with my ISO's anywhere from 80 to 64 on the average, 50 ocassionally and even 40 once. this film handles soo well and I really want to learn what developer/solution/agitation/temperature/time will work best to give me the sharpest of images and also some added contrast. they say the acros is the finest B&W grained film out there (well nothing on the tech pan but you know) and I guess competeing with ilford pan f + (which I love too but it's just a hard find in fayetteville, nc besides ordering online). well i'm gonna reread your post when I get more sleep, i'm working on 30+ hours of awakeness and have to return to work at midnight for another 12-14 hour rotation. good day all and I will be chattin around 0001 EST! cheers
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Andrew Laverghetta |
Hoping that this has been answered enough (the main question that is), I'm looking to change something about the film that I use. Right now I've only used 35mm but I'm working on getting a Mamiya 67. Anyway, right now I normally use TMax at ISO100 and TMax liquid concentrate developer. I started out using Kodak's D-76 developer but not into my darkroom "career" enough to notice a difference. I could go back and look now but I'm too busy. Anyway, I switched to Tmax because it was supposed to work better with the Tmax films than others. Then, I looked on their website (kodak) and they show that Xtol has finer grain and maybe slightly better sharpness. Is this true? I'd like to try some of this stuff but I don't know how to measure it out correctly. I only have 1gal jugs and I would have to make some kind of stock solution before I "souped it." I think tmax is supposed to be able to be used at different dillutions...I'll have to look more into this but I just wanted to share that I'm interested and read all this stuff that comes up. I've got one other question. I mixed some kodak fixer the other day the way I have before. I used about the correct temp to mix it, then I let it set for a while after I had shaken the jug around for quite a while. Then to cool it down I put it at the bottom of my fridge. Now, whenever I pour some out it looks slightly cloudy. It was a powder concentrate so I filled the jug about 2/3 of the way and then mixed in the powder, then continued to fill it. Like I said I shook it around, let it sit, and then I guess I actually put it in the freezer but not nearly long enough to freeze. Anyway, like I said, now it's fairly cloudy and I don't know if I should use it or not. It's only about $5 but I don't want to have to go buy more and find someplace to dump the cloudy mix. Hope this makes sense enough, thanks!! -Andrew
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Justin G. |
Andrew, I'm new to the darkroom as you but here's kinda what I was taught and kinda figured out on my own. I mix my Kodak fixer in a 1 gal jug and just leave it at room temp. It's always been fine and no cloudiness. They do the same at the college, leave it at room temp. I would assume that when you mix it you use warm water (if forget the temp.) to help it dissolve. I would also assume in conjunction with this that by putting it in the fridge it would maybe "undissolve" it. I really do not know but would just assume that. Anyways for B&W fixer temp doesn't need to be as consistent with develop temp as lets say c-41 or e-6. I leave mine at room temp, what's that 72° or so and I develop at 68° so that's pretty close and have always had good negs at this concoction. Anyways I would tell you to let it warm up to room temp (because the fridge is cold, usually at like 40-50° or so?). Let it warm up to room temp and restir it up, then leave it out for a couple days and see if it gets cloudy. If it doesn't I woudl just say leave it at that (and out of reach of any kids). Hopefully this helps a tad. If I'm wrong I'm sure Michael will pop in and give us some insight.
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Kevin J.L. Figueira |
Here is an old timer's trick for extending the life of chemicals in trays that I learned way back in the early 1980's. If your darkroom time is going to be short, and you plan on going back in a day or two, then you can try this. On each tray of chemicals lay a sheet of wax paper directly on the chemical in the tray. It must fit pretty tightly so it will make a kind of seal around the inside of the tray. This will help to keep air and dust out, but only for a short time. I hope this helps. It may be worth a try if your not going to be long between sessions. Good luck.
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