On Mon, 23 Feb 2004 17:47:43 -0600, Frank Pittel
wrote:

After many years of using Tmax-100 I'm going to taking a look
at using Ilford's Delta-100. My question involves which developer
works best with it. I've gone out and bought a bottle of ilfosol-s
and a bottle of infotec dd-x.

Anyone have any experience with either of these developers with
Delta-100? I'm interested in dilutions and temperatures that give
you the best results.

Most temperatures for b&W hang around 68 degrees, but, as the real
world knows, frequently the developer isn't that temp.

I mix my own chemistry, but do not usually try to many fancy /
specialised developers. I do it more so that I can mix a litre of
developer that is fresh when I get a chance to get to the darkroom. A
young family limits my darkroom time to what it was in my past.

Going at least 1:1 dilution with stock developer solutions at time of
use gives you a way of getting close to a useful processing time that
isnt too long or short.

Measure the temperature of the undiluted developer stock solution.
Then figure out how close that is to the ideal temperature- 68, or
whatever it is for that developer. Then make the mixed in water that
different in the opposite direction.

If your local water from the tap after filtering is still to gunky for
direct use with developers there is still a way to do this with
distilled. Keep 2 jugs of distilled water - one at room temperature or
beside the radiator, etc. Keep the other one in the fridge. Then
almost temperature can be mixed up.. If you end up with too mush
distilled mixed, then just pour the excess back into the water jug.

The easiest trick is to hunt down a little dial calculator gizmo that
Kodak (maybe used to) sell as a part of thier darkroom data guide.
Other vendors likely made them as well. It gives time vs. temperature
relative to an developer number index that you dial in on the opposite
edge of the dial.

The power of this calculator is that it allows you to easily adjust
development times to ideally suit your process.

I have a condenser enlarger - Kodak say develop using 3 development
numbers less on thier dial than thier published standard data to
compensate for higher contrast for this enlarger characteristics. So
that little gem got me closer to a full black to white print process.


Then I found Fred's Pickers little book, six years after starting B&W
hobbying

The ideas discussed below come out of a little book by Fred
Picker,called Zone VI Workshop circa 1974 that I found used many years
ago. These ideas take a while to explain. Take the time to read it,
and also try to make the time to run your own tests. They wil give you
huge control over the process. So much control that I cannot imagine
using a C-41 based B&W film, regardless of how convenient thay look at
first blush.

I am not a huge Zone System fanatic -but I do not want all grey all
the time either out of my prints.

So I do a one day calibration prceedure with each new film/developer
combination I get into. I know it takes about a day, but the results
pay dividends for years. Keep reading - it will be worth it to you
too. It goes on - a bit like a mini-book now that I look it over with
a spot of editting. But the original book the information came to me
in I suspect is a very hahrd find these days.


A light meter- either the handheld or through the lens reading types,
reads everything and wants to make it like a grey card.

So metering a grey card (or any flat evenly lit blank card surface)
places it at ZV as I recall.. Zones in Fred's world got from 0 to 8
in roman numerals, I recall. I am typing this at work, so exact
details of the book, at home are not at hand

With the image of the test/grey card filling the frame, with it lit
the same way it was metered, stop down 5 stops (via aperture,
preferably, or a combination of aperture and shutter speed) making an
exposure at each stop along the way. Go past zone zero a couple of
shots as well. This can be done on the end of any film that your are
shooting right now.

Develop per film/developer manufacturers recommended times, The test
shots will be minimally impacted, since thin areas on the negative we
are trying to create by stopping down below the recommended meter
reading are not very influenced by the precise developer action.

Once the test film segment is dry, look carefully somewhere along the
test shots part of the negative.. You will find a spot where there is
just the slightest negative density in the exposure above the film
base plus developer fog found in the un-exposed sprocket areas and
between frames areas of the film (or film edges if it 35mm you are
doing this on) . This exposure puts you at Z0 - as black a print as
can be printed, by making the negative as thin as it can be before we
wander into the film base plus fog density of the film. It might be
found 5 frames from the first zone 5 (shot at the aperture and
exposure setting as recommended by the meter). If it is then the film
in your camera, and with you meter, lens, and shutter combination
matches the film speed that the manufacturer rates thier film If it
does not, figure out how far you get. If it is only four frames, and
you start with a manufacturer rated 400 asa film, then in your set up,
it is really working best to expose it at 200 asa.

Take the negative of the first test exposure above film base plus fog,
and put it in your enlarger. Set your enlarger to an aperture that is
typical to what you print at, and an image size that is comfortable.
Use a middle grade of photographic paper, (either by grade, or with
the correct polycontrast filter/dichroic head setting).

Set the timer to 3 seconds. Cover most of the enlarging paper with a
covering card so that only about 1" is exposed. Expose it for 3s.
Move the card to expose another 1" of the paper, as well as the first
strip of paper that got exposed. Continure until the paper is all
uncovered. Keep notes of how many strips you exposed, and accordingly,
the longest time.

Develop the paper for as long as the manufacture recommends. Don't
pull it as soon as the first band of black appears. Once the print is
fixed, washed, and dried, figure out the minumum exposure time it took
to get to the maximum black on the print.

This time will be the same time that we aim to get in the next part of
the test to replicate for a white range test. Make note of the
enlarger height, enlarger aperture and paper type if you can't finish
the test until later If you are in a multi-enlarger facility, try to
get back to the same unit, to rule out different light output due to
varying lamp age.

Now we are going to try to figure out how to process a roll of film so
that the whites areas recorded on the film print up for the same
exposure time in the darkrom as the darkest blacks. Because we are
dealing with negatives, that means how dense do we want the developer
to advance the portions of the film that we exposed to turn out prints
as white in the finished product.

It helps in the next part to expose three films to the same test
conditions at the same shooting period. If not, then separate sessions
can be done, but the results are not as quick to achieve. An
alternate way is to shoot a film, three times, on 18, 9-17, and 18-24
, and develop 1-8 exposures separately from 9-17, from 18-24,
however, cutting a film in this manner forces you to try to cut at the
right place in the dark, and there are a lot of ways that things can
go wrong along the way.

Meter a test area/grey card again. Again, fill the frame of the
camera. This time we are openning the aperture up, to expose the film
more, to allow more density to be developed into the negative.

With the image of the test are or grey card filling the frame, with it
lit the same way it was metered, open up 3 stops (via aperture,
preferably, or a combination of aperture and shutter speed) making an
exposure at each stop along the way. Go past zone eight a couple of
shots as well.

This time we first develop according to manufacturers procesing
time/temperature. Dry negatives, etc. Look for the one exposure that
is the last one before no density changes are visible one exposure to
the next. It should be the fourth one after the first zone 5 metered
recommended exposure of the test area/grey card. It may not be; there
may be films avaibale that can cover more than 8 stops of exposure
latitude, but in my experinece I have yet to find them.

Put the negative that is the one before staturation is encountered
into the enlarger in the same set- up as was used previously to
determinum maximum black time.

This time expose the photographic paper in the same way, with a card
being progressively removed. at 3 second exposure intervals. Develop,
fix, wash and dry it. Then evaluate which time gives the slightest
grey that is separate from the subsequent all white area. Figure out
how much exposure time that this took. If it is the same time as the
previous maximum black test right of the bat than you got very lucky
the first time out.

More likely it is either less time than the maximum black print
exposure time or it is more.

If it is less time, then there is not enough density being developed
into the negative by the developer under evaluation. In this case we
need to develop more. This is best done by as a first try developing
the second test roll for 25% longer than the recommended development
time. Repeat the printing susequent exposure strips process to see
when the first grey in the test print is found. If it is after the
time for maximum black, then we have compensated too much, and must
refine the third roll test time to some time less than a 25% increase
over the manufacturers recommended time. This time through the results
,when run and evaluated for the time to minumum grey over ful papper
white should match closely to the maximum black exposure time, or you
will know what future rols should be processed at to gte that result.

Make a careful note of the time. or develoipment index number, if you
have a dial calculator. Using this time you are now in control of how
thing look in your finished print at the time that you take a picture
using black and white film.

If the first test roll print results in minumum grey with more time
required than to get to maximum black, then we have over developed the
film for our circumstances. For the second roll development try the
manufacturese recommended time less 25%. Then you can refine in a
manner described above.

Mike Wilde.