[pure-silver] Re: under-developed?
----- Original Message ----- From: "Janet Cull" <jcull@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> 
To: <pure-silver@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Sunday, February 18, 2007 4:37 PM
Subject: [pure-silver] Re: under-developed?
There is shadow detail and the edge markings are very dark gray. Maybe almost black. The edge/base is the same sort of light gray as parts in the image. The negatives just look sort of blah, though they print ok. Maybe it's slightly fogged? 


On Feb 18, 2007, at 6:40 PM, Richard Knoppow wrote:
If we are talking about 35mm film the base color is normal. 35mm Black and White still film has a pigment in the support to prevent the conduction of light through the base. This is because one end of the film is exposed to light when loading the camera. It also reduces halation. Roll films and sheet films do not have this pigment, nor do color films of any size. The support density can make negatives look weak or fogged but they print fine. This may have been what happened here. Also, some films seem to print with higher contrast than visual inspection suggests they will. 400T-Max is an example, quite thin looking negatives print normally. I don't know what exactly causes this but I use that film all the time and the effect is consistent. If this is other than 35mm film its fogged. Fogging has the effect of raising alll the densities by the same amount. It also has the effect of lowering the effective film speed. If the film was fully exposed and appears to have shadow detail it will probably print fine despite some fogging. The dark gray or black edge markings indicate full development so we can disregard the developer (and my last post, sent just before receiving this one). The main virtue of HC-110 (as with Rodinal) is convenience. Its easy to make up a suitable developer for most films with it and the shelf life of the concentrate is very long. However, its not an _optimum_ developer for anything. Other developers will give you greater film speed or finer grain or increased acutance, but they are not as convenient especially for low volume work. Development time can be a problem. Kodak does not recommend tank development times of less than 5 minutes because it is hard to get uniform development. I generally use developers which can be adjusted (by dilution) for times of around 8 to 12 minutes for tank work and for about 5 minutes minimum for tray development. This also allows a larger fudge factor for agitation. After experimenting around I have settled on D-76 diluted 1:1 for most films. I would prefer to use Xtol but had an experience with the sudden death syndrome so I went back to the old stuff. I use Perceptol or Microdol-X (they are indentical) full strength for 100T-Max in 35mm because it yields extrmemely fine grain and begins to show the sort of smooth tone rendition I associate with larger negatives. The disadvantages are a loss of speed (I shoot at about EI-50) and no acutance effect (sharpness). A lot of 35mm users want lots of acutance to make up for low lens sharpness. The last word is: if the negatives print well they are OK and not to worry. 

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Richard Knoppow
Los Angeles, CA, USA
dickburk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx 
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