[pure-silver] Re: [inconsistent shaking of developer

  • From: jeffrey <puresilver@xxxxxxxxx>
  • To: pure-silver@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Fri, 14 Oct 2005 08:20:55 -0700

Eric wrote:

Shannon, Did you first and foremost make sure that your developer was well
mixed? Just because you start with a liquid developer doesn't mean that you
don't need to mix it up.  I had a bad experience with someone that used one
of my darkrooms years ago. He made some HC110 to process some film and
complained that his film was thin, but he marked it up to under exposure. We
went to process some of our enlarged negative materials and every thing was
extremely weak.  I soon noticed that the color in the bottle was not
uniformed and the difference was not shadowing but rather that it was not
fully mixed. Shook the bottle and WOW! Back to expected results. We even
trimmed the dilution a little to compensate for poor mixing.


I did two more batches this afternoon, carefully shaking the DDX bottle before diluting, and it seemed to help. Most of the negatives are correct now, and the ones that aren't were probably bad due to human error (mine).

I exposed some older film this afternoon and processed it, and it seemed to do fine, as well as the newer film, so it probably wasn't the film age.

I will write a big sign on my developer : SHAKE!!! So I won't forget in the future.

Thanks,

--shannon

I am very puzzled by what could be in this developer that separates. AFAIK, the ingredients go into solution. Once in solution just gravity should not separate them. Developers are not like milk, which is not a solution but an emulsion. If subject to low temperatures its possible that something crystalizes but should go right back into solution once warmed up again.


After reading this thread, and having recently had some serious inconsistencies in neg density (getting thinner and thinner), I gently rolled the two containers of WD2D+ around for a couple of minutes, then processed a roll. (And noted that there was sediment in the B bath)


Voila!

I must have gained a stop in speed, at least. Maybe two.


Just FYI;

Stock Solution A

Metol
Sodium Bisulfite
Pyrogallol
EDTA, Tetrasodium Salt

Stock Solution B

Sodium Carbonate


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