Developing in open dishes

[PaulG]

As pointed out elsewhere, I’m very much a beginner, but particularly so when it comes to large format photography. I’d welcome some tips/advice on the developing side of things.

For the time being, my developing will be done in open dishes in what passes for my darkroom. My initial approach has been to use the same method as I would for tank developing; swapping agitation of the dish for inversions of the tank. Great in theory, but quite tricky to do in practice, particularly when you're trying to read times off a faintly fluorescent watch.

It seems a lot of people use continuous agitation instead, and for the reasons given above, this would seem sensible. By how much should I reduce the developing time to compensate? 10% has been suggested to me. Is this about right?

At this stage I am not too worried about N, N+1 etc, I’m more concerned about getting some consistency in approach to the basics. Once I feel comfortable that I have a reliable system, more sophisticated stuff will follow.

If it helps, the film is Ilford Delta 100 and developer will either be Ilfosol 3 or ID-11 at standard dilution (1+9, 1+1 respectively).

[Dave miller]

I would suggest an audible timer rather than illuminated types, electronic egg timers with buzzer from a hardware shop will suffice. I have a Nova luminous darkroom clock that doesn’t appear to fog my films and is clearly visible.


Continuous agitation is fine, and easier to control. Like you I would start at less 10% development time, and then judge results.


How much developer do you plan to use?

[PaulG]

Sorry, I should have been clearer. I have an audible timer for the end of the dev, stop and fix times, but with intermitent agitation, keeping track of 30 second intervals is a bit of a nightmare.

As for volume, I think I started with 300ml of working solution in a 7x5" dish.

[Dave miller]

A further thought. Although it is possible to develop multiple sheets of film together in an open dish by continually shuffling them top to bottom, I would not recommend it to start with as it is far too easy to damage the emulsion.
Obviously your dish needs to be larger than the film sheet, but only a couple of centimetres larger, otherwise you will just waste chemicals. I recommend that you practice you routine in room lighting with an old sheet of film using plain water. This will allow you to see if the fluid is covering the film and how it is circulating in the dish, and get you used to how much, or little agitation is needed.

[Dave miller]

Sorry, I should have been clearer. I have an audible timer for the end of the dev, stop and fix times, but with intermitent agitation, keeping track of 30 second intervals is a bit of a nightmare.

As for volume, I think I started with 300ml of working solution in a 7x5" dish.

Our post crossed. :D

300ml is far too much. Try 100ml as per my second post, and provided the film remains covered by fluid moving over it, then that is sufficient. 300ml is more than enough to do 4 sheets at once in a Paterson Orbital tray.

[PaulG]

Thanks.

Do you then use the 100ml as a one shot?

As you suggest I've avoided putting more than one through at a time. I know it takes longer, but for now I'm more comfortable with handling one at a time.

[Dave miller]

Thanks.

Do you then use the 100ml as a one shot?

As you suggest I've avoided putting more than one through at a time. I know it takes longer, but for now I'm more comfortable with handling one at a time.

Yes, I always use film developer one shot, especially at those volumes.

[PaulG]

Thanks. I have a couple of rolls of film to process this evening, but I hope to have time to tackle a neg or two as well.

[Martin Aislabie]

I use a Casio watch, with a repeat count-down facility - http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/2510921/Trail/searchtext%3ECASIO+WATCHES.htm

I use it to give me my 1 min agitation intervals

I then use a Paterson Triple Timer to bleep at the end of the Dev/Stop/Fix

Works for me in the dark

Martin

[PaulG]

I use a Casio watch, with a repeat count-down facility - http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/2510921/Trail/searchtext%3ECASIO+WATCHES.htm

I use it to give me my 1 min agitation intervals

I then use a Paterson Triple Timer to bleep at the end of the Dev/Stop/Fix

Works for me in the dark

Martin

Thanks for the recommendation on the watch - I'll look into it. I have a Paterson timer that I use for marking the end of the dev/stop/fix stages and that seems to work quite well.

Well, I tried using continuous agitation with a 10% reduction in developing time last night and I definitely got something out of 2 negs. I'm printing tonight so will make some contact prints and see how things look