RE: developing film negatives

Hi Thom,

Here is a bit of poor ASCII art, which represents the best way I've found to
process sheet film:

 ----------------------------
| ..... ..... ..... |
| . . . . . . |
| . . . . . . |
| ..M.. ..M.. ..M.. |
| || || || |
| ..W.. ..W.. ..W.. |
| . . . . . . |
| . . . . . . |
| ..... ..... ..... |
 ----------------------------

Here is what the art is supposed to illustrate. The outer box is a tray
large enough for processing 11x14 paper (or negs, if you want to get that
large. The tray needs to be FLAT on the bottom, no troughs or ridges that
are in some trays. The 'M's and 'W's, along with the pipe next to them,
represent stainless steel alligator clips epoxied to the bottom of the tray.
The six rectangles represent what you're guessing: 4x5 sheets of film
clipped in place.

The processing needs to be done in complete dark (and the GraLab has never
fogged film I've processed this way). Have the chemistry measured out in a
number of graduates and pour it into and out of the tray according to your
processing schedule. You can so the washing in this tray, too. It is a
good idea to start with a water soak and, during the water soak, CAREFULLY
lift each sheet off of the bottom for a couple of seconds. Otherwise the
film will stick to the bottom and the anti-halation layer doesn't get washed
off.

I've tried Yankee tanks and hangers dipped and dunked into chemistry. No
matter how careful I was or what developer I used, there invariably were
chemical streaks on the film. I've tried the tray processing with shuffling
the negs. The results were beautiful, evenly processed negs, with
scratches. The tray with clip device above produces the same beautiful
processing, without the scratches.

I've done this processing in a cool room, 60 degrees F plus or minus a
couple of degrees. I process the film longer to make up for the cool temps.
Sometimes the manufacturers tech blurb for the film will give processing
times for warmer or cooler temps.

Another caveat: the stainless clips are expensive and hard to find. The
only ones I've found are manufactured by Privett International in the UK.
Kodak discontinued their stainless clips within the last couple of years.
In the U.S., a company called Tru Trak in Pennsylvania sold some to me.

Tom

> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-pinhole-discussion@spitbite.org
> [mailto:owner-pinhole-discussion@spitbite.org]On Behalf Of
> Thom Mitchell
> Sent: Sunday, March 28, 2004 4:16 PM
> To: pinhole-discussion@spitbite.org
> Subject: Re: [pinhole-discussion] developing film negatives
>
>
> This seem like a few basic questions but here goes. I recently just
> processed my first 8x10 and 4x5 film in trays in total
> darkness because I
> was worried about the light from the Gralab. Will the classic
> Gralab 300 fog
> film? It seems so bright. Is there a timer that functions
> like a metronome
> in that it beeps/buzzes every 30 seconds/minutes/etc. Also I
> would welcome
> any tips on handling and processing the film. The rotation from top to
> bottom was okay but I scratched the emulsion on a couple of
> sheets of the
> 8x10. This feels like orders of magnitude in complexity from
> my days 35mm
> and 120 days.
> Another question is how do other people keep their chemistry
> at a constant
> temp. I ask this because my darkroom is in the basement and
> if the outside
> temp is below 32 degrees Fahrenheit or 0 Celsius my darkroom
> is about 55-60
> degrees Fahrenheit or about 15 degrees Celsius (pardon my
> rough conversion).
> Needless to say processing film at that temp is painfully
> slow but some of
> my first sheets of film were thin from underdevelopment because the
> chemistry had cooled off from 75 degrees to about 62 degrees
> in 10 minutes.
> Now that I've made some big film negs I am hooked. It's
> really amazing. I
> contact printed the thin negs anyway and it was a pleasure
> looking at the
> detail, despite the mud. Any practical tips would be appreciated.
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Gordon J. Holtslander" <holtsg@duke.usask.ca>
> To: <pinhole-discussion@spitbite.org>
> Sent: Sunday, March 28, 2004 12:05 AM
> Subject: RE: [pinhole-discussion] developing film negatives
>
>

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Received on Sun Mar 28 17:58:19 2004