Hi! 👋 

I hope all is well and that you had a great weekend! I spent a lot of time in my basement “darkroom” mixing chemicals and developing film.👨‍🔬 Basically was Walter White. 😀 

Let’s get right into it—one big topic for this week:

1. 🧪 Comparing B&W developers

🧪 Comparing B&W developers

If you recall, a couple of weeks ago, we talked about different kinds of B&W developers and their different characteristics. Well the results are in. This weekend I took the Mamiya RB67 to Bushwick and shot some rolls of B&W.

I was only able to finish the Pan F+ and FP+, so for HP5+ I’m using a roll I shot a few months ago. So this means making a few tweaks to the developers. Here is what I ended up using.

These were all shot with the Mamiya RB67 with 120 film.

For developing, the temperature, agitation, stop bath and fixing were all the same. The only thing that changed was the developer, dilution and dev time. I followed the recommended dev time for the developer and film ISO.

I applied the same standard edits I use for all of them.

By no means is this scientific, but hopefully, it will give you an idea of the different looks you get can.

Ilford HP5+ and Rodinal

• 💧 Dilution: 1+25 (dev 19ml + water 481ml)

• ⏱️ Dev time: 6 mins

Clean, fine grain and very sharp. The Rodinal really helps with sharpness. Overall, I really like the HP5+ and Rodinal combo.

Ilford FP4+ and Atomal 49

• 💧 Dilution: 1+1 (dev 250ml + water 250ml)

• ⏱️ Dev time: 11 mins

These have less contrast and aren’t quite as sharp as the HP5+. But it has very very fine grain. There is a lot of highlight detail. Atomal 49 is a compensating developer meaning it prevents the overdevelopment of highlights while retaining shadow detail.

I tend to prefer more contrast. I’d like to try this again with the stock solution instead of 1+1. But if you’re looking for fine grain, you can’t really beat this.

Ilford Pan F+ and XT-3

• 💧 Dilution: None (dev 500ml + water 0ml)

• ⏱️ Dev time: 7 mins

Ilford Pan F+ is rated at ISO 50, so I had to use a tripod for this. It also has very fine grain, but Pan F_ has more contrast than FP4+. Again, not as sharp as what you would get with Rodinal, but it would make these even more contrasty. It’s an interesting look. I’d be curious to see what happens when this is diluted 1+1?

What do you think? Have any preference?

What’s with dilution?

The strength of the developer (or how much it is diluted with water) is one more variable that can impact the final image. When starting out, and still now, I find this part the most complicated. There are a lot of different combinations available depending on the film, developer, ISO, format it’s a lot. Let’s take a look at what characteristics dilution can effect and then my kind of rule of thumb.

The most immediate impact dilution has is time. The stronger (less diluted) the developer the less time the film has to be in the developer.

The next thing you’ll notice is contrast. With a stronger developer, the development happens more aggressively, which leads to an increase in contrast. A more diluted developer will give you a flatter, less-contrast look. You can see that with the FP4+ vs the Pan F+. FP4+ was half water, half developer, resulting in less contrast, whereas Pan F+ was just straight developer.

You’ll also see a difference with grain. Stronger developer will produce finer grain than weaker developer.

😵‍💫 Too many options? When picking a dilution, I tend to just look at two factors, time and contrast. If I want more contrast, I go with less dilution. If I want less contrast I go with more dilution, keep an eye on the development time. I usually don’t feel like sitting there for 18 mins.

How on earth do you figure all this out? Fortunately, you don’t have to. There is a great resource called, The Massive Dev Chart. All you have to do is select the film and developer you’re using and it will give you a nice chart of all the dilution options available for different ISOs and formats (35mm, 120 etc) and what the dev time should be. They even have a mobile app! So if you just want to make sure you don’t mess anything up, all you have to do is pick one of the options on the dev chart and you won’t go wrong.

A lot more experimentation is needed, but it is clear that your choice of developer makes a difference. I think the sharpness you get with Rodinal is probably the biggest example of that. As well as the less contrast you get with Atomal 49.

As much as I like Rodinal it’s nice to have some more options now.

That’s going to be it for this week.

Go make some images!

Ben Henschel

📷️ Canon A1 / 🎞️ Kodak Ektachrome