in that other world

At the moment I’m experimenting again with stand-development in Rodinal. When I first started with it I actually did a lot of careless agitation, which increased grain. Later I tried to learn from my experiences with normal agitation development and reduced agitation to swirling in the hopes of reducing grain further. This however occasionally led to significant bromide drag, and uneven development in 120 if I didn’t pay careful attention. At the moment I’m trying to find the sweet spot between too much and too little agitation and went back to inversions, albeit very slow and careful ones. Although these slow inversions seem to slightly reduce grain in comparison to careless inversion and don’t produce the obvious bromide drag I sometimes got with swirling, I still noticed a slight halo effect in certain high contrast shots – especially with Tri-X with dark elements against the sky. I actually developed a whole bunch of rolls this way without scanning them yet, so you might see a bit more halo on shots from other rolls that I will post soon. This halo effect is not quite pronounced bromide drag, but still caused by too little agitation. Some people like that effect, but personally I’m not such a huge fan, so I might try to make the inversion at halfway point more forceful while keeping initial inversions careful. I’ll find that sweet spot eventually.

All pictures taken with: Olympus XA, F.Zuiko 35mm f/2.8.
Kodak Tri-X stand-developed in Rodinal 1:100, 60min.

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

Comments

  • Harry

    The little girl skipping (i think) is a golden picture for me the shadows are superb,I would experiment with cropping myself but what a wonderful picture, one of your best.
    Your XA, Rodinal and Tri-x combination works for me . I am making my own Rodinal got the recipe from Youtube and will drop some Ilford Pan 400 in it when made.

    Again some lovely pictures, the tower pictures from below I also like a lot,they are excellent. Would be interested in your agitation regime at 60 min, what’s the longest you leave it standing without agitation ect…

    Kind Regards

    Harry.

    • Lilly Schwartz

      I’m glad you like the pictures, Harry! And you also picked my favourites from this bunch 🙂
      Making Rodinal yourself? Is that the Parodinal from Paracetamol? Haven’t tried making it myself yet because I can get it easily here. Definitely still my favourite developer and I’ve come to know it quite well now. With other developers I still tend to have some problems, especially with agitation. Rodinal is easy on that front: 30 sec slow inversions at the start (maybe 3-6) and one inversion after each half hour. In general I definitely wouldn’t leave it standing for more than 40 minutes without a turn or you’ll get bromide drag or edge overdevelopment.

      Times: Depends a little bit on the emulsion, but usually 60min is a good start for box speed and then you adjust depending on your initial results. HP5+ 60min, K400 and Rollei RPX 400 70min, Eastman Double X seems to need less, but haven’t figured out how much less. Tri-X for 60mins at 400 and 800 during the day, for 800/1600 at night I do 90min. I’ve gone as far as 2 1/2h with ISO 3200/6400 with Kentmere 400 which was brilliant actually. The more you push, the more careful you need to be with the inversions though, or you’ll blow the highlights. Also be careful with minimum amounts. 1:100 is a little misleading with small tanks. You need at least 3.5ml Rodinal per roll of 135 and I usually add 1ml per stop pushed. For 120 I usually take at least 6ml.

  • Harry

    Thank you Lilly, Yes it’s the Paracetamol one and I have the history of Rodinal recipes from the web 5 of them from 1891,the last one from 1941-date. I made a small batch yesterday when my final chemical arrived, it works out cheaper and easier to make for me than the coffee mix.

    I think people thought that Rodinal would disappear along with other developers with the rise of digital but all things film seem to be on the rise,I have even found a stockist but it’s expensive and thats just the crippling postage.

    Anyway thank you for the development and agitation times that will be of great use and a good start point for me.

    Kindest regards Harry.

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