An interesting and honest test and one carried with the 2 print method to see what would happen. Done in a straightforward manner with no preconceived result expected. I look forward to reading your link. Great stuff
Thanks for your videos, looks promising. Looking forward for your next Monday video, and also for some fx55 Semistand tests, As it’s one of my favorites with Pyrocat hd. I am using fx55 1+9 with iso400 films and I am getting very similar times as with Pyrocat hd 1+1+100. Thanks for your help 😊
Good test John. I've seen this technique proposed before with Rodinal to compensate for very high contrast subjects. I tried it once, but didn't do a comparative test. Half time full strength, half time half strength. The idea as I understand it is that the first period of "normal" development takes care of the highlights, as most development takes place here. Then we continue in diluted form to finish development of the shadows (which take longer), but without overdeveloping (burning out) the highlights. So very similar to regular high dilution compensating development including stand & semi-stand. This two-bath technique is also recommended as a contrast control method for paper development. I would guess we could apply this technique with most other developers. (If we take this to the extreme, we could even just allow the developer to exhaust by using a plain water bath as second bath? Anchell & Troop call this Water-Bath developing, and mention that AA himself used it, but didn't like it much because of streaking...)
This seems as though it would be a good option for high-contrast filmstocks, such as Pan F. It would be interesting to see a side-by-side comparo vs. pyrocat-hd semi-stand.
Great test. I am curious to see the difference in grain in part 2. From the comparison you did, I got the impression that 2 stage developing has a finer grain.
Me too. I've done this test with FX55 a few times and see finer grain and increased sharpness in the 2-bath negatives. FX55 is already a fine grain developer so this is a nice surprise. Thanks for your comment!
Very interesting video, John. I've been following all your FX-55 videos with great interest and have a question. Since there is not much info on development times for various films, is there a more common developer that closely matches FX-55? If I could look up D-76, for example, on the Massive Dev Chart I'd probably find a very good starting point for whatever film I'm using. Thank you for any help provided.
In The Film Developing Cookbook (2nd ed): Bill Troop with Steve Anchell 2020: p63-64. Mention Geoffrey Crawley FX 50/55 formulas, which you have, but they give a reference of Ameuter Phototgraphyer 13th September 2008. I am not sure what is mentioned in the article as I don't have it and although I have tried to find it as a PDF, I have had no luck. I cannot find any other references regarding using it as a two-bath process. This seems to be my best lead as I cannot find any references to FX50/55 in either Darkroom Cookbook 3rd or 4th editions.
Interesting, as always. This method adds some sharpness, but probably not enough to warrant the change. I’m a believer in pre-soak, another variable to add to the mix, would it make any difference? Thank you for doing all this time-consuming research, it makes a difference for this part-time darkroom worker. ☮️❤️🐶
I've tried the pre-soak with this 2-bath technique and there was no noticeable difference to the end product. Good though, when my darkroom is very cold. I'm hoping someone might have the original FX50 instructions by Paterson (Crawley wrote them of course).
