The Darkroom Cookbook Forum

The problem you are having is caused by both the volume of the developer and your agitation method. 250 ml is not enough developer to ensure optimal development; 350 ml is my recommended minimum. An initial agitation cycle of one full minute is needed with most developers (there are few exceptions; ...

I concur with Tim that this may be partly due to the reel. But I believe it has more to do with the volume of developer than air bubbles. In fact, I don't believe air bubbles have anything to do with the problem you are experiencing - unless you are using carbonated water. :) What size tank, how man...

Greetings, All. I am working on the 5th edition of The Darkroom Cookbook . As readers of The Cookbook know, the goal is to share darkroom tools, tricks, and techniques so they are not lost or need to be rediscovered by future generations. For this edition, I would like to invite members of the darkr...

Thank you, Max

Can't recall why I dropped it. However, if you have used it, what were your results? Also, I would toss the second ed. It has a lot of serious errors that were mostly addressed in the third ed. and pretty much fixed in the 4th. I am currently working on the 5th ed., which will substantially differ f...

Greetings, All. This summer, I will lead a Large Format and Making Enlarged Digital Negatives workshop at the Photographers Formulary in Condon, Montana. The first three days of the workshop will be on setup, composing, and focusing your LF camera. This will include the controls, effectively using t...

That's my bad, Chuck. I am scheduled to receive notice when a post is made. About a year ago I changed web hosts and in the migration the link appears to have broken but I just thought there were no new posts. Just to be sure, I checked the forum every day for several months and when there were no n...

I apologize for the lateness of this response. Your solution is probably correct. No development takes place in the A Solution. So, try using it (if you already haven't done so) as a presoak just as you would plain water. You should be able to presoak it for the usual time. Please let me know how th...

I apologize for the lateness of this response. GT-16 is a formula that I was given by a photographer, Helen (can't remember her last name), some many years ago. You mention that the amount of water is 60.0 ml. In the DCB I see 285 ml for each of the three solutions. The instructions say to mix the t...

Excellent suggestion and video, Colorado4x4. Thank you.

I am not an expert on alt processes so I contacted Jill Enfield, one of the forum moderators. Unfortunately, her computer is on the fritz and she is not able to access the forum. The good news is she was able to send a response to me that she asked me to post. :) SA Hello Gary - So you are right - t...

Edward, thank you for pointing this out. There is no reason for Xtol 1:3 not being listed in the subsequent bullet points. There are lots of other dilute developers we could have mentioned but arbitrarily chose the ones you see listed so that readers would have a better scope of what constitutes a d...

One of the most effective methods for making scratches disappear is nose grease. Rub both sides of the negative across the tip of your nose, this will eliminate all but the worst scratches. I never had much luck with Edwals Anti-scratch. Nose grease works better.

What you want is a spigot or spout for your container such as this one https://tinyurl.com/wavsd9n5. There are a whole bunch of them on this page, https://tinyurl.com/422rh4am. You mention that you are using a jug. You may wish to purchase a cubitainer, https://tinyurl.com/33ymvt5y, and a spout and ...

The purpose of the D-57 was to get the grades to be as linear as possible. It, too, was not perfect but we got very close, tweaking with the appropriate filter, and Roscoe was the filter mfr. of choice, got it even closer with specific papers.

I did the testing and evaluation for the D-57 head for Aristo. It was intended for use with VC papers. The D-55 had an equal balance of blue/green phosphors. This combination worked well with graded papers but required the addition of a green filter to work with VC. The D-57 has 30% blue and 70% gre...

Jill has asked me to recommend Christina Andersons book: Gum Printing: A Step-by-Step Manual, Highlighting Artists and Their Creative Practice (Contemporary Practices in Alternative Process Photography) Part of: Contemporary Practices in Alternative Process Photography (11 Books) | by Christina Z An...

I have often found that magic chicken bones will often do the trick where more efficacious methods fail.

Tim, the following response is from Jill Enfield. Jill is one of the leading experts on alt processes and the author of the bestselling book, Jill Enfield’s Guide to Photographic Alternative Processes: Popular Historical and Contemporary Techniques, https://tinyurl.com/y6gceno Without going into an ...

Steve is correct. Please cross out this recommendation in your copy of the DCB, beginning with the 1st ed.

I was speaking with Timothy Stearman yesterday. Timothy's company, Stearman Press, markets daylight developing trays and tanks for large format. He mentioned that many of his customers are young photographers who are struggling to teach themselves, for lack of darkroom courses in school I assume, ho...

I just saw this post. Tim is correct, 1:4 means 1 part developer to 4 parts water to make the desired amount of stock developer, as in option B. If you see it written otherwise in the FDCB let me know.

Were you able to print any of them? If so, how did they look? My guess is that they had slightly more graininess. Also, because these were made under controlled lighting the contrast was lower on the negative and the lack of 25 grams of ss was not an issue.

Thank you for sharing this valuable information, perfesser.

Greetings, Tim. I have never heard of latent image fading. That doesn't mean it doesn't exist. What does exist is increased base fog that severely reduces sharpening. This is caused primarily by background radiation that is ever present, even in cold storage. In essence, background radiation from th...