The Darkroom Cookbook Forum

I was looking at a few ideas (that are likely wrong) on taming the contrast and development speed for X Ray film that haven't been addressed anywhere I can find, and wanted to kick this out there.

1. Can dropping the temperature of the solution be a useful strategy? Using Rodinal at high dilution somewhere around 18 degrees C might slow down development enough to make it easier to get to desired density. This would require keeping all solution at a compatible temperature, but I'd find that a reasonable trade off.

2. How about a pre-soak with a restrainer prior to development?

I can't set up or use a wet darkroom now due to remodeling issues, or I'd be working on these.

I haven't shot any xray film, but I've shot a lot of paper negatives and litho film. I believe the density problem is similar.

I'd look to more dilution on the developer before I'd start trying fiddly stuff like cold or restrainers.

For litho film, I'm using a developer (Bill Troop's TDLC-103) that's only got 0.5g/L of metol. It's really weak. And it works great. I bet a dilute Rodinal (1+100 or weaker) would head in the right direction for your xray film.