Tried Rodinal at 1:100 instead of 1:50 and the grain difference is huge

Been shooting Tri-X at 400 for years with Rodinal at 1:50. Last week I shot a roll of HP5+ and did the stand development thing at 1:100 for an hour. Sharper edges and way less grain than I expected. The shadows opened up too. Has anyone else played with extreme dilutions on classic films?

4 comments

4 Comments

torres.drew15d ago

Wait did you meter the HP5 at box speed or push it? I tried 1:100 stand with Tri-X once and got super uneven development on the edges of the frame, like weird bromide drag or something. Was your tank being inverted at all during that hour or just sitting? I always thought stand required some agitation to stop streaks but maybe I'm doing it wrong. Also how did the highlights look? When I did it mine were totally blown out but maybe that's just a Tri-X thing at really high dilutions.

uma_lopez15d ago

Tri-X is just like that, yeah" lol

west.alice10d ago

Wait did you meter the HP5 at box speed or push it?" - yeah my buddy tried this exact same thing last summer with Tri-X at box speed and had the same issue you mentioned with bromide drag on the edges. He set his tank on the counter and didn't touch it for like 90 minutes, figured no agitation was the whole point. Highlights came out looking like someone left the curtains open on a sunny day, just totally blasted out with no detail. He said the negatives had these weird dark streaks running down the sides from the top of the reel. Tried it again with a few gentle inversions at the halfway point and it still looked uneven but at least the streaks were gone.

nathan_foster6010d ago

Stand development doesn't use any agitation after the initial inversions. The whole point is letting the weak developer exhaust in the shadows while highlights keep developing slowly. If you agitated during stand you'd get uneven development for sure.