| |
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| | not lift the reel off the bottom of the tank enough to consistently |
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| | avoid bromide artifacts on the bottom edge of the film. |
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| | |
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| | |
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| | ### Update 8-5-2023: Super Dilute D-23 |
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| | D-23 is easy to make and is often used when you need to control a |
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| | very long Subject Brightness Range. That's because it's a so-called |
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| | "compensating" developer that nicely reins in the highlights. |
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| | **NOTE**: Ignore rumors you may have heard that D-23 is a "low |
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| | contrast" developer. It will deliver the contrast you want |
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| | based on how you work with it. |
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| | |
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| | I've gotten very good results with D-23 stock as well as 1:1 when doing |
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| | semistand and EMA development. But I wanted to push the dilution |
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| | envelope a bit. Why? D-23 is a "solvent" developer made of only |
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| | Metol and Sodium Sulfite. The Metol is the development agent |
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| | and the Sodium Sulfite acts as a preservative and produces the |
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| | required alkalinity for the developer to work properly. |
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| | |
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| | In normal dilutions, the Metol in it "chews away" at the grain. That's |
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| | the "solvent" effect. This helps keep the grain under control, but it |
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| | does so at the expense of absolute sharpness. |
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| | |
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| | By diluting beyond the recommended amount, we reduce the amount of |
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| | Metol in the working developer so there is less of that solvent effect |
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| | and the negative is rendered more sharply. |
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| | |
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| | Up to dilutions of about 1:4, I got consistently good results from |
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| | semistand with D-23. Beyond that, though, the reduction in the |
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| | amount of Sodium Sulfite in solution reduces its alkalinity to the |
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| | point that the developer stops working well. |
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| | |
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| | Someone on the UK Large Format forum suggested that I try D-23 at a |
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| | 1:9 dilution but add 0.5 grams/liter of lye (Sodium Hydroxide) to the |
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| | mix to kick up the alkalinity. This works just great - you get super |
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| | sharp negatives with this scheme. HOWEVER, you won't want to do this |
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| | with smaller format/grainer films. For example, 35mm Kodak Double-X |
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| | done this way produced really grainy negatives reminiscent of highly |
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| | dilut Rodinol |
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| | |
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| | **WARNINIG**: Be careful handling lye. It will burn skin, cause |
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| | damage to eyes, and so on. As always, use sensible |
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| | lab techniques and wear protection in the darkroom. |
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| | Lye added to liquid is exothermic and can generate |
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| | a lot of heat, so be careful and take your time. |
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| | |
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| | For the record, I also tried this with DK-50 at 1:5 and got less |
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| | wonderful results. It certainly worked, but I didn't like how the |
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| | tonal range got handled. The negatives came out sharp but sort |
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| | of harsh looking. I think it may be that DK-50 has Hydroquinone |
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| | in it, but I'm not sure. I didn't test it as thoroughly as I did |
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| | D-23 so it might just be a lack of understanding on my part. |
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| | |
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| | ## Copyright And Use |
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| | |
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| | All content here is Copyright (c) 2021-2023 TundraWare Inc., Des Plaines, IL USA |
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