Development Made Lazy

This image is a lazy image. I did not set up the picture, I did not guide a model nor did I travel far to capture it. This was shot just outside of our kitchen in Perth Australia and my son is responsible for setting up his little figures on the back of the tricycle. But this is not why I consider it a lazy image.  It is a lazy image because I developed it using Rodinal and stand developing technique.

The normal film developing process takes about 45 minutes and involves 5-20 minutes of actual development which requires periodic agitation of the chemicals.  This means you are a prisoner of this time and cannot leave for any length of time over 1 minute.  

Stand Developing film is a process which requires minimal agitation but long contact with a weak developer. It has its good qualities and its negative ones but on balance, it is a respectable way to develop your film.  

Stand Development the Film Still Photography Way (patent pending):
Buy Rodinal. This developer is one of my favorites. It has a shelf life measured in years, so you can buy a ton and just keep it, never running out of developer. It is very forgiving and produces a nice print. It can be used as a fast developer (developing film in 10-15 minutes) but is really excellent in very low doses.

The complicated, secret, ultra lazy formula: I mix 1 part Rodinal to 100 parts of water. So for 1 liter I would mix 10ml to 990ml or water.  That is it, nice and weak. So a 250ml jar will make me 25 liters of developer!  Who can beat that!

Pour the mixed developer into the developing tank, and agitate for 1 minute.  I do this by using the little mixing stick that comes with Paterson development tanks and swirl it one direction per second.

Put the development tank aside. Have a cup of coffee or update your blog.  Around 30 minutes later, agitate again for another minute.  Let is sit for another 30 minutes.  

The use STOP and Fixer as per your normal method.

Advantages:

1. No temperature to worry about. With such a small amount of developer the temperature has a smaller impact on the entire process.
2. No ISO calculations.  With this you can develop ISO 50 - 800 at the same time. Anything over 800 and you should look at increasing the time.  I have not done it so cannot speak to how well it will work.
3. You have developed film, updated your blog and had a cup of coffee.

Disadvantages:

1. This is NOT a low noise developing method. The grain in the film will be visible. Other, modern developers can reduce the appearance of grain. Stand development, by its nature will show you the grain.  Embrace the grain!
2. You will get EXCELLENT micro contrast.  How excellent give it a try.  I like the look but not on all my pictures. Sometimes I like having a softer feel to the images. At times it is an advantage, at others it is not.
3. Some will talk about a halo effect around areas of high contrast. I have found this to occur if you do not agitate mid cycle.  This is why I add an agitation cycle after 30 minutes. This reduces the halo effect.

Tests Yet to be Conducted:

1. I have not tried developing above ISO 800.  
2. I have not tried developing different ISO on the same film roll.  In other words, shoot half the roll with the light meter set to ISO 400 and the other half at ISO 800.  I would guess that you would see a slight difference in exposure but the impact should be minimal.  I am trying this out as we speak.  

Comparison:
Here I am comparing the SAME roll of film (HP4+ at ISO 125) shot on the same camera (Nikon F3). I shot the entire roll on a tripod aimed at the same scene (high contrast scene) I then cut the roll in half and developed the first half in ID-11 and the other half in Rodinal stand development.

Below is a 100% crop of the scene.  The image on the left is processed in ID-11 and the one on the right is Rodinal Stand Development.

1. Rodinal delivers contrast in spades.  The image on the right has greater contrast.
2. ID-11 produces smoother looking grain. Look at the shadows.
3. Rodinal gives deeper blacks and brighter whites.  Hence the contrast.

That is really all the conclusions one can draw. If you want smooth grains, lower micro contrast then stick with modern developers and modern techniques. If you do not mind grain, or are looking for this then give Rodinal Stand Development a try, at least your blog will be updated. 

Below is the full image of the scene from the Rodinal batch.
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