Stand Development
Bromide drag near sprocket holes- Tri-X in Rodinal- Stand developed, shot with a Leica MP and 35 mm Summicron ASPH
There is plenty on the internet on the topic of stand development, but I thought I would give some examples of the pros and cons that I have realized over the years.
The recipe:
- Two rolls of Tri-X, metered at 320, developed in the same tank
- 5 ml Rodinal, 495 ml water
- 1 minute slow agitation and sat untouched for 59 minutes at 20 degrees C
- 1 minute stop
- 5 minutes fix
- 10 minutes washed
- Scanned on the PrimeFilmXA and some contrast added in Lightroom
The results:
First, one of the risks you run with little or no agitation in stand development could be this bromide drag you see in the first image of my feet and my kids at the pool.
With no agitation, the high concentrations of bromide build up around the sprocket holes of the film and slowly run down across the image, inhibiting development. It leaves these bright streaks at the bottom edge of the image (the streaks are running up because the film was upside down in the tank).
However, not every image had these streaks, and the next two images were from the other roll in the same tank. I’m not sure which roll was on top in the tank.
Only a few of the images had the streaks. Most of the shots were clean, with detail in the shadows and the highlights weren’t blown. In my experience, I get way sharper images with less grain when stand developed, as long as I exposed correctly.
A 5 second agitation at around the 30 minute mark helps avoid these streaks. If you are new to black and white film photography, check out all the benefits of stand development and give it a try.
Tri-X in Rodinal- Stand developed, shot with a Leica MP and 35 mm Summicron ASPH
Tri-X in Rodinal- Stand developed, shot with a Leica MP and 35 mm Summicron ASPH