[pathdoc]

Inspired by the temperature adjustments calculator at digitaltruth.com (the Massive Development Chart), I plugged in ever higher temperatures and got exciting and attractive shortenings of my developing time (D76 with Lomography Lady Grey). Now of course I know we do not live in a perfect world, and sure enough the calculator starts giving me high temperature warnings at about 24 or 25 degrees celsius (standard times calculated for 20).

And that leads me to ask, what is it actually warning me about, and are there steps I can take to mitigate this?

[johnyates]

Higher temperatures mean shorter development times. The danger of shorter development times is the chance of uneven development. Also, if your developer. or more commonly rinse, temperature is too warm, the emulsion can soften and slide right off the film base.

[ChrisPlatt]

Developing at ambient (room) temperature is far easier and will yield more consistent results.

Chris

[pathdoc]

Okay, heard enough. Not going there.

C41 is at much higher temperatures (near 40 Celsius); then again, C41 is designed to be developed at those temps.

[bobbotron]

I think the reasons mentioned above are the most compelling, I've also heard results may be grainier at higher temps.

[Digitalis]

For the love of god you're developing film, not cooking pasta.

There is also an issue where reticulation can occur if your individual bath temps are different*, which causes nucleation points in the emulsion to expand and shrink as a response to the shifts in temperature. Reticulation shows up as round dark splotches on the film that are distinctly different in appearance to normal film grain.

For example:



*Higher temps also call for fast work, which also increases the incidence of bubbles on the film causing further issues with development, you can't agitate too vigorously or for long or the film emulsion will slide off in the tank.

the emulsion can soften and slide right off the film base

I have seen that happen, however the frames that weren't too badly affected by the over cooking weren't exactly flattering for the portrait subjects. Their faces looked like partially melted wax figures....Picasso would have loved it.

[pathdoc]

For the love of god you're developing film, not cooking pasta.

LOLOL. I'm of Italian ancestry, so this one really hit home. This is why I come here, to get advice from people who can tell me know not only WHAT not to do but WHY not to do it. Of course in the end, I found a completely different and even more sure-fire way to ruin ALL the images on that roll, but that's another matter.

[grhazelton]

O Brother or Sister Pathdoc!

Many and manifold are the ways to ruin film! And most of us, if not all, have experienced some or many of them. Late of an evening in The Lounge we exchange tales of terror and horror originating in THE DARK SIDE.

[bobbotron]

I ruined two rolls of Ilford 3200 early on, getting some (chalk?) dust from nitrite gloves on the film.. best I can recon, it neutralized the DD-X.

[wombat2go]

I would recommend to follow the data sheet temperatures as closely as possible.
I think I even read that in hot climates it might be necessary to reduce the bw solution temperatures back to 20 C with ice or fridge water.

I keep notes like this in a day book:
https://app.box.com/s/eh8btki4pkocqv2pm93n7ire95qp0bim
And see the note about pre-warming the Ilford Multigrade paper to 20 C

On C41 I always use the pre-rinse which I think is more to warm the film to 39C than for other purpose.

[pathdoc]

O Brother or Sister Pathdoc!

Brother in my case.

I ruined two rolls of Ilford 3200 early on, getting some (chalk?) dust from nitrite gloves on the film..

I can't use any other sort of glove, so I'm going barehanded on this and accepting the risks. Owch. That would have been expensive - much more so than ruining a roll of Lady Grey.

[John Poirier]

I agree with previous comments that high temperature black and white developing is a dubious proposition. It can be done, though, if you have to. I'll bore you with a little anecdote.

My first real photography job was in the late 70s as a photographer/darkroom technician at a small newspaper publisher. I did the darkroom work for three weekly and one twice- weekly papers. As well as my own stuff, I processed and printed for about 10 "reporter/photographers".

When I started, IIRC push processing was done using Acufine. Something in a little can, anyhow. The company viewed it as being very expensive, so before shooting staff were required to get permission from the chief editor to push even one roll. Not a great way to try to do photojournalism.

I think the developing times with the canned developer at room temperature were fairly long, and room temperature pushing with their standard D-76 1:1 was even longer. The volume of work and deadlines were such that this was a problem. The films in use were Tri-X and the Ilford equivalent, I believe HP-4 at the time.

Anyhow, I did some experimenting and came up with a procedure consisting of pushing in D-76 1:1 at a fairly high temperature, somewhere around 80-85 Fahrenheit. Probably 85. I think developing time was something like 51/2 minutes, long enough to avoid uneven development. (I did induce some reticulation when testing at still higher temperatures.) The wash water was at room temperature. There were no noticeable effects from the temperature change from developer to wash.

Quality was good- identical to Acufine in careful A/B comparisons. Staff were happy to be completely free to push when needed. 1600 was common, but 3200 also worked well. High temperature pushing became the norm for the two years I worked there.

So, yes, high temperature development is feasible, but I see little need for it except under special circumstances. These days I do my very occasional pushing at 20 degrees C.

[Digitalis]

I'm of Italian ancestry, so this one really hit home.

I love it when offhand remarks like that against all odds, manage to hit the mark.

[pathdoc]

I love it when offhand remarks like that against all odds, manage to hit the mark.

LOL it's all good. Remind me, if I ever come back to Adelaide, to cook you some of my Tmax Carbonara.

[VisualDarkness]

I have being doing it "too warm" in hot summer days and the solution is even more dilution (hey, it rhymes!).