room temperature, developing

david1701

david1701

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how big a deal is it if the room is like 19 degrees instead of 22, is controlling hte temperature just a ball park thing ?

should I get the chemicals to room temp and then adjust time to whatever temp that is using the ilford charts?

film HP5 developer ddx

cheers guys, going back to darkroom tommorrow
 
i would hazard a guess and say most people would get the developer to 20 ,c ( as it says on the box )

why are you having probs getting the temp where you want it ?
 
having probs with developing/printing full stop

showed a guy I know prints and negs, he said most of my issues were technique related particularly touching things with chemicals on my hands

he also mentioned room temp, but he has gone all over the world with work so I guess its more of an issue in hongkong than it is here
 
Unless you're making exhibition quality prints a couple of degrees either way won't make a lot of difference for b&w printing. I used to print in the loft which was a sauna in summer and a freezer in winter, never really used a thermometer I judged it by feel mostly.
 
Go with the optimum temp from your Ilford chart. Room temp - or+ 5 degrees will make no difference even more than that would barely be noticeable.
All that's happening is your developer is cooling quicker in a colder room, so if you're on long development times you may want to do a test with water to see how much the temp drops over the same time period, then adjust dev time accordingly, (also known a guess work!).
Have fun:)
 
I use all Ilford chemicals and adhere to the requirements, I really don't find it hard at all to get the temp to 20deg and keep it there.

I fill up a plastic washing up bowl with water and get that to about 22 to 24deg and stand my chemical filled graduates in that.

I find that the large body of water in the bowl does not cool down too quickly.

I intially check the temp of the chemicals as their 'at rest' temp varies according to the ambient temp.

I can then more or less gauge how long it will take for the chems to get to temp and then go off and load my spirals.

If when I am done loading the tanks the temp has not quite made the 20deg mark, I adjust the developer time according to the Ilford Temp Conversion Chart, which can be found here. You will see a link to the PDF file at the bottom of the page. The page does however explain in a little more detail about temp requirements.

Hope this helps. :)
 
are we talking about developing films or printing here ?

when its developing films i'm with kirk ,,try and get it as good as i can ,and consistant,, printing i'm not so bothered ,just as long as i've got the negs nicely developed in my hand
 
printing

all done now, some good prints too

think i have the hang of this now :D

sitting outside with a ciggy while they dry
 
if its just printing i'm not all that fussy .into the darkroom and print away ,i normally cut a few strips of paper and use them one at a time to get an idea of what i want time wise , then go from there .as long as i'm as consistant as i can be when doing the negs ,
 
printing

all done now, some good prints too

think i have the hang of this now

sitting outside with a ciggy while they dry
Click to expand...

Oh I see, I thought you were talking about film developing. If it's printing you can get away with just about anything!
 
Hi

Assuming its black and white if the film / developer combination recommends 20 degrees for 6 minutes then if the temp of the developer is say 18 degrees you will have to develop for longer, say 7.5 minutes.

You might do the above on purpose as it will give a higher contrast. Are you processing in a paterson tank? Remember to agitate the developer by gently shaking it for 5 seconds every 30.

The rinse, fix and final wash needs to be a similar temperature otehrwise you might reticulate the film, this gives worm like damage to the film, again you might do this for effect. The final wash should be under running water. If tap water is colder than 20 degrees then initially pour in water at decreasing temperatures until you have reached the tap water temp.

The final rinse should have a gentle detergent in it, we used to use a special liquid but fairy will work. This means that when you wipe the film with either your fingers, a special squuegy or even a chamois leather it will not mark.

Gee remembering all that takes me back, I might buy a film camera after all lol

stew
 
Use a water bath adjust the temperature with the hot and cold taps then stand the tank in that.
You can also stand the bottles of dev and fix in the same bath to get them to temperature before you start.
You can top up the water bath with hot water as you go along to keep it up to temperature.
We used to have temperature controlled baths... so everything was always ready to go.
 
I got a 3foot dish warmer off ebay for £15 delivered the other week.
 
When doing prints you can always work on the side of over developing, it has to be in the developer ages before it spoils. If your developer can be mixed at different dilutions; giving varying development times, mix for the longest time. This way any discrepancy is a smaller percentage of the ‘correct’ time, this applies to film processing as well.

Like others have said, I used to have my darkroom in the loft which was freezing in winter. I used to have a water bath to stand my grads and tanks in. I got some of those polystyrene packing thingies that look like peanuts, cover the surface of the bath with them it insulates it keeping the temp very constant
 
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