Oh Diafine, my Diafine.

DaireQuinlan

I think I've found my ideal film/developer combo for those long winter months. Tri-x (which I was already quite fond of :rolleyes: ) in Diafine. It gives it a 1+2/3 stop push or thereabouts, people generally recommend shooting at 1250 or so for best results. 1250 is a nice speed. You can push it to 1600 with no problems, and 1250 means you can shoot outside in gloomy weather but still use your filtering of choice (yellow for the most part in my case)

Just finished scanning a roll which I shot over the last few weeks. Pretty good results for 1250 grainwise, the only thing is that it tends to produce really flat results in less than contrasty conditions (which is the whole point really, it's a compensating developer) so you have to often add a touch of contrast in PP. Better than having an overly contrasty negative to begin with though, contrast is easier to add than take away !

Ease of use : Toasty ! It's a two bath developer which doesn't care about temperature and time. You pour solution A in, agitate gently once a minute for about 3-4 minutes, drain it, add solution B and do the same thing, and bobs your uncle. Idiot proof development, which is something I obviously appreciate

Two examples ... I'll add more as I upload.

AnimalRights

He looks like a learned Politician in #1, wise beyond his years.

nilhg

AnimalRights wrote: »

He looks like a learned Politician in #1, wise beyond his years.

AR, wise, politician? You joining the establishment?


OP, hard to tell exactly from the sizes posted but it looks good to me.

DaireQuinlan

nilhg wrote: »

AR, wise, politician? You joining the establishment?

I was puzzled too, I think he meant to say 'corrupt and venal beyond his years' but that'd reflect badly on my poor 20 month old son so I discarded that notion

OP, hard to tell exactly from the sizes posted but it looks good to me.

I know, pesky boards size. They're linkrd to my flickr, If you're a contact you can see the original 5000x4000 scans IIRC how my account is set up.

Fajitas!

DaireQuinlan wrote: »

I know, pesky boards size. They're linkrd to my flickr, If you're a contact you can see the original 5000x4000 scans IIRC how my account is set up.

Only 321 x 500 I'm afraid. Nice dev'ing though. Very crisp for 1250.

Valentia

I have you down as a friend on Flickr Daire but you may not have me as a contact because I can't see the larger sizes. They look great though.

DaireQuinlan

Ah right, just changed that now to 'contacts', should be ok now ...

Fajitas!

That grain is beautiful.

I need to get a London darkroom set up.

DaireQuinlan

Fajitas! wrote: »

That grain is beautiful.

It is quite lovely isn't it ? Normally I'm chary of opening up my original sizes. Not from privacy concerns, more because my focusing often tends to be a bit slapdash and I shoot right down the bottom of the scale shutter speed wise. In short, my technique really isn't up to examination at 100%

artyeva

um... when you say ''Diafene''... do you mean.... the painkiller??????

[please pardon my ignorance ]

Fajitas!

DaireQuinlan wrote: »

In short, my technique really isn't up to examination at 100%

Era, don't worry about that, as long as you're happy with the pics, who cares

um... when you say ''Diafene''... do you mean.... the painkiller??????

Nope, here is is!

Unfortunately, this stuff won't be curing too many a headache

DaireQuinlan

Fajitas! wrote: »

Unfortunately, this stuff won't be curing too many a headache

Although ... http://www.flickr.com/groups/parodinal/
I kept on meaning to try that when I went through my coffee developer phase. Never got round to it. Apparently it produces results that are indistinguishable from Rodinal. I'm unadventurous, I just use Rodinal.

artyeva wrote: »

um... when you say ''Diafene''... do you mean.... the painkiller??????

Nope. As Fajitas so ably points out, it's Diafine. Diafine is a two bath compensating developer. Basically it works by dumping the film into solution A, where the emulsion soaks up the development agent, and then into solution B, where an activator starts the development on the soaked up agent from solution A. In the highlights the development soon uses up all the available developer so the highlights don't get blown out, but the shadows get a chance to develop for whatever amount of time the film is in sol B so you get good shadow detail. The only proviso is that it has to be in both solutions for about 3-4 minutes with gentle agitation.

In effect it's sort of like stand development but without the adjacency effects that can be a little objectionable sometimes, particularly in 35mm.

artyeva

ok - now who feels stoopid

i'll be setting up my darkroom in the next few weeks and have already aquired some rodinal and rodinal special - daire - would you mind if i pm'd you and picked your brain a bit as to what else i need and where i could get it?

AnimalRights

nilhg wrote: »

AR, wise, politician? You joining the establishment?

Tony Benn, a living legend.
Dennis Skinner.
Tony Gregory.
Joe Higgins.

Anouilh

Is there anybody in the Dundrum area who could develop a BW film? It takes a lot of effort to get into town and I'm not interested in doing it myself at the moment.

DaireQuinlan

artyeva wrote: »

ok - now who feels stoopid

i'll be setting up my darkroom in the next few weeks and have already aquired some rodinal and rodinal special - daire - would you mind if i pm'd you and picked your brain a bit as to what else i need and where i could get it?

Might be better starting a new thread, (or keeping it in this one I guess). There are quite a few regular and semi-regular posters on here who do their own development. You'll get a much better range of advice, and it's a learning experience for all !

Fajitas!

I guess there'd be no harm in a developing tips and woes thread either though?

Simplicius

great neg scans, really nice results too ( your excitement is justified) and the really subtle soft greys are ideal for portraits of kids or women, skin tones are perfect

Printing these though (in a darkroom for the digi-heads) you might loose this softness unless you pick a paper developer that is a soft one, ie. a metol only developer that doesn't have any hydroquinone in it... all the standard ilford developers have the combination of both these chemicals, Dektol has more hydroquinone still. If one of those is used you'll loose a percentage of those soft tones, that the neg scans are indicating are present.

uprising

My favorite combo was Ilford PanF and Microfine when I used to develop, slow film, but the detail and grain in the 6X7 negs was amazing, and when you find your favorite combo a bit of experimentation with developing times and temperature can really educate you.
Good to see the real art hasn't died, not that I'm knocking digital, it's instant gratification or disappointment but there's more gratification from taking a pic, developing the film, tripping over things in the red darkroom/bedroom, dodging and burning with your hands, messing it up and having to do it again at a different grade, but when you finally get that print right, the endorphins flow in abundance.

But my durst enlarger hasn't seen the light of day in a long time, my film cameras have been passed on so I take advantage of technology, it's much handier and less hassle, although I think it takes away from learning the art of photography, everything can be automatic so some people dont fully understand why or how they got the shot they did.

DaireQuinlan

Simplicius wrote: »

great neg scans, really nice results too ( your excitement is justified) and the really subtle soft greys are ideal for portraits of kids or women, skin tones are perfect

Printing these though (in a darkroom for the digi-heads) you might loose this softness unless you pick a paper developer that is a soft one, ie. a metol only developer that doesn't have any hydroquinone in it... all the standard ilford developers have the combination of both these chemicals, Dektol has more hydroquinone still. If one of those is used you'll loose a percentage of those soft tones, that the neg scans are indicating are present.

Printing is something that I was just starting to get into when little muggins above in those pictures announced his arrival. I think I had a couple of sessions in my makeshift darkroom before packing all the stuff up and putting it away. Hopefully at some point in the indefinite future I'll have the time and space to get back into it, that digital step in the workflow sort of compromises the whole process.

DaireQuinlan

Just two more as a coda to the thread





As I scanned them I couldn't fail but to notice that all but one or two are of little muggins above. I've got to add a little more variety in future I think :rolleyes:

Fajitas!

It definitely manges to keep a lot of highlight and shadow detail (Not that your exposures are anything but perfect ).

I've got to add a little more variety in future I think

Are you going to go for another boy, or a girl this time? :pac: