Underdeveloped portraits :-(

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Hello!

I took some nice portraits with my Rolleiflex automat from 1938 (great camera!) and used Agfa APX 25, exposed at 12 Asa. I developed the film in Agfa 8, a very good glycin-based portrait developer, for 6 minutes, but the results came out underdeveloped since the developer was a little too cold. 18 C instead of 20 C. :-/

Now I have a couple of options:

1. Print on harder paper/use harder filtration.

2. Intensify the negatives in selenium toner.

3. Intensify the negatives in Kodak IN-5 silver intensifier.

What would you guys suggest? The negs are not that bad, so I think I rather listen to your comments before doing anything that maybe could destroy the nice portraits.

-- Patric (jenspatric@mail.bip.net), June 24, 2001

Answers

Have you printed them yet? It sounds as if you have not. Try printing first & don't worry about "doing anything that maybe could destroy the nice portraits".

Print a few & see how they look and then, if your results are not what you want try Selenium toning for more density. Or, re-shoot the portraits.

Treating negs until you see what the prints look like is not the way to go.

-- Dan Smith (shooter@brigham.net), June 25, 2001.


I agree!! Pull some prints. They may be enough to get some "artful" prints. If they are a little "foggy" like under developed negatives tend to be, selenium the prints to see if this will boost (it will) or brown tone the prints to see if you like the look BEFORE you do anything to the negs. IF you don't like these options, then selenium the negs. This tends to put an almost grain free density overall so you can print the prints down. The silver intensifier tends to get really grainy so be aware of that. Cheers

-- Scott Walton (f64sw@hotmail.com), June 25, 2001.

Thanks all! Ok, I will print the negatives and see if it works ok. I was going to use Emaks K883 matte fiber paper, grade 2, but maybe I will have to use a multi contrast paper instead. I can try the Emaks paper in undiluted Ansco 130 and see if the contrast is ok.

-- Patric (jenspatric@mail.bip.net), June 25, 2001.

I noticed the answer to your question may be found in the answer in a thread on this same forum:

"Just a basic question about selenium toning to compensate for difficult to print negs.. There have been a number of references to this in several recent threads. Could anyone provide a summary of the circumstances when you'd use this? With negs that have been over-developed (or over-exposed) or under-developed (or under-exposed)? Are there any side-effects or downsides to doing it? What would be the best techniques? Many thanks! -- Ed Hurst (BullMoo@hotmail.com), June 25, 2001 Answers For correctly exposed and underdeveloped images. If your nehative shows adequate shadow detail but the highlights arenot dense enough, that's a good candidate for selenium intensification - it should yield about the same effect as an increase in paper contrast of about a grade. Selenium intensification also provides protection to the image from the harmful effects of oxidizing gases in the air. Disadvantages - I guess its kind of permanant, so if you like playing bleach-redevelopment games.... but bleach-redeveloping negatives is kind of chancy itself.... Cheers, DJ -- N Dhananjay (ndhanu@umich.edu), June 25, 2001."

Good luck... t

-- tom meyer (twm@mindspring.com), June 27, 2001.


Selenium is fine, but you will only get a maximum of 1 grade of contrast more by using it on your negs. If you want more, you should try a chromium intensifier, passing your negs twice or three times through. This is a bleaching and redevelloping intensifier, more difficult to use though...

-- George Papantoniou (papanton@hol.gr), June 27, 2001.


I printed the negs and used undiluted Ansco 130 paper developer for higher contrast, and it worked perfectly! I sepia toned the prints.

-- Patric (jenspatric@mail.bip.net), July 08, 2001.

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