groping in the dark

Using XTOL with TMAX

Don't do it. Or at least don't use the developing times recommended by Kodak...not that I would expect anyone to follow a newbie's advice, but...

Last fall I developed 2 rolls of TMAX 100 film in XTOL w some disappointing results: the negatives were very thin and underdeveloped. I followed all of the recommendations for time/temperature/agitation and ended up w almost unusable negs. I thought this was a aberration; i had been using the Community Darkroom and chalked it up to improperly diluted chemistry or the fact that I was jabbering away w a friend and lost track of my time. So just last week I carefully developed my one remaining roll of TMAX 400 film in XTOL and came up with the same results: thin negs. Seems like others have noticed the same problem.

So now what to do? Switch developers? Switch film? Start adding to Kodak's suggested developing time? The first thing to do is get a grip. I need to do what the professionals do and test my setup. I could get all scientific by shooting grayscale charts and experimenting with different exposures/developers/film, carefully recording my observations and notes along the way. But I'm not gonna do that, or at least not in that detail. Why? 'cause I'm lazy.

I am going to follow a few carefully calculated steps, though:

• Reduce the number of variables - I'm going to continue using TRIX and PLUSX film exclusively. I was only using TMAX film in the first place because I couldn't get to the photo store before they closed one weekend and I ended up buying the TMAX film from a certain colossal multi-national retailer that recently opened a store in my neighborhood. I'm also sticking w XTOL for now.
• Shoot a test scene - I need to find a scene (or two or three), nothing special, just something that captures a wide tonal range. I'll shoot a few rolls of film at different exposures to use in my experiments.
• Begin by tweaking one variable at a time - This is more of a learning exercise. I pretty much trust the recommend times for XTOL/TRIX combination, but I'd like to see the results w my own eyes. Using the test rolls, I'll first play around with different development times. Once I've found something I like, I may experiment w different chemistry temperatures. Maybe I'll even eventually experiment w push processing, if I ever figure out how that works.
• Try different films and/or chemistry - Once I have the process down and understand a little better how the pieces fit together, only then will I start to dabble in other film or chemistry options. I'll still have to experiment with the fine points, but the idea is to make this process easier by going through it in detail the first time.
• Take notes on everything - This will require a lot of discipline, but it is crucial to know what is going on in each roll of film in order to make a solid judgment.

So even though I'm taking a somewhat lazy approach, that's still a lot of work. I've got to start shooting some film...but first, some printing!