Hi Ken,
If you're starting with B&W, don't worry too much about the exactness of
your process.
I know many "purists" are going to burry me on that one, but within a
range from your "exact" temperature and time combination, you'll achieve a
printable negative.
There are many factors involved, and mastering them will come with
experience of doing things time after time, and also making mistakes
(hopefuly not time after time ;-)
At the beginnig, it's my suggestion to first try things out... try all
films you can x developers. Take notes and compare.
The reason why somebody recommends you film 'x' in developer 'y' time 'z'
is because for this person that combination gives the results he/she is
looking after.
Please don't spend your energy trying to keep a bath at exactly 20oC.
Development is the result of time x temperature x concentration... and I'm
sure you don't have the equipment to *exactly* measure 60ml of TMAX dev in
240ml of water, so don't worry if it's 20.5oC or 19.8oC. Just try to
follow the steps in a consistent way. Do you start your chrono after
pouring the developer of after closing the tank? Things like this make a
difference, and once you find your ideal development procedure you'll like
to stick with it, so you should better know what you did.
I also don't agree with keeping all baths the same temperature. The reason
behind that recommendation is the possibility of reticulation of the film
if you introduce a BIG temperature change. If you develop the film at 20oC
and you pour a stop bath at 24oC NOTHING WILL HAPPEN! I just tried to
create some reticulation by making *REALLY* big temp changes and TMX
resisted vigorously! ;-) ;-)
After 2 years, I'm still trying film/developer combinations... and I
suppose there are still many yeas to come before I "settle down" to a
particular combination. I could recommend you TMX[1] in Rodinal 1+100
@20oC/24' of HIE[2] in Technidol Liquid 16' at 20oC, but those are mixes I
like and you may not... ;-)
Nice start points are the recommended developers and temperature/time from
each vendor. Examples are Ilford Delta's in DDX, TMX,TMY[3] & TMZ[4] in
TMAX developer and Agfa APX in Rodinal.
If you're aware of the relations of development and contrast and give a
second thought to your subject when you're about to develop, you're in a
good track.
Enjoy your portraiture lessons!
Greetings,
Gerard.
[1]TMX = TMax 100
[2]HIE = Kodak High Speed Infrared ()
[3]TMY = TMax 400
[4]TMZ = TMax 3200 (Kodak)
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