Changing too many variables at once is a bad move in the world of analogue photography. There is also a school of thought you should pick one film, chemical, paper etc and stick to it. For most of my photography journey I’ve stuck to Ilford papers, films and chemicals. All my recent images are on Ilford HP5, Ilford WT Multigrade paper developed with Ilford Warm tone developer. Whilst I have not really pushed everything to breaking point or gone mad with alternative processing tricks, I am comfortable with my process. The issue is I have nothing to compare anything against. Is my grain good or bad? Are my images low/high contrast? I simply have no references to compare.
After using up my Ilford Warmtone developer I reordered Bergger as the Ilford is out of stock. When I used it the first time, I noticed the paper blacks where not black after the recommended time. I then switched from 1.00 mins to 1.30 and the image was still a bit under. At 2 mins it seems to of gone over developed. The bloody stuff just stays there doing nothing and somewhere between 1min 20 and 1min 50 everything happens too damn fast! To make things even more confusing the next time I tried it it seemed to of developed my images in just over 1 minute. The third time I tried it it was more like 2 minutes. To piss me off further I had a small break from printing, had a quick tea and a croissant and subsequently the developer had decided to die, making a light chocolate coloured imprint after 2 minutes.
Despite it being a PITA I have hope in this developer. I find under developing ever so slightly does give a nice aesthetic. I do wonder if mastering this paper developer could give you another level of control, Ilford WT is very forgiving but Bergger could offer more variation. Unfortunately, the instructions are rubbish so I feel another read of Ansel Adams ‘The Print’ is needed to figure out how to find the optimum print time. It clearly isn’t an everyday print developer, more a special occasion cocktail.
I started shooting a few rolls of Pancro 400 for my weekend walkabouts. About 3 rolls in I decided to develop one. The instructions say it needs a pre-soak before developing. It needs a stronger mix of fixer for a longer time, to top it off; it needs to be washed with ten, ten minute washes. 1hour 40 mins!!!! And if that wasn’t enough the first wash should have some Hypo clearing agent in it. OMFG. I didn’t have any hypo clearing agent and I got bored after 40 mins of washing. Now Ive developed one roll, its more ISO 200 not 400 It also has quite a lot of base fog. I develop film with Kodak HC110 Dilution B which does gently nudge a film towards a lower speed, that could have contributed. HC110 does contain some anti fogging agents, with any other developer that base fog will be a lot worse. In an ideal world I should of fully tested the film before shooting 3 rolls of it. After more research online, a few people are suggesting using Bergger Pyro developer to really make it sing. It could be amazing but life’s too short, its going in the bin.
