Richard Vanek - Black and White Photography

First I was asking and than after I developed lately few old rols I shared my finding about developing negatives which were exposed quite few years ago.
I have still some rolls which I exposed from 5 to 15 years ago. It only 10 left not as I had around 50 some time ago, so I am getting better.
Let's back about my findings so it can be usefull for you as well. You can take a look into this thread at photo.net, but to summarize:

• I use XTOL 1:1 and add 10% of time suggested for 20C
• First 40% of time I agitate 2 times each 30sec for max 5sec
• Second 40% of time I agitate 2 times each 60sec for max 5 sec
• Last about 20% of time I didn't agitate

Result was quite good. Only very sensitive films had fog, but the shadows were o.k. so it is a bit of difficult to print but still possible. For scanning as I am do, it need multiple scan path and extended exposure time as vuescan allowes. That it is quite o.k., but of course far from ideal. For 100ASA and lower there is no problem at all.I found out that doing less agitation at end and longer the development time is the right way.

Today I finaly did that test. Yes, I was always wondering why suggested time for fixing in Amaloco X88 is not enought to clean a film. It is suggested to dilute 1:4 and fix for four minutes when T-grain films are used. I am using Kodak TMY, but even after 6 minutes, there was still a bit of pink color on clear part of film visible. Ussually I did about 8 minutes. And than clean first in water and than for about 3 min in Hypo Cleaning Agent from Kodak and as a last 10 min in water.

But back, the test! I have read in Ilford documents about the way of finding out a time for fixer. It is described like this:

The clearing time of a film and fixer combination can be found by the following method. It can be carried out in normal lighting.
Take a piece of scrap unprocessed film and place a drop of the working strength fixer on to a small part of the emulsion side. Leave it until the emulsion under the drop is a clear spot, this should take around 30 to 60 seconds. Immerse the piece of film in the fixer bath and using a stop clock time how long it takes for the rest of the film to clear. Clearing can be judged by comparing the surrounding film area with the clear central spot. The time taken for the rest of the film to clear is the clearing time. The fixing time needed is double the clearing time.

So I did that test and yes dot become comepletely transparent in about 45sec. And a cleaning time was 2 min 20 sec. So fixing time should be about 4-5 minutes which is excatly what they say at X88 sticker.
But why is the film still a bit pink? Is it wrong or not? I always thought, that one has to fix until film has no pink color.

First version of my news system is running on this site. I can add,delete and update notes on every place of this site. System is done in PHP and using MySQL as storage.

It is true that my personal software project are not really exsiting, but lately I need some utilities for my other ineterest. So I hope I will find a energy after my work to do even mores software design and construction. Yes, after 15 years of doing so it is becoming difficult.

I must say, and I hope, today is important day in this web site. I finished system for managing these notes (news). And I believe that will make for me much easier to fill more informations and use this much more offen.
It tooks a while, few weeks, but now I am happy that it worked out.

I have ordered new films 6 TMX, 25 TMY, few TMZ and also some chemicals from some cheap inet shop in Amsterdam. Should be here somewhere next week. And because I am planning to go take some pictures this Sunday on local market I need to buy some TMZ in normal shop (almost double price). Those will be necessary as light in a sport hall is limited.
For this Sunday it was actualy planed to go with my friend erco together somewhere, but turn out that it is only me who is interested to do such a thing.

So I am back from market. Not much, really, about 14 shots at TMZ rated 3200. It was really dark there, sport hall with a few neon lights. I do not expect almost anything form it. I still have about 10 shots after I did some home pictures to use 3200 in dark places :-)

Maybe you wondering how it is with me and chess. So I played only two games so far in this season and it was in local chess club Caissa. I won both of them and that indicate level of the club. Point is that every time I go there I have to force myself. When I am there is fine, but I have no enjoyment from it as I have from photography.

Today morning I expected nice weather, sunny morning, and really it is! Beautiful sharp Sun light is illuminating world and creates long shadows.
So I took my camera with rest of TMZ in it (and didn't take any spare rolls) and left house earlier on my way to work than usually. On my way I always ride close to field of farmer. Today nice spring of weather was there to make a ground more wet. Until I made my camera ready they turn it off. Pity, I didn't expect it. So few pictures of child playground, shadows and last one could be nice. Rusted skeleton of car on roof of small building. We will see.

Yesterday after I returned from chess, I have developed TMZ exposed Sunday on market and yesterday on my way to work. From the quick look, shots do look quite o.k. I can't say much about grain (let's see scans evening). Interesting is that shots from yesterday contrast sun lighting are bit underexposed comparing to shots from market. I assume that light on market was more equal and meter in Bessa get confused by small bright parts yesterday morning.
In any case would be great if I do some tests to understand weakness of meter in camera, film and developer. Than I can take necessary steps to make it always right.

Thanks to Xenon, who discover serious problem with my news system, serving him news in mixed languages. Hopefully should be correct now!

I reworked system for displaying photogrpahs. Now it is much easier for me to add new ones. User comfort is also a bit better as one can by clicking on displayed photograph make return to previous page.