I always fight shy of “joining” things, especially online. I’m not one of those to click the “join” button easily. I read many blogs with great regularity, all of those listed in my “blogs I read” page for example. It’s almost a daily ritual that I click through my list of favourites to see what’s been happening, but I don’t “join”! I used to do the same with You Tube. The photographers Shane Dignum and Ben Horne for example. The latter is free of adverts, so a pleasure to watch, some of the others are so full of adverts that I’ve given up watching! But I never joined You Tube or “Subscribed” or “Liked”! It was however on You Tube that I discovered the video’s of darkroom expert John Finch and his Pictorial Planet channel.
I find something almost hypnotic about watching him mix developers and the recipes. I’ve written before that I like chemistry – I claim to know nothing about it, but I enjoy an interest in it. I enjoy his way of teaching and presentation. I don’t “know him from Adam” but he comes across to me as the sort of person who you could chat to about photography for an hour over a pint and come away much wiser!
So inspired was I that I purchased the base chemicals to make my own D23 developer. The end result of that was I’ve seen a, well let’s use the word, dramatic improvement in my negatives. I once swore by Ilfosol, I don’t see me buying any more in my future.
It got to the point where I felt I had gained so much from his efforts, I felt I should contribute something. Luckily he has a Patreon (is account the right word?), so I made the bold move for me, despite my reservations about signing up for things. Mr Finch joins the large club of one, I fully expect that he will remain my only subscription in Patreon, but I also feel happy that I am contributing something for the knowledge I’ve learned so far. It’s made a real improvement in my photography. Going even further I’ve also purchased his book, or to be more accurate it was given to me as a birthday present at my request – it’s the book I wish I’d had 20 years ago. I read little in the way of books, very few, this is one of those exceptions.
Why am I writing this about a person I don’t know, have never met, and am unlikely to? Well I feel that I’ve learned much, and that knowledge has led to real improvement in my negatives, much more than say a new lens would have done. At my age (55) that doesn’t happen very often! All too often I’m underwhelmed. As a digression, as an adult, years back I did a GCSE in Astronomy, I gained an A* (star – get it?) largely due to the teacher. Glen Devey, I would say quite possibly the best teacher I ever had. Enthusiasm and a love of the subject was something that appeared to be lacking in my education during my school years. I’m finding in adulthood that this is not always the case! As an even further digression I recently had a chat with my once English teacher, Mrs Stevens. Chatting I lamented I always felt underwhelmed by the school experience, her reply was along the lines of “Have you learnt things since? Did you know where to look for answers? Did you feel able to communicate?” Well yes! “That’s what we do – give you tools”! Mr Finch has given me a set of “tools” I was lacking before, so I pressed “join”.
If you feel you would like to improve your negatives/photo chemistry/darkroom technique, I happily recommend:
S.H.O.U.T. 
I subscribe to John Finch’s Pictorial Planet and Ben Horne’s Youtube channel, and a couple of others. There aren’t that many on Youtube that inspire/educate me. John Finch has a wealth of knowledge and I always learn something watching his video uploads.
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Hello, same here! There wasn’t you tube, channels or websites when I was young and starting out, just dry, very dry, books from the library, so I made all the mistakes that there were to make and then invented some of my own! That said I learnt from all that. To a degree I think sometimes these days people are scared to try in case they “fail” – forgetting that’s all part of the learning curve! Even after over 40 years of developing films, I’m learning from John and Pictorial Planet!! Happy developing! – Andy
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Thanks for alerting me to Pictoral Planet. While I don’t make my own developers or wet prints, there’s still loads of other stuff on there. I just watched an interesting video on Rodinal dilutions (god, that makes me sound like a nerd, doesn’t it! 😀 ).
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I should follow this up with a clarification that I *am* a nerd. I wouldn’t want anyone to think that I’m being disparaging to nerds. 😀
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lol we should have a flag or a badge or something – there’s and idea for Analogue Wonderland to issue 🙂 Off to make FX55 now! Cheers Andy 🙂
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Lol – nerd!? You’re talking to a pro here – otherwise known as a “super nerd” !! 🙂 I’m about to try the grain reducer for Rodinal – Boric Acid here I come!! Alert the environment agency!! 🙂 Cheers Andy
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The video has made me go and buy another bottle of Rodinal. I’ve used it before, but not a lot – usually sticking to my favoured DD-X – but seeing the difference the dilutions make has inspired me.
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… the Brandy will follow! lol I’ve just today done a couple of tests with Rodinal and the “grain reducer” – drying as I type! I’ll do a post early next week with my results! I tried Rodinal (Adonal) as I liked the idea of it. It’s shelf life, value, etc, trouble is I never really got to like the results. It’s well known that it’s a “true grain” developer, and of course stupid me has only developed 400 speed in it so far! So no surprise really. This time I’ve shot FP4 (my go to film) so am looking forward to seeing that! I’m not sure I have the patience for semi-stand and stand development. I’ll be interested to see your results – Cheers Andy
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I’ll look forward to your results.
I’ve used Adonal with slower speed films before with good results. I even developed a roll of expired colour film (although the results were quite low in contrast and needed some post processing). Grain on things like Fomapan 100 and Agfa APX 100 was well handled. Even a roll of 40-years expired Ilford HP5 looked good.
I have an album of my results on Flickr:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/fishyfish/albums/72157716620751683/with/52083001130
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Hi! You have some lovely shots in there! I do like the contrast and tonal range that Adonal gives, especially on a sunny day. I’m still not fanatical about the grain, but certainly on fresh FP4, I’d be happy to use it again, not the case with Delta 400! If I had a slow film that I’d done “urban decay” on, it would be my first choice now, and I think I’ll do a roll of Pan-F at some point. The grain should be even less, and it may give a boost to the contrast that could make Pan-F shine – we’ll see! Cheers Andy
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I had seen people say (before I started developing my own black and white film) that Rodinal really emphasized the grain of faster films in an unpleasant way, so I shied away from using it for anything rated at 400ASA or above.
The only roll of faster film I’ve ever used it with was the forty year old HP5 (not even “+”!) and the grain, while noticeable, is not overpowering at all. It was medium format though, so I guess it has some leeway in that regard.
I’m tempted to try it at some point, maybe on some 35mm HP5+, just to see what it comes out like in comparison with DD-X.
Nige
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Hi Nige,
I think you will find it grainer compared to DDX. Most of the film I shot on my London trip last autumn was Delta 400, and I wish I had developed that in DDX rather than Rodinal for sure! Having said that in some cases the grain added to the “gritty vibe” so is not always “unpleasant” – I’m going to try FP4 in 1+100 semi-stand for an hour next, and I’ll see what I get with that!
Cheers
Andy
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