Film Processing

The greater the agitation the greater the grain. I would agitate normally for the first 10 - 20 seconds. It is important to get the developer on the film evenly especially at the beginning. If you do not agitate enough there may be uneven development since some of the film is not getting the developer. I agitate once a minute, three inversions and spin the tank from right to left. I do it on the easy side. As an experiment, you can try inverting once after the developer is in the film. Then every minute agitate only by twisting the tank from right to left. Tilt the tank (I use a stainless steel one) slightly. When half the development is up, invert once. Then continue the process. You will see very fine grain this way. I do not do it, and don't know of any who do because you will probably get less shadow detail if there is a minimum of agitation. You can greatly reduce grain by overexposing and underdeveloping. For example rating tri-x at 200 and developing 10% less than recommended for developing at 400 will give you a thinner negative with less grain. For t-max 100, I have only tried it once, rate it at iso 50 and develop it in d-76 1:1 for nine minutes. I do not use t-max developer, but when I used it, I prefer to dilute it 1:7, that is one part developer to seven parts of water. Diluting developers produces thinner negatives which have less grain. That is why most people dilute D-76 1:1.

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