Response to Developer Dilutions

By increasing the amount of water in the mix you are slowing down the developers activity. This causes areas that have received more exposure and will be darker in the negative to develop slower. The plus side of this is that to get a normal contrast on your negative you will have to develop longer, this will cause an increase in film speed giving you better shadow detail. Another plus is that because your development time is longer and lets say you make a mistake and develop 30 seconds too long, 30 seconds is only 5% of a 10 minute developing time but is a 10% mistake if the time you were aiming for was 5 minutes. I feel that you have more control with a more diluted developer but make sure that you are using enough of the stock developer to completely develop the amount of fim you are developing. The downside I guess is that your development times are longer but to me "What's the hurry?"

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