Response to Why don't more people use two-bath developers?

Bill, I haven't shot Tech Pan in ages, so I can't comment too much about that, but I'm curious about your results anyways. Why did you limit the time in the second bath to 45 sec.? With Diafine, you can sometimes increase contrast just a bit (not too much), by using more time in the first bath. But this would usually be 3-5 min. per bath. With really minimal agitation. I think the reason why your negs are contrasty probably has to do with the low time in the second bath, along with whatever your EI was. Because you say there is thin shadow detail in some of the shots. It may be hard to tell what the best EI for Tech Pan would be without going for a longer time in bath B. But, then again, that may be a good way to add contrast too. My experience with Diafine is centered more around trad. films, and some TMY/TMZ. Ocassionally we'll shoot exhibit documentation photos, and use Diafine to tame the excessive contrast of a dark gallery. We really just place our exposures at whatever the deepest shadow is that we want detail in, and just let the highlights fall in place. It works really well. TMY can be shot at EI 500, or even it's reg. speed. A thicker film, like Tri-X, can be shot much higher, like maybe two stops. I'd be curious to know what your film would like at say, 5 minutes in bath B. Good luck with your further experiments!

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