Thanks for your responses,(posted 8162 days ago)The reason i was interested in making a slight modification to divided d-76 is because i love the way it naturally compensates high-contrast scenes by nursing up shadow detail and holding back highlights beautifully. for normal contrast scenes. For normal contrast subjects Iam quite happy using tri-x pan 120 at 200 asa in d-76 1:1 it just has a nice look especially for skin tones which hp5 although a sharper looking film doesnt quite seem to match.
I have tried many developer and film combinations including pmk with hp5 plus and dp 400 and appreciate their respective qualities but have found that the way divided d-76 separates shadow detail in high contrast scenes to be quite remarkable, and much more pleasing than compensating by pulling the film via increased dilution or reduced time, which seems to flatten out the shadow and mid tones a bit more.
So basically what i wanted to do was have 2 backs for my blad normal development would be standard d 76 1: 1 the other back would be for high contrast scenes and souped in divided d-76 for the aforementioned reasons. I just thought there might be a simple way of modifying the conventional divided d- 76 formula to give the negs a little more sharpness much in the way diluting regular d-76 does. Diafine sounds close to what i am after however in australia it is impossible to find ! BTW in divided d-76 i usually rate tri-x at 200 also. I just prefer the extra shadow detail. I was hoping somebody might have had direct experience with the variations of this developer and the differences these variations make to the final image quality. I have tried divided d23 and it seems to be very mushy grained. any further ideas?
thanks
matt stanton