Response to what happens with REALLY long dev't times?

Shawn: You might be interested to read my article "Mortensen Revisited" at http://unblinkingeye.com/Articles/Mortensen/mortensen.html. Mortensen's theory was that the best gradation was obtained from negatives of very short-scale subjects that were slightly underexposed and developed to gamma-infinity. He chose scenes with about a 4-stop scale and expanded them to a full 7 stops. I should note that Mortensen was the mortal enemy of the f/64 group. Many of his photographs were tacky and tasteless. However, he did some beautiful nudes and he really did have a good understanding of the complexities of the photographic process. Contemporary photographers can still learn from his comments on local contrast and gradation. His results are difficult to reproduce with modern films and developers, but the techniques (and modern substitutes) are worth experimenting with.

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