for anyone interested....(posted 8200 days ago)After reading the article on Ed B's Web site I became curious about trying divided D-23. I had a roll of APX25 120 -- see my thread about reciprocity and APX 25 -- that I shot earlier this week in early morning light that I thought might make a good test subject.
For those who missed my earlier post, I shot the roll in a forest in early morning light. I normally rate APX25 at 12 and since the light was still not over the trees my readings were ranging from 4 to 8 seconds at f16. I ended up bracketting two shots at 4, 8 and 16 seconds and one other at 16, 32 and 60 seconds.
I mixed the original Kodak D-23 formula -- 7.5 mm Metol, 100 mm Sodium Sulfite -- and a 1% Kodalk bath. I gave the roll three minutes of continual agitation in the first bath and three minutes with no agitation in the second. This roughly corresponded to N - 2 as discussed on Unblinking Eye.
At first glance, the results were not encouraging. The negatives looked bullet-proof. But upon printing them this morning I realized I was wrong. The density is primarily from additional fog. With exposures of around 30 seconds for an 8x12 and 60 seconds for an 11x14 the results were perfect, exactly as visualized. The highlights, mainly sunlight through the trees reflecting off ice and water, were subtle, not too heavy, just perfect. The mid-tones are exactly where I wanted them when I metered the original scene. The shadows are full bodied, full of substance but dark enough to have some weight.
I know this is all based on early tests on negatives I had pretty much given up on getting anything useful out. I plan to try this on some of my other choice films - like Verichrome Pan.
Hopefully, if I can get around to reclaiming some space for my scanner, I'll scan some images and throw them up on my Web site if anyone is interested.
Anyway, if anyone else is interested or is working with D-23 or any of it's variants, let's hear about it.