Thursday 23 January 2020

Stand developing Ilford Delta 3200

The Club had a Studio night this week.  Not really my thing but variety is the spice of life, innit.  We just had a few Club Members sit for us as it was really an opportunity to learn about lighting, rather than a 'turn up and shoot' night.  I took the 'Blad with the 150mm lens and had Delta 3200 loaded.  I've not been terribly happy with the results from this film yet so I wanted to try a different approach to developing it.

Here's the print that came out of the darkroom not very long ago:

Ray, on Ilford Warmtone fibre paper (8"x10")

I remember reading a while back on Andrew Sanderson's blog about stand developing Delta 3200 film so I chased up the article and tried it.  His suggestion was to use DD-X diluted 1+9 (so a bit weaker than normal), agitate for a full minute and then leave it to stand for 45 minutes.  So that's what I did.  I was metering at the full 3200 iso, by the way - Mr Sanderson reckons he got good results this way rating it at anything from 800 to 3200 on the same film, by the way.  Interesting.

First off let's say how impressed I am with the grain, or lack of it, at 3200.  It's way nicer than HP5+ pushed even a couple of stops.  And the negs turned out great - very easy to print.  This one printed at grade 3, or thereabouts.  I'll definitely be using this method again for Delta 3200. Thank you Mr Sanderson!
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4 comments:

  1. Marcus Peddle23 January 2020 at 23:19

    That looks great. Thanks to Mr. Sanderson, indeed. I like the subject's clothes, by the way. Did he dress up for Studio Night, or is this something he usually wears?

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    1. Michael McNeill24 January 2020 at 09:29

      Thanks Marcus. Ray did dress up a bit (and brought some hats & glasses) but to be fair he’s usually pretty neat & tidy in his appearance. He was a good sitter - I think he must have done it before.

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  2. Roy Karlsvik24 February 2020 at 15:15

    Ah, here we go... the answer to my earlier asked question about developing Delta 3200. Personally I think it's worth listening to Mr. Sanderson when he has something to say about things like this, so I'll take this advice straight on board, thank you very much.
    I'm not in the possession of any DD-X developer on board the ship though, so might either need to improvise, or leave it for when I get home which might be a bad idea these days with all the new scanners placed around the airports we usually pass through. I might just as well give it a go in one of the two new to me developers I got at hand. I'll keep you informed, of course.
    Great shot and nice portrait, by the way :)

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    1. Michael McNeill26 February 2020 at 22:42

      Yes I think Mr S knows what he is talking about. DD-X is very nice but a tad expensive. Plus I had a strange thing with it recently - lots of black spots on negs (perfect circles, and lots of them) which I think was down to poor mixing with the H2O. Now I stir a little more enthusiastically. So far it hasn't recurred...

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