GVL1 - Long Lasting Warmtone PQ Print Developer

Ashley <3 December 16, 2021

Today I’m introducing an unexpectedly successful developer. I mixed this up just kind of guessing at ratios and just wanting to see what a dilute PQ print developer could do. The actual end result is a formula somewhat reminiscent of ID-78, a warmtone print developer formula created by Ilford, but with notable differences. The end result is a developer with a surprisingly good shelf life, tray life and contrast consistency across its life span. It also is a fairly unique developer producing warmtones which are resistant to going olive colored, instead it will go toward brown tones.

6x4.5 1960s Kodak Plus-X shot at 50 ISO (small amount of age fog). GVM1, dilution A, 71F, 12.5m dev time. Probably used an orange filter

GVM1 - A unique film developer for pushing, portraits, and landscapes

Ashley <3 December 15, 2021

Lately I’ve been doing more regular darkroom printing and this has left me in a bit of a slump. Although I love many of the developer formulations I’ve made, they’ve often not been designed explicitly for darkroom printing. EXG1/GVG1 would produce excellent negatives with increased speed, fine grain, etc… but in the darkroom it was often very difficult to get everything on the negative onto the paper without resorting to lith printing. This problem was only slightly improved with GVK1. GVK6 (yet to be published) has significantly improved this problem, but these developers also reflected the time in my life at which they were formulated. I was doing almost exclusively lith printing and with early ModernLith formulations I needed extended scale and moderately high contrast negatives… So GVK1 specifically was formulated with this aim. EXG1 was formulated when my main priority was getting the best scannable negative, which also benefits from a long density range. And now, I’m doing regular darkroom printing a lot, so it calls for a developer with a new aim.

GVM1 is recommended for:

Extremely smoothed portraits of light skinned people in controlled light
High contrast landscape scenes
Pushing film to use it at increased speed without greatly increasing contrast
Taming the contrast of very high contrast materials
Getting all of the image detail onto a print in the darkroom without great difficulty

Ilford MGV using BasicLith 20+20+1000. Top with PEG-3350 added to increase contrast

BasicLith, a dead simple lith developer formula for modern papers

Ashley <3 October 31, 2021

BasicLith, also known as GVLith #6, is a formula which I created which will from the basis of a series of densitometry measurements in lith printing developer formulations. However, it is likely useful to the general public as well. I specifically designed it for this aim:

Work well with Ilford MGV RC and Fomatone RC papers
Simple to mix with minimal safety concerns, no heating required of flammable solvents
Avoid DMSO because the smell is annoying
A shelf life of at least 1 month (unknown if this developer meets this, but its simple enough to mix that it’s not a problem if not) and tray life of at least 1 hour
As minimal as possible while accomplishing the above goals

Tray life is not great, expect 1-2 hours typically. To make this formula more controllable for vintage lithable papers, add 0.3-2g of bromide per 10ml of developer parts. This developer may produce fog, pepper fog, or uneven development when heated, and is also much less stable. It is fast enough that heating should not be required. Induction period time with Ilford MGV RC at 74F and 10+10+400 is about 50s, with infectious development starting around 4m30s.

Formula

Part A:

Distilled water, room temperature 40ml
Sodium Metabisulfite 6.6g (note: small amount of SO2 gas released. Don't hold your head over the beaker)
Sodium Bicarbonate (baking soda) 0.7g (add this as soon as the metabisulfite is mostly dissolved. It will bubble quite a bit)
(Optional) PEG-3350, MiraLAX 0.2g
Propylene Glycol 40ml (warmed using a water bath preferably, but not a requirement)
Hydroquinone 11.1g
Top the solution to 100ml using propylene glycol.
Water is avoided for longer shelf life and because glycol is a better solvent for hydroquinone. It is ok if the solution has some very small particles or a tiny amount of "fiber" looking crystals floating around. It should be mostly transparent though and slightly yellow. The remainder will dissolve upon standing for a few hours.

Part B:

70ml water
Potassium Carbonate 13g
Sodium Hydroxide 7.3g (note: make sure your crystals do not appear "wet" or clumpy, this amount is quite precise)
Potassium Bromide 2.7g
Top to 100ml with water
Note: Solution will heat up considerably when adding the carbonate and hydroxide and will be very caustic. Use care and appropriate gloves when handling

Revision: The original version of this formula said to add PEG-3350 to part B. However, this is not possible PEG is practically insoluble in such a concentrated alkaline solution. Instead, it should be mixed into the part A instead. Note that in the part A, it may take a while to dissolve and/or require gentle (water bath style) heating

Usage

Use 10-40ml of each part for 1L of working solution developer, preferably at room temperature. I have only tested equal amounts of each part at a time.

Not an absolute requirement, but I highly recommend making a 1% solution of PEG-3350. PEG-3350 is also called polyethylene glycol of molecular weight 3,350. It is a surprisingly easy to find chemical. It is sold in most countries as a laxative. In the US it is sold under the brand name MiraLax. Use 1-7ml of this 1% solution per 10ml of developer parts for increased contrast and "linearity" of infectious development if not included in part B of the developer. This will increase the linearity of shadow development of the lith developer and gives a general increase in contrast. Certain negatives call for more and some for less, so it may be preferable to keep this as a separate solution for more control.

Spoilers

This is a bit of spoilers and the results still need to be double confirmed, but here is some interesting densitometric measurements using BasicLith without PEG at 10+10+400:

ModernLithRetro, the short version

Ashley <3 December 23, 2020

ModernLithRetro is a new formulation in my ModernLith developer series. It reverts to a more traditional lith developer formulation, but uses a specific discovery I encountered early on in my experiments. It isn’t quite as versatile or tray-stable as ModernLithEZ, but tends to give more consistent results. It also incorporates allowances for old brown addition to further tune the results and basically give the same general “feel” as a traditional lith developer. It also gives good results on many vintage and modern lithable papers, while also working with a few modern non-lithable papers.

Processing ECN-2 film, in ECN-2 process, at home

Ashley <3 November 1, 2020

ECN-2 film, often known as movie film or cine film, and made widely available in the form of Cinestill branded film, is great for what it is, but using Cinestill film in C-41 always bugged me. The colors always seem a bit off, it comes off as overly grainy, and the lack of antihalation layer on Cinestill really doesn’t work for me in daylight. Also, Cinestill branded film is expensive! Given that I’ve seen movies shot on film, I knew that these problems weren’t the fault of the actual Kodak ECN-2 film itself. It’s due to lack of remjet and cross processing. So, why not just shoot the proper film and process it properly? Well….

GVPX1 "Super Solvent" Print Developer for brown tones with modern materials

Ashley <3 October 4, 2020

GVPX1 is a highly experimental/”special” print developer which produces notably warm blacks on nearly all papers, specifically trending more toward brown rather than the olive colors that many warmtone developers give on modern papers. It does this by incorporating a lot of silver solvents in the developer, which effectively eat away at the grains on the paper, making it finer and with the end result of a brown tonation. The exact colors highly depend on the paper as usual, but with most neutral tone papers it will give cold highlights, somewhat olive midtones, and brown shadows. On warmer tone papers, the highights will appear more olive tone and the brown creeps into the midtones some, but unfortunately contrast can suffer due to blacks not being greatly deep. On colder tone papers, it may only appear to have olive colored shadows with no real brown. Basically it depends on the starting grain size of the paper.

GVK1, a moderate grain, high definition, push capable metol-glycin film developer

Ashley <3 September 5, 2020

GVK1 is a new film developer formulation of a type I’ve never tried before. It was designed with the principles of a high definition developer for high sharpness, while also incorporating enough silver solvent that the grain will not be ugly and outright coarse. It has grain of comparable smoothness to D-76 stock, but to my eye behaves as a speed increasing developer, potentially even providing a speed increase of 1 to 1/2 stop for medium and slow speed films. Contrast is fairly normal with rich shadow detail and slightly compensated highlight detail. Overall shadow and midtone separation is great, but highlights are sometimes at risk of running away, especially if darkroom printing. This developer is especially great for exposure latitude on traditional grain films, with reasonable results coming from box speed processing and between +2 or -2 exposure, though of course more ideal printing density and grain will come with proper pull/push processing. The overall appearance of the developer is extremely sharp, but without the ugly grain that sometimes comes with this, IFF properly developed. Grain specifically here is a very gentle and smooth type where it tends to still be visible but works very well to stay out of the way or even enhance the image. Skies on high speed films can sometimes be a bit much in grain, but that’s pretty par for the coarse. I’d say it can be comparable to the distinct grain that EXG1 gives but quite a bit smoother. It is formulated as a two part recipe for very long shelf life and stability. The significant amount of TEA in solution makes sulfite less soluble so I doubt that this would be suitable as a single part developer.

Ilford MGV RC - 20+25+1, printed from a long scale and high contrast negative

ModernLithEZ -- An easy to use and mix lith printing developer for modern papers

Ashley <3 July 30, 2020

ModernLithEZ (previously known as ModernLithC3) is a new formulation incorporating a number of discoveries over the past several months to finally formulate an easy to mix and easy to use lith printing developer that is comparable to commercial lith developers, but also works on all modern RC papers which were tested as well as a few modern FB papers. It is split into 3 primary parts and 1 optional part for easy yet highly controllable usage. Note that this developer is only formulated for the specialized process known as lith printing. It is NOT designed for half-tone lith film development.

6x4.5 Plus-X (expired 1964, but somewhat well preserved) with orange filter processed for 13m in EXG3

EXG3, A special use expanded range film developer

Ashley <3 July 8, 2020

This post is a reference post for the custom developer EXG3. EXG3 is a special purpose high contrast and expanded range developer. It gives full speed, but is not ideal for pushing typically. The results it gives are quite unique, though with careful metering required for ideal results. Specifically EXG3 when used properly with slower traditional grain films, will give subtle low contrast shadows, brilliant high contrast highlights, and a very long density range for midtones. The developer also produces moderately fine grain and sometimes exhibits some minor sharpness enhancing edge effects.

EXJ7 "ModernLith" or: How I learned to stop worrying and love modern papers

Ashley <3 January 30, 2020

EXJ7 or “ModernLith”, is a customizable lith printing developer formula which produces great results on most modern darkroom papers. It takes a number of things into consideration which vary significantly from traditional lith developers and is formulated specifically for lith printing, not line development. The developer features extremely long shelf life, decent (~2-3 hours) tray life, and yields infectious development and lith effects on every modern paper tested thus far.. There is significant room for customization to the exact tonality and appearance desired and the formula itself is free to redistribute and modify as desired.

It’s literally just boring step wedges like this

Darkroom Paper Step-Wedge References

Ashley <3 January 11, 2020

Here I give a simple reference of tonality and contrast differences on different papers with actual numbers, by using a series of step wedge prints and consistent processing. This reference can be extrapolated to determine speed differences (so that switching paper isn’t such a hassle) as well as used to determine which paper will best suite a subject and specifically what the contrast grade differences are actually doing to the image being printed.

EXG1, a bare bones glycin film developer

Ashley <3 December 30, 2019

Ever since mixing up a TEA-glycin solution for lith development experiments, I’ve been curious of other ways to use this. I noticed Glycin will continue working for over 24 hours with no sulfite in a simple test with paper strips. In this I describe a dead simple developer with this that gives rodinal-like grain, but with much softer highlight gradation yet still keeping a higher contrast look.

Fomatone 133 FB lith print in EXA6, 2nd print in mix. f/8, 30s, 645 HP5+ negative (exa6b)

EXA6 "Color Magic Lith v1" Reference

Ashley <3 December 15, 2019

Magic Lith has been a series of experiments in a pursuit to find a lith developer capable of making modern papers work in the process with all of the great effects expected from a lith print. This includes a spectrum of colors, visible paper grain, delicate highlights, and extreme amounts of contrast control. In this post I give a reference guide for the first successful formula which accomplishes these goals with several modern papers, especially Ilford ones, while also giving some leads for how to modify the formula for your own desires.

Mamiya 645 1000s, Arista Ortho Litho@25 ISO, PFS-4, D-76 1+3

Ortho Litho Film Processing Reference

Ashley <3 November 12, 2019

Ortho Litho film is an easily available and incredibly film. It is normally extremely slow and extremely high contrast and thus difficult to use for pictorial results. In this reference guide, I cover what can be done to combat this and how to process it both for high speed and for low speed applications