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Pro tip: I thought stand development was just a fad, but it saved a roll for me last week. | Film Photo Club - Librear

Pro tip: I thought stand development was just a fad, but it saved a roll for me last week.

For a long time, I thought stand development in Rodinal was just a trick for people who didn't want to watch the clock. I figured you had to follow the times on the chart to get it right. Then I shot a roll of HP5 at a family picnic and completely forgot what I had the camera set to. I was sure the shots were ruined. A guy at the camera shop in Springfield said to try a 1:100 Rodinal stand for a full hour, with just one gentle turn at the start. I was so sure it would be flat and grainy. I did it, and every single frame came out perfect, with detail in the shadows and highlights I didn't think were there. It handled my bad guess on the exposure like it was nothing. Has anyone else had a 'last resort' method turn into a go-to fix for a messed up roll?

3 comments

3 Comments

riley_ramirez816mo ago

That's a great story, and it's exactly why I keep a bottle of Rodinal around. It feels like a magic trick when it pulls detail out of a roll you were sure was lost. I had a similar thing happen with some old film I found in a camera at a yard sale. Stand development was the only thing that gave me usable images. It's not my everyday method, but for problem rolls, it's become my first call now.

mark_nguyen956mo ago

Honestly, I've had the opposite happen with stand development. For me, it gave my problem rolls really flat contrast and weird, mushy grain. I switched to just giving extra development time in my normal routine, like D-76, and that works way better for my messed up film.

angelacooper4mo ago

Did you feel like a mad scientist mixing up that 1:100 ratio? I remember my first stand development attempt, I kept peeking at the tank every ten minutes thinking it was doing nothing. @mark_nguyen95, I get where you're coming from about flat contrast, maybe my expectations were just low enough that anything usable felt like a miracle. That hour long wait had me pacing around my kitchen, talking to myself about how I was definitely wasting my time. But yeah, I messed up a roll of Tri-X so bad last year that stand development was my last shot, and it pulled out images I had no business getting. It's not a perfect system, but when it works, it feels like cheating.