EFKE KB25 processing

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Hello,

I'm Flemish and I understand quite a bit of German, but I cannot write it. So forgive me for this post in English, but you can answer in German, no problem



My favorite film in the studio (flash light) is the EFKE KB25. I use it at 25 asa.

Found a good way of developing it with A49 : small tank (300mm), 1 film 1+2 - 8min45

first minute contineous agitation, then 3sec/30sec



Then I heard the film is a lot sharper in Tetenal Neofin Blau.

Tested this dev and got acceptable negatifs in a small tank (500mm) - 1 film - 15mm of product in a total solution of 500mm - 6min15 - 1 x 3 sec agitation per minute



The result in Neofin Blau is sharper allright, but it looks rather ugly. The greys aren't beautiful and there's something artificial about it. Especialy with modelphotography you have a problem with this extreme "contour" sharpnes : the "errors" in the skin become very visible.



I never used a pre-soak in water for the KB25 (water bath of 1 minute before starting developing).

Can that have something to do with it ???

In case of a water bath, how does this affect your developing times ??



I hope I receive a reply from someone.



I also want to thank the guys with Fotoimpex - great to know there more fellow darkroom freaks out there in this "digital" age.



Kindest rgds

Robert Van Brustum

[url="http://users.pandora.be/vanbrustum"]Artistic photography by Robert Van Brustum[/url]
Hi,

what you describe is exactly the Beutler (=Neofin blau) look - high acutance, sharp edges, lots of micro-contrast, but bad midtones, a kind of etched look (like traditional engravings), sometimes derisively called 'soot and whitewash'. This may be great for certain kinds of landscape or architectur photography (actually, right now I'm testing developers to get this look), but certainly is not what you want for portraits - there, grain-dissolving developer's WITHOUT edge-effects will be much better - since for portraiture smooth skintones (= low micro-contrast, fine grain) and not overly pronounced edges are usually best.

I personally use A49 (1+1) when I want to shoot portraits (Perceptol or other super-fine-grain developers will also work), but used Rodinal (and am testing PyrocatHD, Beutler and a Metol-2-bath) for landscapes where I want extra sharpness.

Conclusion: While it is not good to change developers all the time, on the other hand there are certain types of developers that work best with certain kinds of photography, so you might choose 2 very different developers and get to know them, to use for specific purposes;

or just use ID11 for everything (will give good results with any kind of film and any kind of motives - but not excel in any category either - it is 'middle-of-the-road'.

Roman
[quote name='Robert Van Brustum' date='Mar 20 2004, 08:31 AM']Hello,

I'm Flemish and I understand quite a bit of German, but I cannot write it. So forgive me for this post in English, but you can answer in German, no problem



My favorite film in the studio (flash light) is the EFKE KB25. I use it at 25 asa.

Found a good way of developing it with A49 : small tank (300mm), 1 film 1+2 - 8min45

first minute contineous agitation, then 3sec/30sec



Then I heard the film is a lot sharper in Tetenal Neofin Blau.

Tested this dev and got acceptable negatifs in a small tank (500mm) - 1 film - 15mm of product in a total solution of 500mm - 6min15 - 1 x 3 sec agitation per minute



The result in Neofin Blau is sharper allright, but it looks rather ugly. The greys aren't beautiful and there's something artificial about it. Especialy with modelphotography you have a problem with this extreme "contour" sharpnes : the "errors" in the skin become very visible.



I never used a pre-soak in water for the KB25 (water bath of 1 minute before starting developing).

Can that have something to do with it ???

In case of a water bath, how does this affect your developing times ??



I hope I receive a reply from someone.



I also want to thank the guys with Fotoimpex - great to know there more fellow darkroom freaks out there in this "digital" age.



Kindest rgds

Robert Van Brustum

[url="http://users.pandora.be/vanbrustum"]Artistic photography by Robert Van Brustum[/url][/quote]



Hey Roman,



thx for the explenation - I suspected it was something like that.

Similar story : PAN F at 50asa in Ilfotec DDX 1+9 gives you super sharp negatives, but again, an artificial sharpnes.



Then I'll go back to A49 for studio shoots.



As to the pre-soak in water ; 1 minute water bath before developing. How does this work with KB25 ?

I tought adding 30 sec for a 1 film processing



Something pretty "sick" : HP5 at 100asa, perceptol stock. Works excellent for night photography - super detailed !!



Thx for all Roman,

Robert



robert.vanbrustum@pandora.be

[url="http://users.pandora.be/vanbrustum"]Robert Van Brustum - Artistic Photography[/url]



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