Hello,
I’d always meant to develop negatives by eye, and now I’ve done it and it works perfectly.
The sheet film is pre-developed for about three-quarters of the usual development time (I used Tanol). Then the green light is switched on briefly and the negative is checked – this is repeated until the result is right. I practised first with a good, fully developed negative. That way, I knew what it should look like in such dim lighting.
There’s a lovely website
, http://www.michaelandpaula.com/mp/index_skip.html
, whose instructions I followed.
In the UK, you can also buy Pinakryptol for further film anaesthesia; I’d like to try that out soon too – perhaps I’ll be able to use a slightly brighter lamp then, though it works fine as it is.
I don’t want to gloss over one drawback: the development process, sheet by sheet – I’m not yet hard-hearted enough to develop several films at once – is very time-consuming. You sit in the dark the whole time; a CD player is no mistake. But I’ve never had such perfectly developed negatives before, even with very different contrasts, and there’s hardly any work involved in enlarging them. In my opinion, it’s a lovely alternative to the zone system, although I must admit it isn’t really worth it for shots with normal contrast. But – it’s enormous fun.
If you’re interested, just ask, but the link actually tells you everything you need to know.
Regards, CP
