Continuing with large format and Tech Pan film ( iso/asa 12 ). Shot at f11, 2 minutes. Dev.: D-23 1:5, 7 minutes, Agitation every minute.

The goal of this week was to control the contrast in Kodak Technical Pan film. This film is very contrasty and it has defeated me before. Last week was a good starting point but D-23 developer ( accidentally not diluted to 1:1 ! ) at eight minutes was too much for the highlights and the shadows were still a bit dark. Round two I diluted the developer to 1:2 then another round at 1:3 to slow down the development of the highlights. Still too much contrast so 4th round at 1:5. and overexpose film about three stops to expose the shadows a little more. The other change was switching from Viewscan scanning software to Silverfast which seemed to pull a bit more out of the dense negs. Happy with exposure ( +3 stops ) and development ( D-23 mixed 1:5 ) With agitation every minute for seven minutes. The argument for lower agitation the developer becomes exhausted where it is working the most allowing the shadow areas to “get more” and further lower the contrast range.