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Exposure of film has the greatest effect on the amount of DETAIL seen in the shadow areas of a negative. Additional exposure is the only way to get detail on this part of film. Additional development only increases contrast by making the areas that were exposed to light darker.
Photographs taken on a normal day with good contrast in the lighting determines the amount of contrast needed on film when processed. If the contrast of the subjet lighting is more than 3 or 4 stops (apertures difference between brightest and darkest part of scene) the film will need to be lowered in contrast. If the subject is less than 2 stops difference in contrast the film will need to be over developed to increase contrast.
In short - film exposed on an overcast day needs to be over developed by 20%. Film exposed on a normal day can be normal processed. Film exposed on a clear sunny day in bright surroundings (like in the snow) needs to be under developed. Experiment with this and see what happens with your photographs.
Processing times above may differ from what some of our web visitors may find in their own labs. At Santa Cruz High we process 20 rolls of film per day and have been doing this for over 25 years. As we have done this processing we have slowly created this data which seems to produce excellent results using a #3 graded photo paper using the ancient enlargers we have in the darkroom.
Differences in enlargers, paper, chemical mixing and technique can all make a difference in finished prints. New photographic papers have a different silver content and paper base compared to papers decades ago, so processing needs to become the personal result of testing for anyone who does a lot of work in the lab.
Download a copy of the film times chart we use in class.
Download a chart that outlines the film processing steps and has typical times on it.
(you will need to right click on this to get it to load as a document to your disk rather than opening in the browser)
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