Shown here are the three plates of praise as I call them, and the stinker that had the shutter left open. Top Left is the bracket test. ISO of 6, the lowest setting on my Sekonic Studio Delux light meter, gave me a reflected light reading of 160 foot candles. One second at f 5.6 or wide open was the exact setting; the slide was pulled out more, one more exposure at the same setting and one more time. ISO is then 6, 3, 1 1/2. The lightest part is ISO 6. Development was for one minute in fresh Dektol diluted one part developer to three parts of water all at 68 degrees. Agitation was continuous for 15 sec then 1x/30 sec. or very little at all. I took the plate out 1 sec before a min. and put it into a little bit of fresh fixer for a 30 second slosh stop bath. It was then transferred into a larger quantity of fixer. Total fixing time was for 30 minutes followed by a 15 min. wash.
All three plates were treated the same way regarding development, stop bath, fixing and washing. Only the time in the developer varied.
The light area looked like that was working correctly but needed to be improved. Even less exposure would lighten the light areas more and I wanted that. Longer development would darken the darks.
The next plate exposed was a little better and proved I was on the right course of action. I wanted to get blacks and whites on the negative instead of overall gray. I read Chris Paton's article again on The Light Farm. Heat and age changes ISO.
Foot Candles were 160; less exposure was used, 1/2 sec @ f5.6, ISO was set on 10, development was 2 min. You can see the improvement. It worked. Logic works, photography is so logic responsive it is wonderful.
The last exposure has slightly more light. Foot Candles were on the high edge of 160, ISO was 10, 1/2 sec @ f5.6 was used, and development was 3 min and 45 seconds. It worked. The darks became much darker and the lights are very light and clear.
