Description
The VGT developer kit consists of two developer concentrates with which you can mix your own individual developer:
Determine your image tone yourself. Tunable from soft to hard, as a one-bath or two-bath.
The developer solutions can be mixed in any ratio.
A - The hard developer works very slowly, an advantage for two-bath development, because this gives the shadows time to form differentiated and strong.
B - The soft developer with neutral to cool image tone and short image trace time.
C - The activator should be added in the same quantity as the sum of the two developer solutions. At higher dosage the developer becomes faster and works softer with a cooler tone.
Finisher Blue - If the combination of A/B/C is to work colder, as much Finisher Blue can be added to the working solution until the desired cold tone is achieved. As a rule, 5-10ml is sufficient. If more is added, the developer should be made a little richer overall, or the pH value should be increased by adding alkali (C).
Approx. 50ml developer (A+B) and the same amount of activator (C) should be added to one litre of water. Smaller amounts are possible with extended development times.
A+C+water results in a slow developer, which alone (without a second bath of soft developer) cannot build up a full gradation. Even the addition of 5ml B to 50ml A creates a super additivity, the developer works faster and many times stronger. The stronger the developer works and the longer you let it work, the cooler the image tone will be.
Conversely, a (too) high amount of light causes brownish image tones with short development times. In this case, the shadows cannot be developed and the print appears muddy. To create very warm to brown image tones with clean shadows, we recommend the following procedure: Two bath!
After more or less overexposure, develop with hard first developer (A+C+water) until the shadows and lower mid-tones are clearly pronounced, but not yet "finished". Because of the high amount of light, the development is done in a very diluted second developer (e.g. 15ml B + 20ml C + 1000ml water). When the highlights are fully developed, the development process is stopped in the stop bath.
Please note that the image tone is primarily determined by the paper emulsion. Cold-tone emulsions can only be developed to a neutral tone, whereas warm-tone papers react much more strongly.
Even thin flat negatives can be saved with two-bath development. Example.
The kit contains:
A Developer contrasty (hydroquinone) 250ml
B Developer soft (Metol) 250ml
C Alkali 500ml
Finisher Blue for cooler tones 100ml
All solutions can be reordered as needed.
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