Told me to use hotter water for developing and I thought they were nuts

Guy at the local camera shop said I should run my developer at 75F instead of 68F for Tri-X. He swore it would give better contrast without losing grain. I blew him off for like 3 months because I thought he was just messing with my process. Finally tried it last weekend on a roll I shot in bad lighting and honestly the negatives look way better. Anyone else had a tip that sounded dumb but actually worked?

1 comments

1 Comment

shah.shane2h ago

I read something similar in a blog post by a guy who developed film for a newspaper back in the 80s. He said they ran Tri-X at 75F all the time because it gave a little more speed in low light without getting too grainy. I tried it on a roll of HP5 I shot in a dark bar and the shadows actually had detail instead of being a muddy mess. Kinda makes me wonder how many other old tricks got lost over the years. I think the key is you have to really nail your times or it gets too contrasty real fast though.