I have always been a fan of Barry Thornton’s two bath developer – such a good performer in high contrast situations …
I recently found an undeveloped roll of HP5 Plus (120 format) in a draw, which I think I had taken using my Mamiya Folder. I could not remember what the pictures were of, and so I thought I would develop them in my home-made Barry Thornton 2-bath developer. The beauty of this developer is that it is very tolerant to exposure or contrast problems.
Here is one of the pictures:
Quite a high contrast scene. The developer has done a good job here.
Here is the recipe that I used:
Bath A
Metol 6.5g*
Sodium Sulphite 80g**
Water to 1 litre
Bath B
Sodium Metaborate 12g
Water to 1 litre
Thanks for sharing. I hadn’t heard of this two bath development so I’ll plan to give it a try with my next roll.
It’s a ‘wide’ condition developer that does a good job if you are uncertain about developing strategy
How long in each bath?
Thank you
4.5 minutes in each bath is a good starting point.