My old man on his birthday.

[alexn]

These were taken in May, but as I don't have 4x5 reels for developing 4x5 sheet film I just left the film in the holder until I could get around to getting a reel... I got a little excited last weekend and thought.. well... how hard can it be to tray develop 4x5's?

I got 3x1L ice cream tubs.
First : 25:1 Rodinal - 400ml solution
Second : Tap water. 600ml.
Third : Ilford Rapidfix.

Went into the cupboard under my stairs, blacked out the door jams and went to work... I used the massive dev chart app on my phone as a timer, and developed four 4x5's in one hit. It was easier than I expected, but I did scratch one of the negs...

Details of the exposure...

Ilford FP4+
Linhof Kardan Super Colour ST
75mm F/4.5 Grandagon-N
Metering... I sunny 16'd it up... Shot at F/19, 1/30th.

I am stoked with it... I took two identical frames, I kept one for my records, I gave my old man the other negative for his birthday, along with a 20x24 framed print that is now hanging up in his study..

[Maris]

Rather than having to eat all that icecream just to get the 1 litre tubs consider using a MOD 54 Sheet Film Processing Insert in a Paterson 3 reel tank. It's supposed to enable 6 sheets of of 4x5 to be processed using 1 litre quantities of chemistry. The only darkness needed is a changing bag. I've never used a MOD 54 but it seems to have a good repute. And it is expensive but, hey, large format is going first class cabin and no one complains about the fare, do they.

Yes, that is indeed a sweet picture you put up. Birthdays rule!