I had heard that Jock Sturges will shoot up to 1,500 negs during a summer on the beaches of France. Does anyone know his developing technique for so much film? Joel

-- Joel Brown (cambrow@earthlink.net), May 11, 2002

Answers

one or more lucky assistants.

-- Vetle Roeim (vr@acm.org), May 12, 2002.

In the workshop I took from Jock at Palm Beach, he described it in detail and demonstrated...to the extent you can in the dark! Tri-X 8x10 negs, 16-20 at a time, in 8x10 trays, conventional "shuffling" technique, HC110. He also uses lots of photoflo! in the developer to prevent scratches. And although his assistants print under his supervision, he develops every one of his own negatives. I strongly recommend him as a workshop teacher.

-- John Sarsgard (sarsgard@yahoo.com), May 12, 2002.

Thanks John, I had never heard of adding photo flow to developer. That must really make the film slippery and hard to handle. I can't imagine shuffling 8x10 film in an 8x10 tray. Joel

-- Joel Brown (cambrow@earthlink.net), May 12, 2002.

I'm rather interested in the use of Photo-Flo in the developer to help prevent scratches. I've gotten pretty good at shuffling 8x10 film, but occasionally do a batch where I swear I scratch every last sheet in the most critical part of the negative. Has anyone here done this? How much harder does it make handling the film? Also, what kind of adjustment needs to be made to the development times? Thanks for any info anyone can offer.

-- David Munson (apollo@luxfragilis.com), May 12, 2002.

I've added Edwal LFN to developer to prevent foaming; it worked fine and didn't cause any problems.

No idea how it'd do with sheet films in a tray, but I'd be more inclined to use it than Photo-Flo.

-- John Hicks (jhicks31@bellsouth.net), May 13, 2002.