Getting the Best From: Rodinal Part 1

Have you tried it? Rodinal (now sold as Adox Adonal or Bellini RDL), the longest manufactured developer in the world! Well over 100 years of use and there’s a reason for it. I started using it in the early 1970s and still have it in my darkroom over fifty years later. Don’t believe the naysayers, this is a gem of a developer that can make your photographs stand out from the crowd. In this “Getting the Best From“ series I will show you how to get the very best from this amazing liquid! In part one, I describe why I love this developer and how to do basic development that makes awesome glowing negatives which scan really well and print beautifully. I’ve been asked about my alkaline-stop bath. Alkali-Stop is a unique product formulated by Barry Thornton around 2002 and refined by Peter Hogan. It’s part of my Staining Developer System here (). It stops development in seconds while keeping the process much nearer the ph of the developer. This helps protect the film (or paper) emulsion from the large ph shift when using an acid stop, encourages maximum stain with all pyro developers which prefer an alkaline environment, and protects the alkalinity of your alkaline fix should you use one. Part 2 here: John Finch Pictorial Planet Author or The Art of Black and White Developing