All photographic emulsions have a grainy structure. Although this grainy structure is not normally visible to the naked eye, it becomes visible whenever high magnifications are used to make prints. The tendency to use small-format film and make large enlargements has resulted in the need for fine-grain developers.

When enlargements are made from small negatives developed in other than fine-grain developer, the grain of the film may be objectionable. Graininess in the film should be controlled in the development of the film. Keep in mind, however, that every film has its own grain structure or characteristics. For 35mm-roll film, it is normally best to use a fine-grain developer.

Fine-grain developers achieve the desired result in several ways:

They are usually soft working and this tends to reduce clumping of the silver grains.

Some fine-grain developers actually produce smaller individual grains of black metallic silver. This, however, tends to reduce the film speed.

The grayish white images produced by some fine-grain developers help by providing for increased

passage of light between individual grains. This results in less local variation in density.

Most fine-grain developers produce relatively low-contrast negatives. A reduction in contrast in the negative tends to reduce the graininess of the negative. However, this may not contribute significantly to a reduction in the graininess of the final print. Any advantage achieved by lowering negative contrast may be offset by the need to use a higher contrast printing filter to print the negative.

Some fine-grain developers are as follows:

ID-l1 (Ilford)

D-76 (Kodak)

Atomal (Agfa)

HIGH-CONTRAST DEVELOPERS

To produce maximum contrast on process and line copy type of films, you must have a developer that produces density readily and is free from any tendency to produce fog within the time of development.

Some of the most popular high-contrast developers are as follows:

Kodalith (Kodak)

D-11 (Kodak)

D-19 (Kodak)

To prevent staining when using a high-contrast developer, you should rinse the negative well between developing and fixing.