Re: reusing diluted developer ?

[Ben Kreunen <ben@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

 > > There are other, better ways to save money.
 > >
 > > george
 >
 > For example?

>Test your film.  Amazing how a little testing will give you the confidence
>to bracket only accosionally.
>
>Developer is cheap, your time is not.  Don't risk reducing the quality of
>your work by reusing developer.

Test your film and your processing... a little more than a little testing 
will give you the confidence to not bracket at all (or to know when you 
might have to bracket).

It depends on what and where you photograph but a typical photographic 
weekend for me includes 3-5 hrs of driving each way ($100-150 in petrol), 
light weight, high energy food for hiking (another $80) not to mention the 
physical effort of carrying  a full pack and 15kg of camera gear. The cost 
of film and chemicals in this situation is completely irrelevant given the 
cost and effort of a reshoot, assuming that I would return to the same 
lighting conditions.

It is possible to take some short cuts in photography but film processing 
is not one of them. Screw up your negative and you'll just waste a lot of 
paper trying to print it.

I'll also agree with mixing your own chemicals (provided you can do it 
safely) as this not only saves you money but also gives you the opportunity 
of fine tuning your developer (but get the basics right first before you 
start messing around)

Given that the main mistake I see most people starting out in photography 
making is over-processing their negatives, you might try diluting your 
developer further before considering reusing it. Two one-shot processes of 
1:2 will be more consistent than trying to guess the replenishment for two 
processes of 1:1
Cheers

Ben

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