I do darkroom work very infrequently as my main business is nothing related to photography. I have thought about summarizing decisions I made in setting up my temporary darkroom and why I chose that way in a web page or something but it never happened. What follows is such note, for your information only, in somewhat disorganized order.(posted 8385 days ago)Film - pick at most three, buy in quantity and freeze, so that when I want to go to shoot something I don't have to plan too many things ahead of time. Choose ones you like and very different from each other. I chose APX25, TMX and HP5+. It's so bad that APX25 is discontinued, but I am happy to live with TMX and HP5+ without APX25 when my stock ends. TMX is very useful in getting very fine grain and very good reciprocity characteristcs for nightscape photos. In long exposures, TMX is probably the fastest film available (among what I tried). HP5+ is an excellent general purpose film. I started using Delta 3200 for some limited purposes but I stick with these two and optimize the rest for these films.
Film developer - pick one or two. I think ID-11/D-76/D-76H is still a good versatile fine grain developer for main use. I like Microphen when I want extra shadow detail or when I have to push. Another one like HC-110, Rodinal, etc may be also useful but too much for the beginning. (Some people prefer Rodinal over D-76 for general use but it's a matter of taste.)
Film stop - use water rinse with good agitation.
Film Fix - Ilford Multigrade Rapid Fixer 1+4. Convenient and inexpensive liquid concentrate. This fixer can be washed out quite easily using Ilford's abbreviated washing method. Two stage fixing is unnecessary with this fixer. Follow their recommended capacity. I recommend constant agitation especially with TMX. With this fixer, it's virtually impossible to overfix.
Film wash - Ilford fill and dump method. No need for fixer remover.
Wetting - I use Sistan diluted with distilled water in a plastic spray (make sure the spray doesn't have any metal part in it). Spray this solution generously after hanging the film. Sistan is a wetting agent that also protects the image on film and print - nice product.
Paper developer - Ilford Multigrade is easy to mix and inexpensive. Very good for RC papers. Gives neutral to colder tone.
Paper stop bath - regular acetic acid or odorless boric acid stop bath.
Paper fix - same as film fix.
Paper wash - Ilford method. No washing agent necessary for RC paper. Multigrade fixer washes off nicely.
You can treat prints in Sistan in a tray before drying. I recommend this if you are not toning the print.
Toning - I like the way Agfa Multicontrast Premium tones in Agfa Viradon (selenium + sulfide toner), producing dark brown tone. I don't like how Ilford MG RC paper tones in Viradon (purplish color). These RC papers make greenish tone if developed in warm tone developer. For most images, I don't like that combination.
For processing prints, I use Nova Monochrome processor 16x12. It doesn't save money but saves space and trouble. This processor has three slots that hold 2 liters of chemical each.
When drying RC prints, I use Falcon drying roller (forgot the precise product name). This takes most water off and let prints dry very quickly.
I use Paterson 3 reel tank for all 120/220 processing (1 liter tank). As I said Nova processor requires 2 liters of developer, stop bath, and fixer. I found a few wide mouth HDPE (high-density polyethylene) plastic bottles from local supermarket that holds 1 liter and 2 liters. I recommend HDPE plastic as this is stable with most photographic chemicals and do not absorb/adsorb too much chemicals as some other plastics do. You can look for the recycle mark on the bottom, and they usually indicate what kind of plastic is used. I mix working solution of developers and fixer in this bottle, and store working strength fixer in this bottle for reuse. (Fixer is the only chemical I reuse.) I have caps of different colors to distinguish the chemicals, but make sure to label everything to avoid mixup. Clear PET (polyethylene terephthalate) bottles used for bottled water are also good. (They are usually narrow mouth, not too easy to mix chemicals in it or store chemicals that are reused a number of times, but good to keep mixed chemicals for one-shot use.) Before start processing, the whole bottle is put in water of processing temperature (in this time of the year I put the bottles in water of slightly cooler than processing temp, but this requires to put ice cubes...)
I have a few funnels each marked dev, fix, misc for pouring chemicals into narrow mouth bottles when necessary. I usually mix film developer from a standard gallon or 5 liter package and divide them into 10 of 500 ml PET bottles for storage. Fill up 500 ml bottle to leave no room for air, and making 1+1 dilution for 1 liter tank is real easy.
Since my tank is 1 liter, I make 1 liter of working strength fixer and replace after processing 20 rolls (of 80 square inches) of film. I made a few pages of cheat sheets collecting all these chemical preparation procedure, processing capacity, processing times, and other things to pay attention to. I also made a form to record when each bottle is mixed, and how many rolls/sheets were processed, etc. One copy is put up in my temporary darkroom, one copy in file, and master copy in my computer. I find it very convenient to systemize these things into personal standard procedure and summarize it in cheet sheets. Since I do darkroom work infrequently, small things to pay attention to get forgotten easily. If I collect these things on a piece of paper for reviewing I can work as confidently as if I were doing darkroom work every day. I keep record on a different notebook, and update the cheat sheet as necessary. (I also have a cheat sheet collecting info like battery type of each piece of equipment, reciprocity failure correction of my regular films, correction factor for filters I use for taking photos, etc. Really convenient, even though I think I remembered everything in my head.)
I am working on an efficient and versatile system of mixing chemicals from scratch for serious infrequent darkroom work. Not having to mix ID-11 in multiple of 5 liters alone is a big benefit. Sometimes I use 7 liters, and some other times 2 liters. Then the next film processing session may be months away. Details to follow some other time as my films dried just now.