There are many reasons why Rodinal stand developing is appealing, and I think the above image illustrates the benefits of the process.

Basically, stand developing is a lengthy developing process with very little or no agitation. Rodinal stand develop is usually done with a dilution of 1:100 or 1:200 (with a few exceptions), over a time period of 45min to 120min.

Areas on the negative with the most exposure will require more developer to develop the silver crystals, and around these areas the developer will exhaust quicker than in areas with less exposure. When doing stand develop, the developer doesn’t move around, which means that highlights are allowed to develop only up to a certain point (developer exhaustion), while shadow detail continues to develop. As a result, the tonal expansion of the negative is huge... As you can see in the above image, the highlights are well defined, with plenty of shadow detail at the bottom. Tonal separation is also very good, but this mostly an attribute of film choice. HERE is a crop of the above image.

Stand developing has positive and negative aspects to it. As mentioned above, the tonal expansion is one of the biggest positives. The developing procedure is fairly easy, and does not require constant observation and interaction. The usual 60 minutes can be spent watching TV instead of inverting the tank every minute. Another pictorial benefit is that Rodinal causes a nice edge effect, which contributes to well defined detail because of increased edge contrast. Another benefit is one of economy. Since Rodinal is used at such high dilutions (1:100 or 1:200), that each develop is very cheap.

The biggest fear with stand developing is uneven development. This can be caused by micro-thermal currents in the developing tank which drags developer slowly across the film, causing subtle bands and streaks. Uneven development can also be caused by the developer sinking downwards in the tank, which results in more developed parts of the negative that lie at the bottom. Another negative aspect of stand develop is that it takes quite long. Not everyone has 60 minutes to develop, even if the process can be left to its own devices for that hour.

Uneven development can be tackled in a few ways. Firstly, one has to ensure that the film, developing tank, developer, and water is all at room temperature. Secondly, its better to use more working solution than the minimum requirements of the developing tank. Example, my Jobo tank can develop a medium format film with 450ml of working solution. With stand develop, I use 600ml.  A third way to reduce uneven development is to do a semi-stand develop, which requires a few gentle inversions at one or two time stages of the development. Most uneven development can be tackled with an two very gentle inversions at the 20-30min mark.

A good marriage between the between stand develop and regular develop, is to do semi-stand. For me, semi-stand entails gentle inversions at every 5 minutes, 10 minutes or 30 minute intervals, depending on the developing time. The general rule is, a semi-stand with agitation every 4-5min, will require a developing time to be about 1,5x longer than the regular developing time. A semi-stand is a good choice, since it has the benefits of stand develop, without the high risk of uneven development. Unfortunately, one will be required to agitate at the necessary intervals, so watching TV is not as easy :)

My recommendation is to give stand develop a try. The process of stand develop needs some time to master, and each film will require a little recipe tweaking, but exceptional results can be obtained. It works great with high contrast subjects, and it also does well when pushing film. TRI-X 400 can be pushed to 6400 ASA with stand develop! If all else fails, try a semi-stand!