Overexposed Efke in PMK - recommendations

My first sheet of film exposed in nearly 2 years - thank God I'm retired at last! But just about to develop it and realised it's Efke 50, not 25 ASA which I also have, so it's 1 stop overexposed. The scene is water cascading from a dam overflow, in bright sunlight, with a zone III - VIII brightness range.

The only developer I have at the moment is PMK Pyro which has worked well for me over many years with all films. My normal development for Efke 25 and 50 sheets is 7.5 min. Rather than N-1 or 2 development which gut feeling tells me would not help much, I'm thinking about stand or divided development, but haven't used either method with PMK.

I believe that Efke film doesn't handle overexposure well, although I've never had a problem with it. In view of this and the brightness range of this scene, I'm wondering if anyone has ideas or suggestions that might help me get a good neg out of it. Many thanks,

Barry

Semi stand development with a Pyro or Catechol developer in quite a big dilution would be the chance I'd take. The Massive Development Chart doesn't describe any semi-stand routines or dilutions for PMK Pyro so if you have the raw chemicals is might be better to make up one of the other Pyro developers noted for semi-stand and stand development. It's all a risk of course because without testing first you cannot be sure of what to expect. But if those exposures of yours are to have a chance of being acceptable to you, a compensating process is going to give you the best prospects for success.

Is it worth you making a test exposure of something else and then working things out from that before you risk your water scene?

RR

I'm no expert BTW but as well as sheet film I do use roll film and inevitably can end up with a variety of exposure values on the one film. My preferred way of metering often means that my Zone III is given priority over the rest of the image and so my highlights can be outside the ideal range. Since I changed to 510-Pyro and semi-stand development (also OBSIDIAN AQUA used in similar manner for faster films) the highlights have remained usable and not blocked out, whilst the shadow textures have come through well enough to please at least myself. It's all personal stuff though. I do not have a densitometer...

So with your Zone III exposure you thought your brightest important highlight with normal development would have fallen on Zone VIII. With your one-stop overexposure it presumably will now fall on Zone IX. I'd just use N-1 development time if you've tested for that with PMK (not sure why you think it wouldn't produce a significant result, reducing highlight density is what minus development is all about). If you haven't tested for plus and minus development times with this film and PMK then I'd probably either develop normally for the reason Regular mentions above (one-stop overexposure may not matter with PMK) or if you're really concerned reduce your normal development time by about 15%. I'm assuming of course that you have only one sheet exposed this way.

I have over exposed 100ACR, 400TMY, 100TMX and Delta 3200 by 3 stops (meter and place only the low values, though) and cut the normal development time by half and add 30 seconds with PMK to compress highlights. I get good results with my figital workflow. Perhaps you can interpolate that for 1 stop over exposed if you still want to use PMK.

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Originally Posted by Barry Kirsten

And realised it's Efke 50, not 25 ASA which I also have, so it's 1 stop overexposed. The scene is water cascading from a dam overflow, in bright sunlight, with a zone III - VIII brightness range. Barry

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Barry... If your Subject Brightness Range (SBR) was only five (5) stops (i.e. a Zone III - VIII Brightness Range)... You will not have a problem!
A five (5) stop SBR and a Zone IX 'Highlight placement'... Is nothing to worry about with a Pyrogallol 'Compensating Developer' -- Like PMK.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Barry Kirsten

The only developer I have at the moment is PMK Pyro which has worked well for me over many years with all films. My normal development for Efke 25 and 50 sheets is 7.5 min. Rather than N-1 or 2 development which gut feeling tells me would not help much, I'm thinking about stand or divided development, but haven't used either method with PMK.Barry

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Barry... A 'simple' N-1 Development (*As per Brian's previous recommendations to you) -- Would be my first choice also!
(*There is a lot of other 'far worse' Film Developers that you could be 'stuck' with at the moment... Rather than just PMK!).
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With Efke 25 and PMK... I would have been a little bit more worried, if you had accidentally 'Underexposed' your scene by one stop -- Rather than having overexposed it by one f-stop...

You should be 'just fine' with PMK and N-1! :)
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Best,

-Tim.
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Thanks everyone for your helpful thoughts. My main concern was that I'd heard Efke doesn't tolerate overexposure. In the end I developed N-1 (6.25 min 1+2+100), and it was 'just fine'. I'll be more careful in future - got a bit rusty through lack of practice:rolleyes:. Thanks again.

Barry

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Barry Kirsten

Thanks everyone for your helpful thoughts. My main concern was that I'd heard Efke doesn't tolerate overexposure. In the end I developed N-1 (6.25 min 1+2+100), and it was 'just fine'. I'll be more careful in future - got a bit rusty through lack of practice:rolleyes:. Thanks again.

Barry

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Splendid news and well done.

RR

For all practical intents and purposes, exposure and development have nothing to do with each other. The exposure controls the amount of detail you have in your shadow areas. The development controls how dark your highlights get.

When you develop your film, the shadows come in at about 3 mins or so (developers will vary somewhat). For most developers, you can continue to develop the film for another year and you won't get any more detail in those areas (you might get some more fog). It's for this reason that the exposure is what controls the shadows and is the genesis of the old adage "Expose for the shadows and develop for the highlights..."

There are plenty of exceptions. Stand development can make a difference, etc. However, this is a general rule that is quite useful in understanding what is going on... and is the basis of the Zone system...

Finally, a stop of extra exposure is probably not going to be substantial in b&w... I'd worry about it more if it was 2 or 3 stops.

Lenny

Thanks Lenny. It was the highlights I was mainly concerned about; apart from specular reflections (sunlight bouncing off water) which are always going to be burned out, I was concerned that the highlights, metered on VIII plus 1 stop overexposed, would be lost. As it turned out, with N-1 development there was no problem. A good lesson though in making sure you know what film you're using. Thanks again,

Barry