Pyro and contrast

[John C Murphy]

I like a lot of contrast in my portraits, but I find that the so-called high contrast developers (e.g., HC-110) produce muddy skin tones in my portraits. I recently tried PMK (pyro) developer on HP5 and FP4 film and I liked the results. I found it easy to boost the contrast on these films by extending the development time without any noticable depreciation in image quality. What is particularly noticable is that the highlights don't blow out like they usually do when I up the development time. My question is: do the other forms of pyro (ABC, Pyrocat HD) offer any advantage in the way of contrast or convenience?

[David A. Goldfarb]

ABC can give you even more contrast at the expense of grain, if that's an issue. For contact prints I prefer ABC.

[steve simmons]

One of the hings I like abou the PMK formula is that it gives very bright high values but with good tonal separaton. I compared PMK and HD with Tri-X and FP4+and liked PMK better with bothfilms.I would use it for enlarging and contact prnting.

steve simmons viewcamera magazine

[Francesco]

I have developed Efke PL100 using Pyrocat HD in scenes where the SBR = 14 (N-7 in Zone speak) and the tonal (highlight and shadow)l separation is flawless. These negatives were destined for contact printing on AZO paper and they print straight.

Francesco (www.cicoli.com)

[Jay DeFehr]

Hi John. When I moved up to 8x10 I wanted to try a pyro developer, and the consensus was that ABC was the best for contact printing. Well, I wasn't disappointed, and I made some of my best negatives/prints with that developer., but there were a few problems. I didn't want to give up the beautiful gradation of the ABC with my rollfilm, but I didn't want to pay for it with obtrusive grain either, and I never managed to get through an entire kit of ABC without one of the three components going bad before I used it all, and I was always afraid I was going to ruin a negative with dying/dead developer. I tried several developers, and liked most of them, but none measured up to ABC for my big negs until I tried Patrick Gainer's P-TEA developer. It is my new favorite developer for LF negs and fine grained roll film. I've developed 35mm HP5+ in it, and the gradation was just as beautiful, but the grain was Rodinal-esque (not necessarily a bad thing, just not my thing), and I like other developers better for small negatives. It is a simple, single solution, highly concentrated developer that is diluted 1:50 (there is some speculation that it can be diluted 1:200, but I've only gone as far as 1:100) for one shot use. It is incredibly economical, and lasts forever on the shelf. I shoot mostly available light portraits, and the skin tones I'm getting regularly with this developer have a glow I've only occasionally managed with ABC pyro. The highlight separation is amazing, as is the acutance, but for me, it's the skin tones that tell the tale. There aren't many of us LF portrait guys around, and I think our needs are a little different from the landscape guys'. Give it a try, you'll be glad you did.

[Tim Curry]

Jay pretty much sums up my relationship with ABC pyro. It is wonderful stuff, but extremely fickle to use in some respects. PMK does tend to have more "murky" shadows, but you won't see it unless you compare it to ABC in the same shot. It certainly wins with roll films due to grain masking. Both have the ability to work with highlight values to retain detail in very bright areas, as I suspect that most pyro based developers do. This is perhaps the single most important advantage I see with pyro based developers, expanded development with retention of tonal gradation in a predictable and nearly linear manner.

The Pyrocat-HD and P-TEA both sound interesting as alternatives to PMK and ABC, but money is tight this year so I'm working through existing stock I have on hand.

[steve simmons]

PMK does tend to have more "murky" shadows, but you won't see it unless you compare it to ABC in the same shot>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

PMK gives much higher film seed than the ABC. If your PMK shadows are 'murky' then give a little more speed You will still have a higher working EI than ABC.

steve simmons

[steve simmons]

PMK does tend to have more "murky" shadows, but you won't see it unless you compare it to ABC in the same shot>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

PMK gives much higher film speed than the ABC. If your PMK shadows are 'murky' then give a little more speed You will still have a higher working EI than ABC.

steve simmons

[steve simmons]

I apologize for the double post.

steve

[John C Murphy]

Thank you for the responses thus far. So ABC gives better contrast but is a real headache to use? Convenience is one of the really attractive things about PMK. Does this TEA stuff give good contrast? Is it easier to use?