Extreme compensating developer for TMY

[Ron Marshall]

Steve, what dilution of PMK would you recomend to deal with such a contrast range?

[J D Clark]

I will be starting a project soon using T-Max 400, where I will have to compress a 13 stop range. I am thinking of using semi-stand with either divided HC-110 or one of the Pyro formulas.

I have never tried pyro, but from the posts I have read, Pyrocat-HC or Hypercat or 510 or Dixactol sound promising.

Would such a compression be possible with any of these using rotary processing, or would semi-stand be required?

Which developer and technique do you recommend for such a contrast range?

I've had a good level of success with compensating development of both Tri-X and T-Max 100 using HC-110 in trays. I'm certain that you could only get the level of compensation with a form of standing development, or in a more extreme case, perhaps water bath development.

My specific procedure uses HC-110 with dilution 1 : 127, negatives are placed face up in a slosher tray. The development proceeds generally for 20 minutes at 68F with agitation for the first minute, and then for only 5 seconds every two minutes.

Another scheme that I've used is agitation for the first minute, and then for 15 seconds every 4 minutes thereafter. The technique has a lot of variables, though, so what you choose should probably be based on a little testing.

John Clark

[Glenn Thoreson]

Wow, Sandy, your photo looks much better than the one I did in same the saloon. Of course, I was using a busted Argus C-3 and T-max 100 without a light meter. It still came out. That's been a long time ago. I hope to go back some day and do it right. Bannack is a great place to photgraph. PMK is great to develop those photos, too.

[Jay DeFehr]

I will be starting a project soon using T-Max 400, where I will have to compress a 13 stop range. I am thinking of using semi-stand with either divided HC-110 or one of the Pyro formulas.

I have never tried pyro, but from the posts I have read, Pyrocat-HC or Hypercat or 510 or Dixactol sound promising.

Would such a compression be possible with any of these using rotary processing, or would semi-stand be required?

Which developer and technique do you recommend for such a contrast range?

Hi Ron.

TMY is my favorite film, and I use a lot of it. For semi-stand development I would use 510-Pyro 1:300 - 1:500, and develop for 30-45min/70F. For rotary-contraction development I would take a different approach and use Hypercat 1:3:100. In this way, contrast is controlled by the reduced carbonate concentration, while retaining a sufficient concentration of developing agent to avoid exhaustion and/or increased fog and general stain with normal development time. Hypercat produces very sharp negatives, even with rotary development. Hypercat could also be used for semi-stand development, with a 1:10:300-500 dilution, but be prepared for increased local contrast and edge effects. If it's too much, increase agitation frequency to taste. Good luck.

Jay

[steve simmons]

I use the standard PMK dilution of 1:2:100 for everything from minus 4 to plus whatever the film will do. Tri-X handles the minus treatment better than any film I've tried and that includes the T-Max films. Tri-X just holds on to its local contrast better than the others, some of which go flat when treated this way. By using the same dilution for all of my negs I can do minus, normal, and plus negs all in the same batch. There is no need to make things more complicated or do anything specal one way or the other.

I use 12cc of A, 24 of B and 1200 of water in an 8x10 tray for 4x5 and 5x7 film.

My tray processing procedure is described in an article in the Free Articles section of the View Camera web site.

steve simmons

[sanking]

.

There is a tendency, sometimes, to make things more complicated than they need to be. I prefer simple but good solutions to problems rather than being more complicated for little, if any, improvement.

Ultimately, people should make thier own decisions. I am just sharing what has worked for me many times over the last 20+ years.

steve simmons

But the point is, many of us don't find the use of reduced agitation in combination with very dilute solutions any more complicated then regular processing, and the improvement in quality appears to be very great in some situations. In fact, I find reduced agitation methods much simpler. The total time of development is longer, but that is compensated by the fact that one spends less time handling the film, and much of the work can be done with the lights on (assuming develoment is in tubes or drums).

I used PMK as my primary developer for almost ten years and during that time my typical procedure was to adjust time of development to correspond to N conditions, shortening time of development for N- scnes and increasing time of development for N+ scenes, keeping dilution the same, so I am very aware of what can and can not be achieved with this method of contraction.

There really is no comparison in my own work in dealing with high contrast scenes between the quality of the results I have been able to get with reduced agitaition procedures in combination with very dilute developing solutions as opposed to using a standard dilution and just reuducing develoment time. The former technique gives full emulsion speed with excellent separation from the shadows to the higlights. When using reduced time of development I have always found that there was some loss of separation (= local contrast) in either the shadows, mid-tones or highlights, though some films because of the shape of their curve may favor local areas.

Opinions about quality can be quite subjective, and that is why people make different choices. And if someone is perfectly satisfied with the results he/she gets in scenes of very great contrast by simply reducing time of develoment, then that person apperas to have made the best choice for himself/herself.

As for simple versus complicated, I prefer simple when it gives equal or same results. But if complicated gives better resutls, I embrace it joyfully. Why settle for less, if a small adjustment in procedure gives more?

Sandy King

[sanking]

Thanks Sandy for the link and the example image. That is about the range I will have to deal with, and your technique certainly yeilds very pleasing tonality.

Hi Ron,

Thanks for your comments. I photograph in this type of lighting condition a lot. I really like playing around visually with thes type of extreme lighting conditions where you expose indoor/outdoor of the type you saw in the Bannack shot.

Here is another one, made on trip to Mexico last year. The camera was a Nagaoka, the lens a 125 mm Fujinon SWD, and film was Tmax-400 film. Difference between indoor and outdoor EV was more than 16 stops. The scenes is the interior of an examination room at the Law School of the Universidad Benito Juárez in Oaxaca. The view through the window across the street looks on part of the Cathedral of Oaxaca (in full sun from the side).

Just after I exposed the negative a young Mexican woman entered the room, accompanied by her professors, for her final law exams at the university. She said hello and I wished her good luck, so there may be some sentimental attachment on my part to the image, but I still like it for its simplicity and play of light, not only the control of light outside, but also in reflections, from the waxed wooden floor and also off the wall near the window. Also, I like the way our eyes enter the room visually from a very dark spot, to emerge in a scene of great luminosity.

The negative was developed with the reduced agitation/dilute developer (Pyrocat-HD 1:1:150, 20 minutes) procedures described earlier in this thread. The print is a 5X7 carbon print, and the image file is a direct scan of the carbon print.

My favorite film for this type of subject is Tmax-400, because of its very straight linear curve, and low reciprocity failure.

Sandy

[John Bowen]

Sandy,

Where is the attachment?

John

[sanking]

Sandy,

Where is the attachment?

John

John,

Sorry, the file did not upload th first time. I believe it is on the site now.

Thanks for alerting me to the problem.

Sandy

[sanking]

Here is another one. Data similar to the image of the Benito Juárez University law office file.

Lots more images of this type I could post, but want everyone to know that the previous ones are not just happen accidents, and that my comments in this thread are not based on theory and/or old testing, but on real subjets with real film and real cameras and real lighting conditions and real results.


Sandy