Hey guys,

I've been learning on (playing with) my large format camera with Efke PL100 film. I chose this film because it was my film of choice in medium format....I love the look of Efke film for standard silver gelatin prints. I was not disappointed with it in 11x14 sheets.

But the reason why I got the ULF camera was for alt processes. From what I have read, most of them (platinum, cyanotype, albumen, etc) benefit from a negative that has a bit higher density than is typical. Going on more from what I read: the way to get that kind of density is with Pyro developers.

Further research has uncovered that Efke films typically do not perform well with Pyro developers. Bummer.

So, my questions to this group are:
  1. What films respond best to Pyro Developers? (Let's use PMK as a start)
  2. With the film you suggest, what ratio or development times should I use to try to achieve a negative with adequate density?


I know that question 2 depends a lot on the exposure, the water temp, the acidity of the water, the phase of the moon, etc but I need a jumping off point. Any tips you can give would be helpful.

One idea I had was to take the first neg (of whatever type of film I try) to someplace like MV Labs and tell them I want a neg developed in pyro with a density of 1.8 (or whatever it is I need). At least then I might have a visual clue as to what my negatives should look like... What do you think?

Thanks!
--A