So... I read in Tim Rudman's Master Printing Course (page 74) about bleaching prints and redeveloping as a method of intensification. I thought I give it a try, especially since it said something about it resulting in cooler tones.
I mixed up the bleach, dropped in half an RC print (the other half was a control), and watched the image quickly fade to tan with a bright yellow tint. After washing for about ten minutes, the yellow was completely gone from the highlights leaving only the tan image. I then dropped it into a tray of full strength (although not freshly made) Dektol. The image came back quickly, but I left it in there for a couple minutes anyway.
The result was indeed a print that was slightly cooler toned, but the Dmax was very slightly lightened. That is not an effect I wanted and my assumption is I did something wrong. Repeating the cycle a few times lightened the Dmax a bit further, but did not cool the tone anymore. I tried the process once with a fiber print and got the same result.
Anyone care to guess what I did wrong that lightened the blacks? I was wondering if I needed to expose the print to a bright light after the bleach phase. The room was fairly bright, but I didn't lay it out in the sun or shine a photoflood on it or anything. Hell, I don't know if it even needs exposure to light at all...
If you didn't entirely remove the fixer, you would have effectively produced farmer's reducer in the paper, which would have removed some of the silver density, so make sure you have completely washed the print.
Also, try fresh developer. It's possible some of the oxidation artifacts of the developer are inhibiting a portion of the redevelopment as well.
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks