Pyocat-HD/-MC 2 Bath Developing...

[Jay DeFehr]

Barry,

Since no development takes place in the first bath, there's no reason not to agitate continuously, and since development in the second bath is practically instantaneous, I think it's important to agitate continuously for at least the first 30 seconds, or so. After the first 30 seconds, I don't think it matters much whether you agitate, or not. This is based on my experience developing ortho film in a single tray, under a safelight. Nothing happens in the first bath, except that the backing dye is washed away, and the emulsion absorbs the developing solution. The film is completely clear after the first bath. When I pour the second bath into the tray, development is almost instantaneous, very similar to what one sees with WPC development. After 30 seconds, not much that's obvious happens. There might be a measurable increase in contrast after the first 30 seconds of development, but I doubt it's significant.

[sanking]

Sandy, I see that you do not talk about using Solution A as a stain after fixing. I have seen a lot of discussion about this but never a clear explanation of "To stain or not stain?".

Steve

I have always recommended against using the spent developer to increase stain after fixing. The reason is that the after stain increases general, or B+F stain, but does not increase proportional stain. This basically just increases printing density, with no beneficial effect at all.

Sandy

[Sirius Glass]

thanx

[sanking]

Barry,

Since no development takes place in the first bath, there's no reason not to agitate continuously, and since development in the second bath is practically instantaneous, I think it's important to agitate continuously for at least the first 30 seconds, or so. After the first 30 seconds, I don't think it matters much whether you agitate, or not. This is based on my experience developing ortho film in a single tray, under a safelight. Nothing happens in the first bath, except that the backing dye is washed away, and the emulsion absorbs the developing solution. The film is completely clear after the first bath. When I pour the second bath into the tray, development is almost instantaneous, very similar to what one sees with WPC development. After 30 seconds, not much that's obvious happens. There might be a measurable increase in contrast after the first 30 seconds of development, but I doubt it's significant.

If you agitate the film continuously in Solution A it will absorb more reducer (at a given time and temperature), which will increase contrast. That is why I recommend diluting the working solutions by 1/2 when rotary processing in tubes or jobo. This will give about the same contrast as normal strength with intermittent agitation.


As Jay mentions development is almost instantaneous in Solution B and there should be no increase in contrast after about 30 seconds. However, shadow density may increase very slightly with longer time because the reducer exhausts slower in areas of low density.

Sandy Kint

[Jay DeFehr]

I've always thought the idea was to saturate the film with the first solution, and adjust contrast by the concentration of the solution. I suppose there's more than one way to skin a cat!

[sanking]

I've always thought the idea was to saturate the film with the first solution, and adjust contrast by the concentration of the solution. I suppose there's more than one way to skin a cat!

Varying the concentration of Solution A is the most efficient way of increasing or decreasing final contrast, but within limits the temperature of the solution, time of development, and type of agitation will all influence how much reducer the gelatin emulsion is able to absorb.

I would suggest that if one needs to make a fairly significant change in contrast for a given film it would be best to increase of decrease the strength of the concentrate of solution A, for smaller changes increase or decrease the temperature or change the time of development.

Sandy

[Ken Lee]

Here's another experiment in extreme lighting: white porcelain in full sun shining through a window into a dark room. The high values fell on Zone XIII and higher.

The petals of the sunflower are actually a deep yellow - Zone V normally - and the stem is a medium green - Zone VI - but exposing for the shadows, has crowded the middle and high values together at the top of the scale.

Even so, you can see the difference between white porcelain and the specular highlight of the sun, which was Zone 99

[Marko Trebusak]

OK, I'll jump inn as well: I have a nice box of Efke 820 4x5 film sitting in refrigerator waiting for me to figure exposure and development out before deciding what to do with IR photography. Now for the question for those in know: would this method be good for something as unpredictable as IR photography with Efke film (especially for a beginner like myself)? I was thinking about developing by inspection with #3 green filter until I figure it out, but this sound even more simple.

Thanks,
Marko

[venchka]

One way to know for sure. Expose a few sheets and fine tune your method. Worst case: Use the Pyrocat with conventional Efke film.

[Matus Kalisky]

I have one relatively elementary question. as this process as described ( and proved by Ken with his photos) has a very strong compression effects - does not it yield very flat negatives if they are not of high contrast scene?

I use Pyrocat-HD as one bath developer and it already can do a lot to save the highlights. Sometimes the negatives can be quite flat and after scanning require substantial boost in contrast (as the raw scan occupies only rather narrow part of the total range) - what may yield in loss of smoothness in the tones and brings up the grain as well.

So - how do you post process your images?