Two23
29-Apr-2019, 14:39
Having time on my hands last night, I decided to haul out my trays and stuff plus a couple of exposes 4x5 plates and just go for it. I had a few plates I've recently shot with the idea of practicing processing. So up to my bathroom I went. I put three 8x10 trays in my bath tub, turned on a red light, and went at it. I was using HC-110 at dilution B (300 ml). Gently rocked the trays side to side for 7 minutes, temp was probably about 70 or so. I pulled the plates out from time to time and checked against the red light to see how they were doing. Then took out of the HC-110 & let it drip a moment or two and placed into a stop bath of distilled water plus some 5% vinegar (maybe 3 oz vinegar to 370 ml water.) Swished around in the stop bath for about 4 minutes. Plate actually looked good. Then pulled it out, let it drain off, and put into fixer PF4. Swished it around and rocked the tray for about 8 minutes, maybe a bit more. Plate suddenly didn't look so good. There was a strip along the edge that looked great but the main part had a very, very faint image. I washed in plain water for 10 minutes and turned the lights on. Looks like most of the emulsion either dissolved or fell off.
I resolved to be more gentle with plate number two. Did the same as above except left in HC-110 for about 8 minutes, temp was probably closer to 72 or 73 by now. Kept pulling the plate out and checking it and put it in the fresh water + vinegar stop bath when it looked good. It actually looked very good (but to my horror it was a plate I really wanted and not a practice one.) After several minutes of rocking the tray and gently moving the plate with my fingers (clean hand,) I pulled it out and placed into the fixer. Plate looked good--I was encouraged! Kept in the PF4 fixer for about 10 minutes, gently rocking the tray. Removed the plate--it seemed to have faded a bit but the image was still strong. Emulsion obviously intact. Placed in plain rinse water and rocked tray, changing out water every minute or so. After ten minutes of this I added ~300 ml distilled water and about 4 drops of PhotoFlo, swished around for a couple more minutes and pulled the plate. It was actually looking pretty good.
I let the plate dry for half an hour and scanned it on my Epson v700. Looked like there might still be a few water drops on it but I wasn't sure. I actually like the scan. Let the plate dry completely and scanned again. Uh oh. Lots of water marks and "pinholes" in the emulsion. I'm not sure what caused all this? The plate was from an earlier batch, might have been #17. The dried plate didn't look as good as the slightly damp plate.
So, did I not wash well enough? If that's the case couldn't I just rinse it some more in distilled water? Was it processed too long? The Photoshop histogram showed it skewed to the right but I easily brought it back to center. Any ideas here? I plan to try processing a couple more practice plates yet tonight. My second attempt went much better than my first for sure.
Kent in SD
I resolved to be more gentle with plate number two. Did the same as above except left in HC-110 for about 8 minutes, temp was probably closer to 72 or 73 by now. Kept pulling the plate out and checking it and put it in the fresh water + vinegar stop bath when it looked good. It actually looked very good (but to my horror it was a plate I really wanted and not a practice one.) After several minutes of rocking the tray and gently moving the plate with my fingers (clean hand,) I pulled it out and placed into the fixer. Plate looked good--I was encouraged! Kept in the PF4 fixer for about 10 minutes, gently rocking the tray. Removed the plate--it seemed to have faded a bit but the image was still strong. Emulsion obviously intact. Placed in plain rinse water and rocked tray, changing out water every minute or so. After ten minutes of this I added ~300 ml distilled water and about 4 drops of PhotoFlo, swished around for a couple more minutes and pulled the plate. It was actually looking pretty good.
I let the plate dry for half an hour and scanned it on my Epson v700. Looked like there might still be a few water drops on it but I wasn't sure. I actually like the scan. Let the plate dry completely and scanned again. Uh oh. Lots of water marks and "pinholes" in the emulsion. I'm not sure what caused all this? The plate was from an earlier batch, might have been #17. The dried plate didn't look as good as the slightly damp plate.
So, did I not wash well enough? If that's the case couldn't I just rinse it some more in distilled water? Was it processed too long? The Photoshop histogram showed it skewed to the right but I easily brought it back to center. Any ideas here? I plan to try processing a couple more practice plates yet tonight. My second attempt went much better than my first for sure.
Kent in SD