Pyrocat-HD Edge Effects Via Stand/Semi-Stand

[Andrew O'Neill]

I've been using this developer for about 20 years, employing semi-stand when I felt the need...Decided to take a closer look:


https://youtu.be/Ovjk0lNp0jw

[Peter De Smidt]

Great job!

[Jim Fitzgerald]

Andrew, nice job again. I've looked back at some of my nicest negatives and they were all 1:1:150 with the 3 minute agitation cycle in dip and dunk tanks for 8x10.

[sharktooth]

Another well done and entertaining video, Andrew.

Lots of questions come to mind, having never used pyro.

What are you trying to achieve with the stand/semi-stand approach? I can see that you get increased highlight contrast, and some funky midtone curves, but the shadows seem hardly affected. Is there some other benefit I'm missing? In other words, why would anyone want to do this? You can't tell much from the video images in the comparisons.

From what I've read about stand or semi-stand, it seems that the developer energy exhausts itself in the highlights to prevent them from blocking up, while the developer keeps working in the shadows. Your results from pyro appear to give the opposite results, at least with respect to the highlights. Maybe that's due to the staining effect of pyro acting differently than conventional developers. What is your take on this?

[paulbarden]

Thanks for doing some real world evaluations. Everything you've demonstrated here makes it clear why I don't use these techniques. None of your "stand" examples exceeded/improved upon the tonality of the "normal" one.

[Andrew O'Neill]

Another well done and entertaining video, Andrew.

Lots of questions come to mind, having never used pyro.

What are you trying to achieve with the stand/semi-stand approach? I can see that you get increased highlight contrast, and some funky midtone curves, but the shadows seem hardly affected. Is there some other benefit I'm missing? In other words, why would anyone want to do this? You can't tell much from the video images in the comparisons.

From what I've read about stand or semi-stand, it seems that the developer energy exhausts itself in the highlights to prevent them from blocking up, while the developer keeps working in the shadows. Your results from pyro appear to give the opposite results, at least with respect to the highlights. Maybe that's due to the staining effect of pyro acting differently than conventional developers. What is your take on this?

Increased edge effects mainly, is why I do this. There appears to be no speed gain, which is contrary to what many have said about this developer when stand/semi-stand is used. I also wasn't expecting the boost in the high light regions, either. That could be down to the stain... Next time, I want to see how the film reacts to high dilution, and continuous agitation, for the next round.

[Andrew O'Neill]

Andrew, nice job again. I've looked back at some of my nicest negatives and they were all 1:1:150 with the 3 minute agitation cycle in dip and dunk tanks for 8x10.

Jim, which film was this with? Efke 25? I did do semi-stand several years ago with this film, and I found if rest periods went longer than three minutes, one could run into mottling, and pretty severe bromide drag. Mind you, that was with a dilution of 1+1+200. Still, a remarkable film and I can just imagine how great it must have looked in your 1+1+150 dilution. I'm going to have to pull some out from the freezer...