Pyrocat adjustments/improvements

[Drew Wiley]

I've settled in on PMK pyrogallol instead - like the grain and acutance rendering on TMY better than pyrocat. Tray dev for sheet film, Jobo hand-inversion drum for roll film (not automated rotary). Even Jobo's slowest speed seem too fast in my opinon for this kind of application unless most of the air in displaced from the drum. The more substantial gearmotor on my own version of a roller processor runs much slower RPM if needed; but I still don't like the effect. You could always gently hand-roll a drum back and forth on the sink bed.

[Jim Fitzgerald]

Thanks Jim. Did you ever do silver prints with the 2:2:100 dilution too? With TMax400?

I used the 1:1:100 when I was printing silver. When I printed on Azo I used 2:2:100.

[jp]

Thanks. Maybe Im just not used to Pyrocat negs. Ayway... these 3 photos is from left to right - phone camera with neg on a pad lightable app, and then gamma 1 rawscan, and then gamma 2 rawscan:

Attachment 212127 Attachment 212128 Attachment 212129

Im using the slowest speed, but maybe it aint slow enough to avoid oxidation.

Either way, if one looks at the close up of photos in my first post Id like to get TMax400 closer to TMax100.

Thought it looks slightly thin, pyrocat negatives can look slightly thin because the stain adds to the density. I'd give it another minute or so in developing and/or use more liquid per film, not sure if your 800ml is for one roll or a bunch, if it's for one roll that's plenty. You want the factory writing along the edge to be nice and actually black. After experimenting with that, increase to a stronger dilution.

[pkr1979]

Hey. It was for two films. The TMax400 and the TMax100. The developer time was for the 400... I just threw in the 100.

If the factory writing is supposed to be black it isnt black enough.

[John Layton]

Most of my earlier work in the SW deserts was PMK with FP-4 (followed by FP4+). I then tried a then-new emulsion from Bergger out in Zion...and PMK clipped the highlights of that film so horribly (with VC paper) that it turned me off to PMK...so I then switched to Pyrocat-HD, and while I've been generally happy with it, I also realize that I'd put the cart before the horse by blaming PMK for the clipped (Bergger) highlights, instead of the Bergger itself and/or my own technique in processing this new emulsion.

At any rate...while I would also occasionally have some mottled-sky issues with PMK - I generally found it, in combo with FP-4, to be a wonderful developer - and my thought going forward is that I want to give it another chance.

Having said the above...I love what Pyrocat-HD does with TMY-120.

[jp]

Tmax 400 and 100 are different films and are to be developed each according to their own best times.

1:1:100 and two rolls and 800ml is probably not enough developer. You'd certainly gain by either using more chemistry or stronger dilution (less dilute)

[Drew Wiley]

John - I got fabulous SW results with the combination of Bergger 200 and PMK. Perhaps you overexposed it. It had such a long straight line that you could actually place the threshhold of shadow gradation onto Zone 0 with proper spotmeter technique. Comparatively, you wouldn't want to go below Zone I with TMY, or below Z II with FP4. Pyrocat HD didn't differ in that respect for me from PMK.

[esearing]

In film testing Obisidian Aqua which is another cachetol developer I found density where I like to work/print from based on time and dilution changes. For rotary and Pyrocat M you want to double A and B and find the sweet spot for time. M negatives are slightly warmer than HD and to my way of printng slightly flatter in contrast. I now add .5ml/500W more part B than I do for HD or OA.



Left - under developed and very thin, middle - getting close needs grade 3, right image is too dense for my eyes but gives the best print on grade2

[John Layton]

Drew...I think you're right. My cardinal sin? Not thoroughly testing the Bergger film prior to my Zion trip - so I basically fell back on my "tried and true" exposure scenario for FP-4. Yup...start throwing those rotten tomatoes!

[Drew Wiley]

Most of my own Zion work was more in backcountry canyons with color film. But a few months ago I stumbled on a neglected 8X10 Bergger 200/PMK shot of the Great White Throne, which didn't excite me much back then, but which I now recognized had real potential given better VC papers. It printed wonderfully; a bit too scenic for my personal taste, but fully alive in terms of delicate lighting and tonality over a very wide contrast range.