The split development experiment that produced the cold tones is interesting. I wonder what the mechanism would have been there.Originally Posted by esearing
The split development experiment that produced the cold tones is interesting. I wonder what the mechanism would have been there.
What I found is that with Cooltone per se, and certain other papers, you actually get a more consistent cold tone by developing it in ordinary 130 first, then by gold toning it afterwards (similar to GP1, though I have my own more affordable tweak on that). Whenever I tried a cold-tone developer per se, typically with a benzotriazole restrainer rather then KBr, along with the "usual suspect" cooling ingredients, the results were not as clean a black as I wanted. I haven't tried any PMT yet.
VC papers aren't as predictably simple in this respect as classic old graded papers. You've obviously got two or even three emulsions to content with, rather than just one, and they don't always stay on the same track in terms of exact hue. And it can take a fair amount of experimentation and experience to master any unfamiliar new paper.
Conspicuous split toning, with warm versus blue-black in the same image is something else entirely. I've done that with numerous "neutral" as well as warm papers. MGWT is especially cooperative in that respect. But two or even three subsequent toning steps might be involved.
Thanks.
Linhof Kardan re
There may have been other contaminates in the tray I was not aware of. I doubt that the Benzotriazole supposedly in LPD made a difference as LPD does not produce blueish tones. Or could be that the shock of two different developers interacting/replenishing caused it. I do know that adding selenium or thiourea to PF130 has no impact on color.
The magic you are looking for is in the work you are avoiding.
http://www.searing.photography
Glycin makes a difference in tonality. I call it the "Glycin bump". In negatives it brightens the upper midtones and in prints it makes lower midtones richer. I've observed that with multiple developers, films and papers. It is there.
The bluest tone I ever got developing paper straight was with a strong Agfa Neutol back in the late 90s, the version that wasn't NE or WA (might have been eco?) and Forte MG (not polywamtone). The prints looked almost like they were blue toned. Quite striking.
And you don't think that any other developer at a stronger dilution with more metol or phenidone wouldn't do incredibly similar things? There seems to be pretty fundamental ignorance that a developer with about 32g of carbonate/ litre in recommended working solution (1+1) and more developing agent is going to be rather more active than one with 22g/l and less developing agent in the 1+2 working solution.
For the record, things like ID-78 and all the Neutols (you can find them in the patent literature) thoroughly post-date Agfa/ Ansco 130 - and I would be more surprised if 130 was not part of comparative testing than if it was.
Would be interesting if someone threw some of Moersch's developers into their testing routines. For me, I've had great luck with different combos of Ilford's (WT/CT/Classic) papers and Moersch developers - specifically 4812 and SE-6. Have not tried his warm-tone version yet, but have not felt the need.
Much of this " formula this versus formula that" debate ignores how the respective emulsion layers of a VC paper shift in relation to each other not only with respect to exposing light color, but also processing temperature differences. This impacts final, or at least pre-toning, image color, including the semi-split tone look of Cooltone in typical MQ or PQ developers. That is the kind of question largely being ignored by a "chemistry only" approach. Merlin knows better.
The old Neutol look is completely different from what 130 provides on current papers. But that involves two different sets of variables - an obsolete developer on obsolete paper versus a very much alive developer on present paper.
130 calls for 80g/liter of sodium carbonate. I use 130 at 1:3 dilution. That's the sweet spot for me.
Substituting benz. for KBr at 1/10 gram weight, or using both together, does shift the initial image color cooler; but it's just the reverse when you gold chloride tone the paper afterwards. The safety data sheet for the PMT available from Freestyle doesn't mention any benzotriazole at all in it.
It's just not realistic for my budget to test various pre-mixed developers. Paper by itself has already increased dramatically in price.
Drew, PMT is short for Phenyl Mercapto Tetrazole. The whole point is it isn’t Benzotriazole (which does pretty much nothing as far as image colour is concerned) although it is related.
Monohydrate, not anhydrous. If you've been using 80g/l of anhydrous, then that's a bit of a problem for any meaningful comparisons.
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