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Bleach development, in short, is developing by adding
small amnt. (20-40ml into 1000ml) of household bleach into the development
water. It was brought into attention by Marek
Matusz a couple of years ago. See my procedure below, I'm sure Marek will
describe his and/or add more information later:
* Prepare two development trays, one with bleach and
one without.
* Use a generously pigmented coating solution; a
pigment amnt. that you would not normally use.
* Expose longer; I use 2x-3x-4x times the normal.
(Test!)
* Put the print in the plain water bath to
let the unreacted dichromate ooze out, refresh the water few times and drain
until the print is clear of dichromate. There will be no (or almost none)
development action. Refresh the water again.
* Put the print into the bleach bath and
wait for a pre-determined time such as 1-2 minutes. (Test!) The print will
start to develop.
*
Drain and put the print in the plain water bath, the bleaching action will
continue for some time. Check 5-10 minutes later, if the development
speed/amount is consistent with the norm (I mean what you experience with normal
prints after 10 minutes of development), change the water and continue to
develop in plain water. Or, put the print again in the bleach batch to further
trigger/speed up development, but keep the bleaching time short this time (15-30
secs), once triggered the development is very quick in the bleach
bath.
* Put the print in the plain water bath
and continue by bringing back the print to the bleach bath if further more is
necessary. You got the idea!
You
can use this method to save overexposed layers too - works most of the time.
It's my most useful tool in workshop situations, saves time and motivation!
:)
Using
this method, you can print very dark one-coat prints which have convincing
blacks. In other words: "subtlety and drama at the same time"... (See
Marek's recent step tablet tests.)
As I
said before, I'm sure Marek will add to the information above (or correct
it).
Hope
this helps,
Loris.
What is
blech(?) redevelopment? Do you mean bleach redevelopment?
If it is bleach redevelopment, what do you mean. I
have only developed with water.
Thank you, Mary Pat
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