Re: Polaroid Pos/Neg film/Zone System

Tom Ferguson (tomf2468@pipeline.com)
Mon, 03 Feb 1997 09:43:01 -0800

I used type 55 very early in my photo carreer, so I'll have to do a little
guessing here. In general, it didn't give me enought contrast for
alt-process printing. Most alt-process methods require a negative with
much greater contrast range than silver gelatin. Extending the development
time in the package didn't seem to help much.

You could perhaps selenium tone the cleared and washed negatives. Buy
Kodak selenium toner, mix it with an equal amount of working strenght Kodak
Hypo Clearing adgent. After your neg is washed completely, make sure the
neg is wet (pre wash if needed), then "tone" the neg in the selenium/Hypo
clear for between 1 and 5 minutes. This can be done in normal daylight.
It can be done repeatably. 5 minutes (all at once or sread out) seems to
be the maximum effect. At this strengh, I use gloves to avoid touching the
selenium! Re - Wash the neg after this treatment.

Many people shot type 55 because they don't have a darkroom, if you don't
you can still work with a lab. Just shoot your film at about half it's
rated speed (T-Max 400 shot at EI 200) and tell the lab to "push it" one
stop. If most of your prints are too contrasty, have the lab to push the
film less (1/2 stop), if they are too flat ask them to push it more (2
stops). This is far cruder than "good" zone system work, but perhaps
better than using type 55.

tomf2468@pipeline.com

> Cor Breukel wrote:
>Verry recently I moved into 4*5 inch in order to produce in-camera neg's
>for Alt. Photo processes (Cyanotype, VDB and hopefully in the future
>Pt/Pd). Has anybody experience with the Polaroid Pos/Neg film for
>producing good dense neg's for the processes.
>
>A bit related question: I know the Zone system only by theory, and now
>have the change to start experimenting with it..can it also be applied in
>the process of making good neg's for the mentioned alt. processes?
<SNIP>