Pyro or Silver (Part 2 of 3)

FotoDave@aol.com
Sat, 31 Jan 1998 20:34:49 -0500 (EST)

There is indeed one effect that pyro give that normal silver cannot give: the
reduction of graininess because of the filling of the stain in between grains
(Sandy King has mentioned this). The effect is of course reduced in
graininess. Normal highly compensating developers cause high acutance, but
that means very grainy prints also. That is probably another reason why
compensating developers are used more by large format photographers because
they don't need a lot of enlargement. This grain reduction by pyro developer
is very nice, but this is useful only for original negatives becausee you need
to make enlargement. For enlarged negatives where you will use contact
printing, I don't even think it matters.

In other words, all effects that you can achieve with pyro for enlarged
negative, you can achieve without. Just examine the final reproduction curve,
and if you know how to change your curve accordingly, you can easily achieve
the same result in silver. In my opinion, you can go with pyro if
1. you already have it around and want to try it with alt. process
2. either yourself or someone has come up with a particular formulation that
works well, and so you want to use it.

If neither of these is true, and you still need to make some experimentations
to make it work, you might just go and try compensating development instead.
It is easy.

But whether you are doing it in silver or in pyro, there is no secret formula
that you can apply so that you can click your camera, developed in the secret
formula and achieve great result. The reasons are:
1. You formula might have a great curve but your actual scene might have
shorter tonal range. (It is true that you don't have to worry too much with
longer tonal range with compensating development).
2. You might want to alter the contrast (like if you have a yellow flower
against a brown background, but for artistic reason you want to separate them
more).

The only secrets of achieving good image are simple:
1. visualization (pre or post shutter release, technical and artistic)
2. control of negatives
3. control of printing