Sandy King (sanking@hubcap.clemson.edu)
Sat, 30 Jan 1999 00:24:09 -0400
FotoDave wrote:
>>Recently there were some posts about the special look of pyro developed
>>negatives. No offense intended here, but I don't really understand what the
>>point is. We ***do know*** that pyro gives different look (adjacency effect
>>and maybe a slightly different curve; also the staining which might be useful
>>more for silver printing than alt. process).
>>
>>I have never thought that experienced photographers like Carl, Sandy,
>>Hutching, and hundreds or thousands of pyro users (there is a pyro maniac
>>group!) have problematic vision that they see things that don't exist at all.
>>My question last year (or 2 years ago) was not whether pyro gives different
>>result but whether this result can be achieved only by pyro or can be
>>achieved
>>in a "normal" but diluted, compensating developer. Even if it can be achieved
>>with some ordinary MQ developer, I still won't go against pyro. Why would I?
>>
Oh Dave, Dave, Dave, there you go again with this Pyro bashing thing
Seriously, I tried hard to ignore your post (and resisted doing so for more
than *24 hours*), but the temptation to respond was just too much for me.
So, here is what you need to do.Just forget about tests and step wedges and
densitometers and go out and make a few *in-camera* large format negatives
using PMK, and whatever other developer you like (if you need EV rating and
development instructions for PMK for a specific film there is almost surely
someone on the list who can provide it). Next, make the best prints you can
from the two negatives. Then, look carefully at the graduation of tones in
the prints, with special focus on the high values. If after doing these
tests you don't come to the conclusion that the PMK negatives are much
easier to print and make much better prints (which in turn should prove
that Pyro is a magical developer) there is really no hope for you.
OK? Good luck!
Sandy King
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.0b3 on Sat Nov 06 1999 - 10:06:48