From: Jeff Buckels (jeffbuck@swcp.com)
Date: 12/31/01-11:48:41 AM Z
This is the sequel or debriefing re: Dense or Density, in which I
bewailed the onerously long pt/pd exposure times of PMK / FP4+ neg's....
Well, on the basis of the many kind and interesting responses from the
List, and thinking about my procedures etc., I deduced that I had plain
old film fog from light leaks and/or general-stain-enhancing development
procedures. So, as for the first, I simply tightened up my light
security (no prisoners). As for the development, well, more complex: I
became interested in the many opinions that Pyrocat is better, less
staining, etc. I ran this by Stewart Melvin, my hale mentor. Stewart
made a very strong pitch for WD2D on grounds of less general stain,
better contrast, shorter development times. I decided to try it. I
also made a single major change to my tray development procedures, viz.,
stop bath of standing deionized water in place of running filtered tap
water.
The results of this have been encouraging. General stain well down.
The color of the stain also has shifted more toward green, as opposed to
yellow-green (I know there's some debate about the significance of
this). The development times are running between 10 and 20 minutes.
This is very acceptable to me. I did two exposures of a still life that
took 30 minutes. I believe I simply overexposed a stop, but I don't
intend to begin erring on the side of underexposure. For me, thirty
minutes exposure with an occasional negative is a very acceptable price
to pay to assure fully exposed negatives (in general).
So that's my debriefing. Anybody see anything bonkers here?? -jeff
buckels
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