From: Brian Ellis (bellis60@earthlink.net)
Date: 03/13/01-12:15:41 PM Z
Sorry to ask what I'm sure must be a dumb question with an obvious answer
that I'm just overlooking, but how does adding density to the highlights of
the negative cause them to print softer?. I would think that adding density
to the highlights of the negative (i.e. the areas that are already somewhat
dense) would cause them to print lighter/brighter.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Carl Weese" <cweese@earthlink.net>
To: "Alt-photo-process" <alt-photo-process-l@sask.usask.ca>
Sent: Tuesday, March 13, 2001 1:03 PM
Subject: pyro negatives
>
> Bill,
>
> (Just got back from a road trip).
>
> My first guess is that your negatives are some combination of
> underexposed and/or underdeveloped.
>
> The pyro stain (if it's working right) is proportional, meaning little
> stain in the shadows and lots of stain in the highlights. As Gary noted,
> a good pyro negative should be close to correct with no filtration at
> all (assuming a tungsten light source, not a cold light). Because the
> stain is about the color of a soft filter, and is strongest in the
> highlights, this causes the highlights to print softer than the dark
> areas on a VC paper. The same negative should also print well on a grade
> one or zero standard paper but is apt to be too hot for grade two. But,
> because the stain color blocks UV efficiently, it will also print well
> in Pt/Pd because in effect the Pt/Pd paper "sees" the negative as very
> high contrast.
>
> Recently I've found that a lot of my pyro negs print on VC silver best
> with 20-30 points of magenta from the colorhead lightsource. This gives
> exactly the same overall contrast as no filtration at all, but 'cleans
> up' the progression of middle values. For very flat scenes, another 30M
> may be required. 60M is still equivalent to only about a 3 or 3.5
> filter. If the print is flat at 4.5 filtration the negative is much too
> thin, probably _both_ underexposed and underdeveloped. Or.....one other
> possibility just occured to me: if the negatives are *massively*
> _overexposed_, and developed about right, then heavy staining
> appropriate for highlight values could be distributed throughout the
> entire tonal scale. THAT could cause the negative to need a really high
> contrast filter. So could simple general overall stain (which could be
> caused by a bad batch of developer).
>
> So, two questions:
>
> Is the film edge almost as clear as a non-pyro negative, with just a
> hint of stain? (that's the way it should be)
>
> If it is, are the shadow areas just a bit denser than the film edge, or
> do they have a heavy density of silver and stain?
>
> ---Carl
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