Amidol in Liquidol or any other paper developer.

[RPippin]

O.K., so first of all, I'm not a chemist nor claim to be. What I've done may have been done by other printers experimenting in the darkroom, so I'm looking for any thoughts or threads to follow on this topic. I was doing some contact prints with some 8X10 negatives the other night, and the only developer I had on hand was my Liquidol form Formulary. I love this stuff for basic printing, but wanted to boost the blacks and the thought occurred to me to add about a gram or so of some Amidol. Great blacks, hard to control, but felt this might be something to explore further. So anyone else out there who has played around with adding Amidol to basic developers, please chime in. I was originally going to use some Ansco 130, but it was a bit old and I'm afraid it was a bit off. Looked like black tar, so didn't use it. Did not have any Decktol mixed up but thought to experiment anyway. Paper was Lodima, by the way.

 

[Photo Engineer]

I've mixed Amidol with Liquidol. BTDT. It works. It changes tone, tone scale and capacity among other things.

To what purpose? Boost blacks? Then you lose shadow detail as Liquidol reaches the max Dmax of a paper. There are limits you know in all things.

PE

 

[DanielStone]

amidol(in its regular form and dilition) can be controlled by using a water bath, just in case you didn't know... I love the "set" 1min developing time(including use of a waterbath if necessary), makes things nice and effecient in the D/R

 

[RPippin]

Thanks PE. That is exactly what I found out. I think I also left it in the developer to long, one and a half minutes instead of just under one minute. Daniel, thanks, I'm going to try and gain some control in the mid tones with more dilution, less developing and a water bath. I love the hard cold black it produces and think it might be worth experimenting to get those mid tones. Also, might try this in Decktol, as my supply of Liquidol is running out. Maybe using Decktol might standardize things better.

 

[Photo Engineer]

With Amidol, you might try up to a 1:19 dilution. This depends on the amount of Amidol.

Also, watch for the Amidol going bad. And, if you develop for more than 1 minute in Liquidol you are probably overdeveloping if Amidol is present.

PE

 

[keithwms]

Richard, did I ever tell you about my dammitol developer? You add all the forgotten, expired developers on your shelf and...

 

[jgjbowen]

Richard,
With Michael Smith's Amidol formula you can adjust the print color by adjusting the amount of Kbr in the formula (more Kbr = warmer) or adding a touch of 2% Benzotriazole (more = cooler). As Daniel pointed out, you can adjust (lower) contast via a water bath. Azo/Lodima and Amidol is a very versatile combination. Next time we get together I'll show you my notebook of Azo/Lodima developed in Amidol with varying amounts of Kbr and/or Benzatriazole added to the developer.

Or just try Keith's magic brew

 

[Photo Engineer]

John;

That change in tone is just about general for all developers and papers, not just Amidol / Lodima.

The use of a water bath is also pretty much general.

PE