Barry Thornton's Perceptol 1+2, 1+3

[pierods]

Personal taste more than anything else. I prefer a slightly grainier/ traditional look.

I found the delta 100/ perceptol mix almost looked like a mono water colour or dare I say it ... prints from a digital camera with no noise added, than silver photography and despite to-ing and fro-ing between tan/stain developers and non T/S ones, I'm pretty much settled on FP4+ / hp5+ and a metol/catechol developer - there is something about the way highlight tones are rendered using a T/S stain that I dont get from perceptol. I'm sure there'll be a million people who say that is "nonsense and with good technique and d-76 exactly the same results could be gained etc etc", but from my subjective experience, that is the way I like it to be.

Thank you very much for the advice.

I am still trying to understand tab-grain films, and I tend to agree more and more with Anchell and Troop who say that it's a scam from the manufacturers wanting to use less silver:rolleyes: .

Once I found somewhere a description of tab films as having the tonality of "black and white TV", and to me it sounds more and more true.

I don't believe in taking a film and raping it until it loses its main characteristics.

If I shoot ortho, I want the contrast, no point in using low contrast developers. If I don't want grain, than I'll grab a large format camera.

So for example if I don't want my film to look like b/w television, then I don't use tab films, instead of using bizarre/arcane developers.

Anyways, thanks for the wonderful advice.

 

[Baxter Bradford]

Whilst I didn't try Perceptol at either dilution, I have to thank Edge of Darkness and subsequently Barry himself for giving me the confidence to try 'sophisticated' two bath developers. These were something I long regarded as being a significant distance beyond which I could reasonably use. These fears were broken down by him doing the hard work and publishing these findings so that I could reap the rewards and move my film processing to a new level. That he made a modest amount from me as recompense for his effort troubles me not one iota and am glad that I contributed in a small way to his livelihood. When querying the thin nature of my films in Exactol Lux, he sent me one of his negatives so I could compare first hand.

When Barry died, I was forced to seek an alternative and so Gordon Hutchings subsequently earned money from me with his book and PMK solutions.

Things have now moved on with the internet and I commend people such as Sandy for their willingness to share the results of their toils free. It pains me when people then criticise such well meaning development specialists. I'd rather utilise their expertise and information and spend longer trying to improve the standard of my photographs, yet have a beneficial but small part of their efforts present in every one of my images.

 

[Stoo Batchelor]

Well Bloody said Baxter.

Stoo

Whilst I didn't try Perceptol at either dilution, I have to thank Edge of Darkness and subsequently Barry himself for giving me the confidence to try 'sophisticated' two bath developers. These were something I long regarded as being a significant distance beyond which I could reasonably use. These fears were broken down by him doing the hard work and publishing these findings so that I could reap the rewards and move my film processing to a new level. That he made a modest amount from me as recompense for his effort troubles me not one iota and am glad that I contributed in a small way to his livelihood. When querying the thin nature of my films in Exactol Lux, he sent me one of his negatives so I could compare first hand.

When Barry died, I was forced to seek an alternative and so Gordon Hutchings subsequently earned money from me with his book and PMK solutions.

Things have now moved on with the internet and I commend people such as Sandy for their willingness to share the results of their toils free. It pains me when people then criticise such well meaning development specialists. I'd rather utilise their expertise and information and spend longer trying to improve the standard of my photographs, yet have a beneficial but small part of their efforts present in every one of my images.

 

[pierods]

When Barry died, I was forced to seek an alternative...

I contributed as well, probably to his family since I just bought the book.

I think that had he published his formulas, he would have not made less money though and his developers would have gained more acceptance.

There are a lot of people like me that will NEVER mix their own developer.

But then again, the internet was less pervasive then, so maybe he would not feel comfortable publishing formulas, I don't know.

 

[el wacho]

i'm with Baxter...

pierods, the alkaline afterbath is so easy to mix, worth trying out and having real life experience to draw from.

 

[m_liddell]

I used perceptol 1:2 and 1:3 based on Barry's book with excellent results but the poor keeping properties of perceptol were a problem and I still had to be quite careful with the bright skies in landscapes. I then went on to try Exactol Lux written about later on in his book which I am still using.

I'd like to use pyrocat since the results are indistinguishable, there is more info/data around (esp for acros) and Sandy's web presence and frequent help with people's questions are a bonus. Exactol Lux is available ready mixed and I have yet to find Pyrocat available like this here in the UK.

 

[Paul Verizzo]

There are a lot of people like me that will NEVER mix their own developer.

That's what makes the world go 'round, I guess.

I would NEVER buy developer when I can mix my own! Well, OK, I've bought HC-110 and T-Max long ago, but I was dragged kicking and screaming......