Bleaching and redevelopment of negative

[mark]

I have seen this recommended before, and someone just suggested it in the gallery section, as a way to increase contrast. Is this really the case and if so how do you do it?

 

[Silverpixels5]

Its talked about in this thread for sure: (there was a url link here which no longer exists)

I'll also be trying this technique tonight on a roll of 135 film. If i'm not mistaken, you can bleach and redevelop in a staining dev in order to increase contrast via the stain. The process can be repeated to build contrast. I"ll know for sure tonight.

 

[mark]

If I already have stained negatives will it work? I reread the thread and I am not sure this was covered, if it was I am too dense to figure it out. Thanks for the thread by the way.

 

[Silverpixels5]

I havn't done it myself yet, but I would imagine that it should work if your negative is already stained since they say that you can repeat the process. Its the stain thats gaining density, not the actual silver. There are other intensification processes that will increase silver density, and I plan to try that if I don't get enough from building the stain.

 

[Michael Mutmansky]

Mark,

It will work with a stained negative, but you need to be careful of the B+F stain getting out of hand. If the negative is for silver printing, you probably won't have any problem, but if the neg is for an alternative process, the increased B+F may make printing times verrrrrrrry looooooong.


---Michael

 

[gainer]

Mark,

It will work with a stained negative, but you need to be careful of the B+F stain getting out of hand. If the negative is for silver printing, you probably won't have any problem, but if the neg is for an alternative process, the increased B+F may make printing times verrrrrrrry looooooong.


---Michael

The other problem that might occur with repeated redevelopment in staining developers is stressing of the emulsion and cracks that show in prints. It will probably take more than 2 treatments, though.

 

[Claire Senft]

It works easily

It works like a charm. It is very easy to do.

 

[MurrayMinchin]

Hi Mark,

There was a really good description of this process on Barry Thornton's site - which is now expired. Was anybody out there smart enough to print it out? If you did, could you give us all a detailed descrition? It does sound like you can breath new life into thinnish negatives this way. Never tried it though.

Murray

 

[mark]

Hi Mark,

There was a really good description of this process on Barry Thornton's site - which is now expired. Was anybody out there smart enough to print it out? If you did, could you give us all a detailed descrition? It does sound like you can breath new life into thinnish negatives this way. Never tried it though.

Murray

There was a hell of a lot of useful information on that site.

 

[mark]

Mark,

It will work with a stained negative, but you need to be careful of the B+F stain getting out of hand. If the negative is for silver printing, you probably won't have any problem, but if the neg is for an alternative process, the increased B+F may make printing times verrrrrrrry looooooong.


---Michael

That is the direction I was heading. I was hoping to punch up the contrast for POP printing. SO basically the amount od stain is increasing with each redevelopment. RIght? How does this help contrast?

Long exposures, here in the Southwest are not really a problem. Even this winter my longest time under the sun was 12 minutes. If you folks in California would stop sending clouds this way I could print more.

 

[Silverpixels5]

I may be wrong, but I think it helps contrast by proportionally building stain. So I would think more stain on the parts of the negative that are exposed more would make those mid to high zone levels move up a bit. I tried this procedure last night and it worked really well. The developer I used was pyrocat HD. While it did help my negatives a lot, it still wasn't enough, seeing as how they were greatly underdeveloped to begin with. Next I plan to run the roll through In-5 to increase the silver density. Hopefully this will solve my problems.

 

[mark]

What did you bleach with?

 

[gainer]

Next time try increasing the silver density first and then do the BRD thing. Of course, you can still BRD one more time on top of the In-5 if need be.

 

[Silverpixels5]

a teaspoon of table salt and a teaspoon of potassium ferricyanide in a pint of water.

 

[gainer]

What did you bleach with?

For redevelopment, you need a bleach like that used for sulfide sepia toning. Proportions are not critical. A spoonful of potassium bromide and a spoonful of Potassium ferricynide in a liter of water will do the trick. Some recipes add carbonate.

 

[mark]

Thanks.