Dark Brown Dektol...FRESHLY MADE???

[Bill Burk]

That’s been my experience as well. The batch that mixes up to look like what you see in a coffee cone while you pour water in your morning brew is actually usable.

Believe it or not. I haven’t proven it objectively but I am not afraid to use it. I was worried it would stain the prints, which would be a deal-breaker. But I didn’t notice a stain.

 

[Bill Burk]

Thanks for the pictures, I can't even get my phone images sized right for the forums. Sheesh!

When you select the picture (at least on iPhone) click “Show Selected”, then click “Actual Size” and pick a size that’s less than 2mb.

 

[MattKing]

I can't even get my phone images sized right for the forums. Sheesh!

Email them to yourself, and then re-size them in a photo editor before uploading them. 1000 pixels on the long side and a jpeg with quality "80" works easily, although you can squeeze a bit bigger if you need to.

 

[MTGseattle]

Thank you Bill and Matt. I suspected that the dark stuff was staining, but it was my safelight fogging things. If I had been in the darkroom regularly for the past few years, I would have given the weird Dektol more of a chance. As a "newbie," it added one more variable to the re-learning curve.

 

[Bill Burk]

Thank you Bill and Matt. I suspected that the dark stuff was staining, but it was my safelight fogging things. If I had been in the darkroom regularly for the past few years, I would have given the weird Dektol more of a chance. As a "newbie," it added one more variable to the re-learning curve.

Wow good timing MattKing with the resource. I’ll find the siamese cat somewhere and add. It’s really just “the” image Kodak used in earlier texts of the safelight test that illustrates how a bad safelight can ruin a print. Siamese cat and shiny chrome plates still life.

 

[MattKing]

Unfortunately, the pdf file itself is too large to upload directly to Photrio.

 

[Bill Burk]

Siamese cat is in the Kodak filters guide…

 

[MattKing]

Thanks @Bill Burk
I wasn't familiar with the Siamese cat illustration, so I confess I couldn't make heads or (cat) tails of what you were on about!