Farmers Reducer--Bleaching Party...

My Farmers Reducer ran out quite a few years ago and I have collected quite a pile of prints to bleach. Mostly they are 'seconds' that were printed too dark and I save them to bleach. Sometimes the dark one with bleach turns out better.
Anyway, my darkroom has been totally rebuilt since I did a lot of selective bleach, so I wound up with not good place to do it and sit comfortably and have the water hose in my left hand.

Maybe considering constructing a bleach station with a trough and hose to carry the waste water away.

I'd be interested in seeing other people's setup.

John Sexton, not sure if he is standing or sitting.

That Sexton?

Sorry, yes I see your reference now.

John,
I don't have a picture, but my "bleaching station" looks just about like John Sexton's above. I bleach in the sink, next to the fixer and rinse trays, standing. I set up a tray bottom (I've got plans for a folding plex stand, but haven't got around to it yet) at a comfortable distance, slap the wet print on it and grab the bleach brush (I use Japanese calligraphy brushes in various sizes - no metal ferule) and hose. Depending on what and how I want to bleach, I'll dry the print surface or not. If I'm bleaching large areas, I'll use a wad of cotton; some areas need a cotton swab, but generally I like brushes. I keep the hose running and trained on the area just below where I'm bleaching, moving all the time, to prevent streaks. I'll stop and return the print to the fix every now and then and then rinse and bleach more if needed.

The main thing is to be comfortable; I feel constrained sitting. Standing gives me a lot more freedom of movement. The distance away from the print to be bleached is perhaps most important. I'll vary that as needed.

Best,

Doremus

John Sexton's setup wouldn't work for left-handed me .
One thing that may not need saying - play close attention to the colour and intensity and character of the light you are using to work under. My preference would be something a bit more diffused than what I see in the photo of Mr. Sexton's setup.

I did about 20 prints just to get back into the swing. Five with dilute "whole print" soaking and the rest with selective technique. I ran out of Farmers Reducer prior to setting up my current darkroom in 2001. It is hard to believe it has been that long. Some of the prints I think I just printed yesterday.

These were my errors.
1) streaks from the beach running down
2) mixing error on one print; swapped A & B volumes. Therefore too much ferricyanide and it stained brown. This was permanent; did not go away after re-fixing and washing.
3) RC paper reacts fast and surface does not stay wet, so I got some discrete, non-blurred lines of whitening.
4) Two prints had little white specs in the sky after the bleach. Somehow there was a splatter from something that did not get washed away by the hose.

It was a pain to draw up the A & B with syringes or pipettes. Especially when the "B" is at risk of spoiling from any contamination (A is just concentrated fixer).
So I ordered some brown glass dropper bottles. That is how I did it in the 1980s. In fact, from what I recall, the Farmers Reducer I had at the time came as a liquid already in dropper bottles.

The stuff I'm using now is from Photographers Formulary and comes as powder.

You might try a rehalogenating bleach instead of Farmers' reducer. I find it more manageable, plus I can redevelop somewhat if needed if I go too far.

Start with a basic solution of 1g pot. ferricyanide and 1g pot. bromide / 100ml. This is an intermediate-strength bleach. If you need stronger, add more ferri and bromide in equal amounts. If you need weaker, dilute as needed.

I keep a 10% potassium ferricyanide solution and a 3.3% potassium bromide solution on hand, so it's 1 part ferri solution plus 3 parts bromide solution plus however much water to make the dilution you want (ex: 10ml 10% ferri solution + 30ml 3.3% bromide solution plus water to make 100ml = a 1% solution. Make to 50ml and you have a 2% solution; make to 200ml and you have a 0.5% solution...).

Prints need to be fully fixed after bleaching.

Hope this helps,

Doremus

Is there are benefit to using farmers rather than plain potassium ferri ?

Doremus Scudder said:

You might try a rehalogenating bleach instead of Farmers' reducer. I find it more manageable, plus I can redevelop somewhat if needed if I go too far.

Start with a basic solution of 1g pot. ferricyanide and 1g pot. bromide / 100ml. This is an intermediate-strength bleach. If you need stronger, add more ferri and bromide in equal amounts. If you need weaker, dilute as needed.

I keep a 10% potassium ferricyanide solution and a 3.3% potassium bromide solution on hand, so it's 1 part ferri solution plus 3 parts bromide solution plus however much water to make the dilution you want (ex: 10ml 10% ferri solution + 30ml 3.3% bromide solution plus water to make 100ml = a 1% solution. Make to 50ml and you have a 2% solution; make to 200ml and you have a 0.5% solution...).

Prints need to be fully fixed after bleaching.

Hope this helps,

Doremus

Click to expand...

Do you know if this is what John Sexton teaches in his workshop?

I'm not sure what John Sexton uses for bleaching. I've tried a number of methods. Plain ferri works, but is slow and the activity is affected by carried over bleach. Plus, if you don't rinse well, the bleaching will be speeded up or reactivated when you refix, since the hypo activates the ferricyanide. Farmer's Reducer is potassium ferricyanide and sodium thiosulfate. It works fine and is fast (and permanent). However, working solutions don't last long; certainly not long enough for a printing session.

Since I have stock solutions of potassium ferricyanide and potassium bromide around for SLIMTs and negative bleach/redevelop processes, I find it easy to just mix a rehalogenating bleach of ferricyanide and bromide. It works well, can be sped up or slowed down with dilution and is reversible to an extent (rinse and then redevelop if you go too far, then start over more carefully).

All of the methods will get you what you want; you just have to master your particular technique.

Best,

Doremus

Recent sample. Still experimenting with the best application technique. Currently using a Q-tip for application. May try a brush as I'm getting occasional hard edge border (pretty obvious in rocks top left). Maybe too much bleach on the Q-tip it was making a wet blob.

ic-racer, I may be easily pleased but at this size the hard edged border is not obvious to me. I like it. It asks that question that sometimes IR prints do which is: Is this sunlight or brilliant moonlight. This one has atmosphere for me

pentaxuser

I adjusted the scan of the print so the spots are seen (it no longer looks like the original. The original is dark, like moonlight.). I just dabbed the area with the q-tip and immediately washed it but it left a sharp edge mark. I must have had too much bleach on the q-tip and it acted like a water droplet, maybe I need to blot the q-tip. The other thing I was thinking was photo-flo on the print, so no water droplets can form.

I just came back from the art supply store and got some bamboo brushes to try also.

I suspect that skilled hand-bleaching for small areas requires a touch that takes a lot of practice. I had a book which covered bleaching and the author had to admit that his bleaching of the eyes in a before and after print still left a kind of "white-eyed" look in the subject as if he had been sunbathing with a bank robber's mask on My slightly exaggerated description to make the point and not the author's words.

pentaxuser