Losing my pyrocat-hd virginity

Jarred McCaffrey · Oct 26, 2005

For the record, I'm just finishing the 30 minute end wash on my first pyrocat processed roll. I went straight to semi-stand/minimal agitation trying to emulate what I've read works for others. 1.5 minutes initial agitation, stand for 1 hour with 10 seconds agitation every 15 minutes. Medium format TMX in a 1930s Reflex-Korelle 6x6.

Fingers crossed...

Leon · Oct 26, 2005

30 minute wash? ever heard of overkill? Maybe you should take a look at Ilford's recommended wash methods and save a few hundred litres for the rest of us to get a drink!

good luck with the roll though. my 1st P'cat roll blew my socks off

jim appleyard · Oct 26, 2005

You didn't cheat and look and some of the frames in between the fix and wash???? I'm just curious to hear how you did; stand/semi-stand is something I've never had much luck with. Good luck!

Jarred McCaffrey · Oct 26, 2005

30 minutes sounded like a lot to me too, but the number came from Sandy King's Intro to Pyro on unblinkingeye.com (http://unblinkingeye.com/Articles/PCat/PCat2/pcat2.html). If it's good enough for Sandy....

I couldn't help but spend a good 10 minutes holding my wet negs up to the light checking them out. I noticed some nice tonality in the negatives which were well exposed or over-exposed. I also noticed that the highlights didn't get super dense like they normally would. It almost concerned me because I typically overexpose and I can see that this introduces a shoulder into the typically straight curve of TMX. In thin areas I could see more detail than I expected. I think the semi-stand development rescued some thin negs and brought out more shadow detail. That was a pleasant surprise. The proof will be in the printing though.

I did notice what I think is a light general stain, but there was clearly no general stain, or much less, on the edges where my plastic film reel held the film. Is this normal?

Jarred McCaffrey · Oct 26, 2005

One more curiosity about an image. There is a shot of an interior with a very bright window. The bright window has a big halo-like radiance around it that spreads into what should clearly be thin areas of the negative. It looks like infectious development, but I think it's too big and not dense enough for that. Infectious staining? Light spread in the emulsion?

jimgalli · Oct 26, 2005

Jarred McCaffrey said:
Light spread in the emulsion?

Yes, point transfer. Grains are exposing other grains and so on....

Jarred McCaffrey · Oct 26, 2005

jdef said:
I don't often develop for an hour, but do on occasion. More often, I develop for 15-20 minutes, with 1-3 inversions every three minutes, depending on the scene. Works great for me.

Jay

I'm a lazy, lazy man. 1 hour development with minimal intervention fits me like a glove.

jim appleyard · Oct 26, 2005

jdef said:
Jim,

I'm surprised to read that you haven't had much luck with semi-stand development. Reduced agitation is a regular part of my workflow, and I find it very dependable, as long as I don't push it too far. I don't often develop for an hour, but do on occasion. More often, I develop for 15-20 minutes, with 1-3 inversions every three minutes, depending on the scene. Works great for me.

Jay

It's something that I'll try again; others seem to have success. I'll try try your times and see what happens.

m_liddell · Oct 27, 2005

Not to hijack this thread but since you guys are talking about semi-stand methods with pyrocat HD I'd though I'd ask it here.

I've had really bad luck with semi-stand, 1min const invert agitation and then two in versions at the half way mark. I get really uneven development near the edge of the film with my paterson reel and terrible streaking and edge problems with my new hewes stainless steel reel.

This is with Fuji acros, not tried any other film.

gainer · Oct 27, 2005

Your halo may be lens flare. Have you photographed the same scene before?

vet173 · Oct 27, 2005

Since I lost my virginity to pyrocat-hd and semi stand development, I became a pyrocat slut.

jmdavis · Oct 27, 2005

vet173 said:
Since I lost my virginity to pyrocat-hd and semi stand development, I became a pyrocat slut.

It's ok as long as you don't start saying "Me so horny," and get to bed a decent hour.

Mike Davis

Jarred McCaffrey · Oct 27, 2005

gainer said:
Your halo may be lens flare. Have you photographed the same scene before?

I haven't done that scene before, but I had a similar thing occur again on a different pyrocat roll this morning that might help to figure it out.

In my past experiences (xtol, d-76), if you had, for example, the sun at the edge of a frame, the exposure would bleed outside of the frame and in the frame because of both scattered light in the emulsion and infectious development. That bleeding would be the same density as the sun and then taper off gradually. It's a blasting glow and you lose details of the light source and things near it.

The strange thing I am seeing is that in grossly overexposed skies, I get something that reminds me of this "sun at the edge of the frame" thing where I'm getting a uniform bleed (no star patterns from the aperture or circles from flare) outside and inside the frame, but it is much lighter--my edges are precise and I'm not losing details of the light source, but I get a mildly dense glow around grossly overexposed areas.

My guess is that this is scattered light in the emulsion and it looks different because of pyrocat's surface development and minimal infectious development.

If I put my scanner back together this week (I took it apart a year ago and tried to make a large format d*g*tal camera out of it), I'll post some examples.

Jarred McCaffrey · Oct 27, 2005

m_liddell said:
I've had really bad luck with semi-stand, 1min const invert agitation and then two in versions at the half way mark. I get really uneven development near the edge of the film with my paterson reel and terrible streaking and edge problems with my new hewes stainless steel reel.

This is with Fuji acros, not tried any other film.

I've now developed 3 pyrocat rolls, all of which were 120 TMX. I'm using 1:1:200 dilution. Rolls 1 and 2: 1 hour each, 90 second initial agitation, 5 seconds (5 inversions) every 15 minutes. These were nice rolls. Roll 3: I was reading APUG posts and forgot to agitate until 30 minutes into development. Now I've lost my bromide drag virginity as well as my pyrocat virginity.

sanking · Oct 27, 2005

m_liddell said:
Not to hijack this thread but since you guys are talking about semi-stand methods with pyrocat HD I'd though I'd ask it here.

I've had really bad luck with semi-stand, 1min const invert agitation and then two in versions at the half way mark. I get really uneven development near the edge of the film with my paterson reel and terrible streaking and edge problems with my new hewes stainless steel reel.

This is with Fuji acros, not tried any other film.

Did you pre-soak the film? And what dilution of Pyrocate-HD did you use?

Uneven development near the edges of the reel is not unusual with stand and semi-stand development. In fact, I would estimate that about 20% of the total frames that I develop this way have some kind of development artifacts. For this reason I nearly always make duplicate exposures, and sometimes three exposures, of each scene when I anticipate stand or semi-stand development. This practice assures that there will be at least one good negative.

I have to confess, however, that my preferred method of development of 35mm and roll film on reels is minimal agitation, not stand or semi-stand. With minimal agitation I use the normal dilution, say 1:1:100 or 2:2:100, but multiply total time of development by a factor about 1.35-1.50X, and agitate once every three minutes. It is best to use this method only when the adjusted development time is over 15 minutes. From my experience this method gives very great adjacency effects. The effects are not quite as great as one can get with stand development, but since there is virtually no risk of uneven development I find the compromise a good trade-off.

Sandy

jim appleyard · Oct 27, 2005

jmdavis said:
It's ok as long as you don't start saying "Me so horny," and get to bed a decent hour.

Mike Davis

...and practice safe darkrooming!

vet173 · Oct 27, 2005

jim appleyard said:
...and practice safe darkrooming!

I haven't heard "me so horny" since vietnam. Certainlly not since I said "I do". I would say I practice safe darkroom but my dark fingernails would tell on me.

jmdavis · Oct 27, 2005

vet173 said:
I haven't heard "me so horny" since vietnam. Certainlly not since I said "I do". I would say I practice safe darkroom but my dark fingernails would tell on me.

Yea, I combined two of my favorite lines from Movies "Me so horny," from Full Metal Jacket and "It's ok as long as you do your homework and get to bed at a decent hour," from the Big Chill.

Mike

jim appleyard · Oct 27, 2005

Just nobody tell me that they're going to "love me long time!"

TheFlyingCamera · Oct 28, 2005

jim appleyard said:
Just nobody tell me that they're going to "love me long time!"

Or, "Fie Dolla, Fie Dolla - you so big and handsome, Mr. GI Man!"

lee · Oct 28, 2005

"you too boocoo for me, GI"

lee\c

jmdavis · Oct 28, 2005

Now I've done it. So how about another from the "Big Chill.' Its from a conversation between Jeff Goldblum's character and Tom Berenger's character (I think).

Goldblum: "Rationalizations are more important than sex"
Berenger: "Nothings more important than sex"
Goldblum: "Ever go a week without a rationalization."

Losing my pyrocat-hd virginity

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