Polaroid 55 and PT/PD Printing

[Eric Jones]

I picked up a Photo Formulary PT/PD Kit to experiment with and most of the negatives I want to try are Polaroid Type 55 Negatives. Does anyone have any recommendation on mixture ratios as a starting point? Also since Type 55 develops to a fixed contrast will an ideal mixture work perfect for most fully exposed full range Type 55 Negatives? Any insights would be appreciated. I will be printing on the COT320 and I would like to favor a more neutral color print if at all possible.

 

[clay]

Here is what I would suggest if you are not too averse to some post processing on the negatives:

Bleach the negative and redevelop in either pyrocat HD or PMK. It is really easy and a foolproof way to really increase the contrast of your negative.

1) soak the negative in water for 5 minutes
2) Then put the negative in a solution of 15g potassium bromide/15g potassium ferricyanide/1liter of water until it is completely bleached away.
3) Rinse the bleach off for 5 minutes in running water.
4) Then put the negative in a 1:1:50 solution of pyrocat HD for about 5 minutes or so. Voila! Actinic (UV light) blocking stain right where you need it.

This will allow you to print with very little contrast control agent, which is generally inimical to high quality palladium prints.

I picked up a Photo Formulary PT/PD Kit to experiment with and most of the negatives I want to try are Polaroid Type 55 Negatives. Does anyone have any recommendation on mixture ratios as a starting point? Also since Type 55 develops to a fixed contrast will an ideal mixture work perfect for most fully exposed full range Type 55 Negatives? Any insights would be appreciated. I will be printing on the COT320 and I would like to favor a more neutral color print if at all possible.

 

[KenS]

... since Type 55 develops to a fixed contrast will an ideal mixture work perfect for most fully exposed full range Type 55 Negatives? Any insights would be appreciated.

Eric... rather than dealing with the "fixed contrast" of pod development, after you have exposed the negative, put the envelope back "in". Without closing the rollers with the "develop lever", press the release lever and carefully remove the entire envelope without processing. Bend the top tabs over or... place a bit of tape to remind you that this is going to be stripped open in the darkroom and tray developed in PMK, Pyrochat ... whatever turns your crank. Treat this film as if it were the "old" Panatomic-X.

ken