Pyro for dummies

Can folks help me distill a tidal wave of information into a summary of understanding?

I'd never heard of Pyro before I found this site. I read stuff but I'm not sure I'm getting it. So I have several questions.

• Why use Pyro?
• Where would a Pyro newbie best begin?
• Should one tailor their Pyro development to the paper they use or choose a paper best suited to Pyro?
• What is the downside of Pyro (why would one not use it?)?

Try and get your hands on Gordon Hutchings' "The Book of Pyro". Available various places. Good reading!

Short and glib answer:
Pyro is a staining developer. For large format negatives you get a proportional stain to the density of the negative. Makes printing, especially Pt/Pd, easier and helps with the long gradations found in such prints.

Seriously, get your hands on Gordon's book and read it first. Then look into getting one of the various pyro formulas (PMK, ABC, rolo, etc).

Hutching's book is indeed good. "The Darkroom Cookbook" by anchell and "The Film Developing Cookbook" by Anchell/Troop are also good.

Where to begin? Read all the threads about pyrogallic acid and catechol (often called pyrocatechol) that you can on apug. Lots of folks know their stuff here. I don't really think that any one formula is miles above the rest, they all seem to unique enough to try them all.

Downside: Be aware that pyro and catechol are quite toxic. Use gloves and a dust mask; lots of reading about that in the "Cookbooks".

You may also agitate a lot more frequently (depeding on the formula) with a staining dev. I don't know about others, but my mind wanders when I have to pay attention that much!

Pyrocat-HD and Pyrocat-MC are available as liquid concentrates (dissolved in Propylene Glycol) from the Photographers Formulary. This avoids the problem of dust exposure.

Sandy King's Pyrocat Developers are based on Pyrocatechol which is a staining and tanning developing agent.

The Pyrocat Developers can be successfully used with a large variety of agitation schemes that run the gamut from continuous agitation through Minimal Agitation and Stand Development.

rwyoung said:

Try and get your hands on Gordon Hutchings' "The Book of Pyro". Available various places. Good reading!

Click to expand...

You might also take a look at my article on pyro developers here. Most people find it a pretty interesting read.

http://unblinkingeye.com/Articles/PCat/pcat.html

Sandy King

I do not believe that there is anything different about choosung a aper for pyro excepth that a stained negative may print much differently on a graded paper than on a vc paper.

You are still left with matching what you want your print to look like versus the way it will print. Some negatives you will wish to emphasise shadows/ midrange others highlight rendition will be very important to you. Unless you work with a consistent type of subject matter consistently lit you will find negatives that will print more to your liking on one paper than another.

jstraw,

Go to Apug.org home page.
Click on advertiser Photographer's Formulary, Inc.
They have Gordon's "Book of Pyro" for $26.95. Mine arrived last Friday.
Nice place to buy your chemicals also.

I did it backwards. I started using pyro three years ago, heard Gordon speak very convincingly last summer at the View Camera conference, and just bought the book.

I started using pyro to prepare for a platinum printing workshop. I have continued to use it for my silver printing because my negatives are so much better than they were before. Gordon talks about how it improves separation on the negative. I don't pretend to understand it all, but I know that the negatives I make now print so much better than the ones I made before. I'm one of those who cares why kind of people. It drives the teckies nuts.

John Powers

PS:I forgot that Photographer's Formulary has quite a bit of technical information you can read at N/C. Go here http://www.photoformulary.com/DesktopDefault.aspx?tabindex=5&tabid=23 and search on Pyro. I use Rollo Pyro in a Jobo.

There are also a number of pyro articles on The Unblinking Eye.
juan