I am not surprised that your negatives are bordering on bullet-proof with the combination of two extra stops of exposure AND 20% more development. The combination is likely adding between 2-1/2 and 3 stops to your shadows and likely pushing the highlights toward the shoulder (translation – “bullet-proof”). The extra 20% development is like doing an N+1 development. This is appropriate for platinum or even carbon, but typically, film speed is increased, not decreased when applying N+1 development.
If I understand correctly, your real dilemma is how to process the remaining negatives for your project. Since these negatives have already received an extra 2 stops of exposure, the only option in my mind to get a less dense overall negative is to use an ABC pyro formula for the balance of your negatives. The ABC formula contains no metol (which improves shadow density and film speed) and consequently, you tend to lose about a stop of film speed. This is exactly what you want to accomplish with these overexposed negatives. You may wish to still give them an extra 10-20% development. The ABC formula will yield a yellowish-brown stain, not green like PMK. I abandoned the ABC formula over 20 years ago in favor of John Wimberley’s pyro-metol formula purely because of the loss of film speed. The negatives looked beautiful, but I lost a full stop of film speed with ABC. This was long before Gordon published the PMK formula.
Never use a post stain step and do not place the developed and fixed negatives back in a metaborate bath “to enhance the stain”. As you now know, stain is your friend, but it can turn on you and rapidly become your enemy in alt processes. Your choice of film will also affect how much stain remains on the negative. TMAX films stain very little. HP5, Tri-X, and Efke films take a good stain. Bergger BPF200 stains heavily. I do not recommend that anyone start working with any pyro developer on Bergger film. It behaves completely differently than other films and is difficult to get used to even for an experienced pyro developer. Also be aware that TMAX films react more to increases or decreases in development time than most other films. An extra 20% development for TMAX is a very large amount.
If you take the time to get to know pyro, whatever formula you choose, you will find it can be very advantageous for moving between processes. I have routinely printed the same negative on Azo silver gelatin, platinum/palladium, and carbon with only minor adjustments in the printing. Except for the unique characteristics of each process, the images are almost identical.
This forum is insufficient to cover all of the aspects of the various pyro formulas. However, you may be interested in visiting the “Writings” page of my web site –
www.bobherbst.com. Since the 2nd edition of Dick Arentz’s book, Platinum & Palladium Printing, is now out of print, I have posted the appendix on pyro developers which I wrote for the book. Little has changed since it was published. You will also find the formula for a modified version of John Wimberley’s original WD2D pyro formula which I have used for 22 years with great success. John’s new formula, WD2D+ is an update to his original formula, and John recently published the formula in an article in View Camera magazine.
Good Luck!
Bob Herbst
I've been making some negs for pt printing using PMK Pyro. The first neg I exposed gave me a pretty nice print at a 17 minute exposure. However, it lacked shadow detail and so since then I've been giving an extra two stops exposure to lay down some more information. The shadows have a good separation of detail now. Only problem is when I've been processing them they have a very heavy stain as a consequence of the additional exposure. I am also overdeveloping by 20% to build the contrast. I know this is a blanket thing to be doing to every shot and is in no way ideal to get the optimum results. The overdevelopment is obviously heightening the problem. It's worked well for a low contrast scene which has given a nice neg but the negs of scenes with more contrast look bulletproof. Luckily I've taken duplicate shots. So I'm wondering, when processing the second sheets should I just go for a normal development time or should I scrap using pyro and try using regular dev? I'm not post-staining at all. I'm wondering whether the TF-4 archival fixer is exacerbating it too. I think I've read somewhere that Hypam reduces the staining. I've got one last shot at these which are for a project so I'd really appreciate advice with this! Cheers