Pyrocat question

[Patrick Robert James]

No, not obvious, I use an enlarger and do not scan. Scanning for people who do not have the room in their home for a darkroom.

No, scanning is for people who want to scan regardless of whether or not they have a darkroom. Another one of your "my way is the only way" bizarro posts. But you say it with so much authority. Impressive that you can with knowing so little about it.

 

[MattKing]

I suggest we leave the "scanning vs. darkroom" discussion now, and get back to the subject of this thread.

 

[DonW]

There was no -vs- just a different way of doing things that works for George and I. There is no right or wrong way.

 

[Andrew O'Neill]

Pyrocat-HD negatives scan beautifully....even if I've developed them to a DR of 1.70 or higher. So much detail, especially in the highlights.

 

[DonW]

PyroCat-HD and Delta films are a match made in heaven!

 

[Craig]

PyroCat-HD and Delta films are a match made in heaven!

I feel the same about Delta 100 and Xtol, I've had beautiful results off that.

 

[Sirius Glass]

No, scanning is for people who want to scan regardless of whether or not they have a darkroom. Another one of your "my way is the only way" bizarro posts. But you say it with so much authority. Impressive that you can with knowing so little about it.

It is a generalization and generalizations are generally correct.

 

[JNP]

No, scanning is for people who want to scan regardless of whether or not they have a darkroom. Another one of your "my way is the only way" bizarro posts. But you say it with so much authority. Impressive that you can with knowing so little about it.

+1

 

[dario]

I have a question about pyrocat HDC (in glycol) that I'd appreciate some help with. I see that most people make up a working solution using equal quantities of Parts A and B, e.g. 1:1:100. What is the effect of varying the ratio of A to B? Thanks.

 

[meowdameow]

Anyone have experience with FOMA 400 and pyro? I tried 1+150 30mins I found the images trend to be over expose

 

[koraks]

Anyone have experience with FOMA 400 and pyro? I tried 1+150 30mins I found the images trend to be over expose

I must have tried that combination at some point. I did shoot quite some Foma 400 for sure, and one thing I'm damn sure of is that it's really hard to overexpose this film. Likewise, it's pretty hard to overdevelop it too, since it doesn't build much contrast very easily anyway. Especially not in a developer like Pyrocat. So I have a feeling that the problem you recognize as overexposure is in fact something else. Sidestepping of course the issue that overexposure has nothing to do with development to begin with, so I assume you mean overdevelopment.

Having said that, 30 minutes is pretty darn long assuming normal agitation of a couple of turns ever minute or every 30 seconds. What kind of agitation scheme did you use?

 

[meowdameow]

I must have tried that combination at some point. I did shoot quite some Foma 400 for sure, and one thing I'm damn sure of is that it's really hard to overexpose this film. Likewise, it's pretty hard to overdevelop it too, since it doesn't build much contrast very easily anyway. Especially not in a developer like Pyrocat. So I have a feeling that the problem you recognize as overexposure is in fact something else. Sidestepping of course the issue that overexposure has nothing to do with development to begin with, so I assume you mean overdevelopment.

Having said that, 30 minutes is pretty darn long assuming normal agitation of a couple of turns ever minute or every 30 seconds. What kind of agitation scheme did you use?

I stand develop it, keep agitated for the first minute then about 30sec every ten minutes

Still testing, the density of film on high light is high ( very black) seems to be over developed ( ? )

 

[meowdameow]

@ 20° Celsius​

 

[koraks]

With a reduced agitation scheme like this, I usually stick to at least half the dilution I use normally, and I only use it for carbon transfer printing where I want pretty extreme contrast anyway.
So in short, I'd just reduce developer concentration to maybe 1+1+250 or so and give it another try.

But frankly I'd recommend sticking to a normal development process with agitation every minute or 30 seconds and, shorter development time and a 1+1+100 dilution. With the process you're using now, you won't get very meaningful edge effects, nor will the compression of contrast be very helpful either (as you've noticed) - besides, this is a film that doesn't really need the latter anyway as it's an easy film to keep contrast in check with.

Just for testing I'd recommend doing a roll of film using e.g. development times from the massive development chart and normal agitation, see what you get, and then modify the process to improve any aspect(s) you feel should be changed.