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- Jun 21, 2003
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Wow! I just had two spectacular successes. I captured the entire processing on video using a reddened and dimmed Iphone screen, As soon as the prints dry and I do a little editing, I'll upload the stills and vids, with particulars.
Never say never....
Don
great!
and you're using graded paper right? I'm hoping to have an alternative to the MG, which is a little heavy on contrast, so to know a switch to graded paper is possible would be very welcome news.
Arista Edu #2
Don
these look great Don!
I'm curious about your lighting and exposure method. I'm only using natural light from a window (not a window that faces the sun) at the moment, which at f4.5 means an average exposure of about 8 seconds. So are you then - setting your lens to f22, opening the shutter on time/bulb and firing the flash, or do you have a flash sinked shutter?
The days are getting rapidly shorter here, so come November I'd like to be using a mixture of natural light with a little flash at the end.. I'll be up to 30 second exposures soon otherwise, which is a little long for portraits.
I've been doing some more printing this morning, and after some test strips I think (for the second time, so for now I'm still not completely certain) to have a workable process.
I've doubled my first development and halved my re-exposure which seems to have cured my problems with grey highlights and mottling. Here's one I printed earlier, I tried the exact same process 3 times since with the same results.
View attachment 188820
The image is a little whiter than it appears here.
So my process now (still using ilford MG RC 8x10 rated @ asa 1.5) is:
Dev - 1:9 Ilford Multigrade @ 20c - 3 minutes (double normal printing time)
rinse
bleach - 3 minutes (bleach is 300ml peroxide 12% + 2 heaped tspns citric acid
rinse
expose - enlarger f4.5 @20 inches - 1 Minute
Dev - 1:9 Ilford Multigrade @ 20c - to completion
fix
and just to add to a couple things mentioned in the thread.
I've noticed, and I think this is important, it's better to agitate the bleaching stage as little as possible, like maybe a gentle rock every minute - so just enough to make sure it stays wet. The bleaching seams to work much better when left alone. I've also never considered warming it and I'm using it at room temp, which is about 17c here. I'd also think you're all under using your bleach solutions, the image posted above is the 7th 8x10 in 300ml and it still bleached to completely white in 3 minutes.
Great image with excellent contrast.. Thanks for details on the processing. I used really cool bleach with a concentration and formulation close to yours with miserable results. Warming it seemed to clear up the issues with incomplete bleaching. I have been agitating the bleach and it seemed to go OK the last round of shots.
Don
One odd thing I noticed when processing the recent image of the Graflex camera is that the negative image turned positive within seconds of hitting the peroxide bleach. The positive image faded slowly during the bleaching, to re-darken after reexposure and redevelopment.
Don
You know, if the image is turning positive almost immediately in the H2O2, I have to ask.
I like the idea of weak CA in one tray and H2O2 in another to give some control.
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