stain levels in Pyrocat hd

[herb]

I ran some film tests yesterday with pyrocat hd 1:1:100, using hangers and
a lift and tilt agitation scheme that resulted in about 10 sec every 3 minutes, although the tank had rather continuous movement of the solution, as I lifted the hangers one at a time.

MyHP5 Ilford had significantly less stain than the Efke PL100, same scene, same lens filter, shot at the box film speed in both cases. Both contact printed well-5x7 film, although no clouds in the scene, so I could not really tell much difference in the prints.

Hutchins recommends dipping the fixed negative back in the developer to increase stain. Does this idea have a place in pyrocat? How deep should the stain be?

 

[lee]

Herb,

Hutchins is not recommending that now for PMK. It only adds density to the whole negative and makes the print exposures much longer adding nothing to the print.

lee\c

 

[Tom Hoskinson]

I ran some film tests yesterday with pyrocat hd 1:1:100, using hangers and
a lift and tilt agitation scheme that resulted in about 10 sec every 3 minutes, although the tank had rather continuous movement of the solution, as I lifted the hangers one at a time.

MyHP5 Ilford had significantly less stain than the Efke PL100, same scene, same lens filter, shot at the box film speed in both cases. Both contact printed well-5x7 film, although no clouds in the scene, so I could not really tell much difference in the prints.

Hutchins recommends dipping the fixed negative back in the developer to increase stain. Does this idea have a place in pyrocat? How deep should the stain be?

With Pyrocat, DO NOT DIP THE NEGATIVE (s) BACK IN THE DEVELOPER!

With stain, Visual appearances can be deceiving. If you wish to evaluate the effectiveness of the stain, either print the negs or use the UV channel on a densitometer - (or use the Blue Channel on a color densitometer). The stain density should be proportional to the amount of exposure.

 

[Donald Miller]

I ran some film tests yesterday with pyrocat hd 1:1:100, using hangers and
a lift and tilt agitation scheme that resulted in about 10 sec every 3 minutes, although the tank had rather continuous movement of the solution, as I lifted the hangers one at a time.

MyHP5 Ilford had significantly less stain than the Efke PL100, same scene, same lens filter, shot at the box film speed in both cases. Both contact printed well-5x7 film, although no clouds in the scene, so I could not really tell much difference in the prints.

Hutchins recommends dipping the fixed negative back in the developer to increase stain. Does this idea have a place in pyrocat? How deep should the stain be?

Herb,

I assume that you are visually evaluating stain on negatives. As Tom mentioned, that is not very accurate because it appears that you are evaluating overall stain and not proportional stain. A densitometer is required to evaluate proportional stain.