Wow!!! is the first word that came out of my mouth after the first use by myself of Pot Ferri for bleaching back, on Monday just past.
I spent some time in the darkroom on Sunday, printing up the latest round of postcards for exchange number 43. I thought all was fine, after I viewed the test strips and the final cards under a daylight bulb in the darkroom and then the bathroom light whilst they were in the wash.
I can only put it down to the artificial lighting, and my tired eyes on the Monday, but the next day when I viewed the cards, which were now dry, I couldn't believe how lifeless they looked.
I know all about dry down etc. but the prints lacked any highlights, which were all light-ish grey.
At first I thought that I would have to reprint them all, or maybe bleach them right back (as I have Pot Ferri and Hypo from toning experiments) and then snatch them from the redevelopment, in the hope of getting a better set of prints.
Over a mug of coffee, I decided to read bits of Tim Rudman's printing course book and for the first time, thought that I would have a go with lightening the prints slightly in a bath of Pot Ferri. First I thought of using a brush on certain parts but after reading, I read a passage that says (something like) that some photographers regularly over print slightly and then put the prints through a Pot Ferri solution. Then there were the various formulas, all talking about making a litre of this and a litre of that...
Finally I read another bit of text somewhere (in the Darkroom Cookbook?) that says to use one half of a teaspoon of Pot Ferri in 200ml of water.
Well, the transformation after putting a DRY print (so as to affect the highlights first and mainly overall) into the solution for just 30 seconds amazed me.
I still have the enlarger set up in the correct position and I keep notes of all my printing, so next time I'm in the darkroom, I'm going to try and print a card again with slightly less exposure (I use an RH Analyser.) I am going to do this as I am curious to see if I can get a similar print as achieved, or whether I should routinely over expose from now on and bleach back slightly.
I can't put a print or two up for you to see the difference as they have only just been put in the post and I don't want to ruin the effect for people receiving prints through the post, unseen elsewhere.
So, to finish, does anyone do the above regularly?
Many thanks.
Terry S
I spent some time in the darkroom on Sunday, printing up the latest round of postcards for exchange number 43. I thought all was fine, after I viewed the test strips and the final cards under a daylight bulb in the darkroom and then the bathroom light whilst they were in the wash.
I can only put it down to the artificial lighting, and my tired eyes on the Monday, but the next day when I viewed the cards, which were now dry, I couldn't believe how lifeless they looked.
I know all about dry down etc. but the prints lacked any highlights, which were all light-ish grey.
At first I thought that I would have to reprint them all, or maybe bleach them right back (as I have Pot Ferri and Hypo from toning experiments) and then snatch them from the redevelopment, in the hope of getting a better set of prints.
Over a mug of coffee, I decided to read bits of Tim Rudman's printing course book and for the first time, thought that I would have a go with lightening the prints slightly in a bath of Pot Ferri. First I thought of using a brush on certain parts but after reading, I read a passage that says (something like) that some photographers regularly over print slightly and then put the prints through a Pot Ferri solution. Then there were the various formulas, all talking about making a litre of this and a litre of that...
Finally I read another bit of text somewhere (in the Darkroom Cookbook?) that says to use one half of a teaspoon of Pot Ferri in 200ml of water.
Well, the transformation after putting a DRY print (so as to affect the highlights first and mainly overall) into the solution for just 30 seconds amazed me.
I still have the enlarger set up in the correct position and I keep notes of all my printing, so next time I'm in the darkroom, I'm going to try and print a card again with slightly less exposure (I use an RH Analyser.) I am going to do this as I am curious to see if I can get a similar print as achieved, or whether I should routinely over expose from now on and bleach back slightly.
I can't put a print or two up for you to see the difference as they have only just been put in the post and I don't want to ruin the effect for people receiving prints through the post, unseen elsewhere.
So, to finish, does anyone do the above regularly?
Many thanks.
Terry S
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