Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Arctic Pyro

I've made photos here in Alaska before, with digital cameras, polaroids, and B&W film, but I've never processed my film here, until now. I recently found a very cool No 1 Kodak Jr. 6x9 folding camera, and I packed it into my carry-on, along with several rolls of film, archival sleeves, Paterson developing tank, a pkg of Kodak powder fixer, and two, 50ml bottles of 510-Pyro. After exposing my first roll, it was time to process the film in my tiny bathroom. I didn't pack a light meter, I forgot to bring a thermometer, or a timer, and I wanted to stretch my 510-Pyro, so I decided on a very forgiving development regime; 510-Pyro 1:500, 30 minutes @ tepid, one minute initial agitation followed by ten seconds/ ten minutes of development. My first roll looked great, but since I didn't have a wetting agent, it dried with water spots. For my second roll I added a few squirts of hand sanitizer (ethol alcohol) to the rinse water, and my negatives have been pristine since.

Sir Ernest Shackleton used a very similar camera to document his expedition to Antarctica, after he had to abandon all of his larger, heavier plate cameras when the ship was crushed by ice. The environment here is very demanding and even hostile, but this little camera is so simple, there's almost nothing to go wrong! And I've been very impressed with its performance. I haven't had a chance to scan or print any of my negatives yet, but when I do, I'll post a few examples. In the meantime, I have one scan from this camera, made just before I left home for Alaska. I can't seem to upload the photo, so here's the link:


The linked example is Ultrafine Plus ISO100, developed in 510-Pyro 1:100, 7:30, 70F agitation 10sec/min.

Thursday, May 27, 2010

Love on the Rocks....

Juliet at Celebration Park

This is my darling Juliet beneath the cloudy Idaho skies, on a warm black rock on the bank of the Snake River. The light would change from brilliant to flat as clouds passed in front of the sun, so this roll of film required some thought about processing. I decided to process in 510-Pyro, semi-stand, but at 1:100 dilution instead of 1:300, or 1:500 as I usually do. I think this negative has potential.

Film: TMY-2
Format: 120 (6x7)
Developer: 510-Pyro
Dilution: 1:100
Time: 16:00
Temp: 70F
Agitation: Semi-Stand (continuous for 1st minute/ 10 seconds at 1/2 way point)


Monday, April 19, 2010

Jim Byers on Stand Development


Jim has been making some gorgeous images of Camellias in bloom, and I'm grateful for his permission to post some of them here, with his notes on development. I admire Jim's relentless persistence in his pursuit of excellence, and in bending his materials to his will, in service of his vision. Jim has really put 510-Pyro through its paces, using concentrated solutions and long, rotary development times to squeeze every bit of speed out of Tri-X, and using very dilute solutions with minimal and even full stand development to coax every delicate detail of a Camellia blossom out of Efke 25. I don't think the phrase, "Good enough" is one Jim uses often.






Jim's Notes on Stand Development


I found the Camellias challenging because it was difficult to capture the dark leaves without blowing out the highlights on the flower. If I increased the exposure to make the leaves more visible the flowers became too bright to show the highlight detail there.

So I needed to use a developing technique on the film to increase the development of the shadows while simultaneously limiting the development of the highlights. Fortunately “stand development” provides this benefit. By eliminating agitation for long periods of time the development of the highlights nearly stops since developer chemicals in the vicinity of the highlights become exhausted. In the shadow areas where development is much less, there are plenty of local developing chemicals in the vicinity and development continues strongly there.

Not all developers work for stand development. Using 510-Pyro I got great results using both semi-stand and stand development. For semi-stand I agitated for the first 30 seconds and then again for 10 seconds ½ way though development. I kept my development tank in a larger water bath to keep the temperature constant and the temperature differential between the top and bottom of the tank to a minimum. I got very nice results in the 35-40 minute range using semi-stand development for the Efke 25.

Encouraged by the semi-stand development, I next went for full stand development, - agitating for the first 30 seconds and then no agitation for the rest of the development. I went for a very extended full stand development time of 50 minutes. This is longer than I would have normally done and although it produced some overdevelopment on the edges of the negative I was able to get the result I wanted for this image.

I recommend people try semi-stand development with a 1:500 dilution and a time equal to 6 to 7 times the normal development time they use with 1:100/normal agitation. For full stand try 7 to 8 times normal development time. This is a fun technique to try and can provide very useful benefits. Experiment and have some fun with it!”

Main Photo information:

Film: Efke 25

EI: 25

Format: 4x5

Developer: 510-Pyro

Dilution: 1:500

Time: 50 min

Temp: 21C/70F

Agitation: Inversions for first 30 seconds then none for the remaining time. Place tank in water bath to keep temperature constant. Stir surrounding water bath occasionally to keep water a uniform temperature.

Presoak: 3 minutes water presoak

Fixer: TF-4

Information on close crop image:

This is a close up crop from the original image. If you click on the photo the image you will see has one pixel on the screen for each dot on the 2400 dpi scan of the negative. Note the very small fine grain and smooth transition of the tones. This is a much smoother transition of detail than I was able to achieve with Rodinal stand development.




Sunday, March 21, 2010

Spring is here. The Camellias are blooming!


Thanks to Jim Byers for this beautiful image. The play of contrasts, between the delicacy of the luminous petals and the substance of the velvety leaves, between sharpness and softness, and between detail and void, is so harmoniously composed, I've been staring at it for long periods since Jim sent it, and I'm still discovering it. Jim offered this image as an example of his film/ developer combination, but I see it as an example of a simple subject elevated by Jim's sensitivity and command of his materials. I'm sure Jim could have made this image with any number of developers, but I'm glad he chose 510-Pyro!


Film: Efke 25
EI: 20
Format: 4x5
Developer: 510-Pyro
Dilution: 1:100
Time: 5:06
Temp: 21C/70F
Agitation: Rotary
Presoak: 3 minutes water presoak
Fixer: TF-4

Monday, March 8, 2010

Pyro for Pushers!

Kodak Tri-X Pan, EI 1600




When I started this blog, I hoped it would become both a venue for discussion and repository for data, related to the use of 510-Pyro. Recently, I was contacted by Jim Byers, a 510-Pyro user interested in push processing. Jim told me he wasn't able to find much information here, or elsewhere, and I suggested he find the information he needed by experimentation, which he did. I am impressed by Jim's logical, and dispassionate approach to finding the answers he sought, using his materials and equipment in both real world, and carefully arranged settings, and his intelligent use of his film scanner for analyzing the results of his experiments.

Thank you, Jim, for your contribution.

Jim's comments:

The 510-Pyro/Tri-X combination at EI 1600 produces surprisingly small grain for a two stop push. In addition it held the highlight detail and the shadow detail extremely well. A very effective two stop push is easily attainable with this combination.

Film: Tri-X 400
EI: 1600
Format: 120 Medium Format
Developer: 510-Pyro
Dilution: 1:100
Time: 18:00
Temp: 20C/68F
Agitation: Rotary
Presoak: 3 minutes water presoak
Fixer: TF-4


When pushing to EI 800 the following time and dilution have been working well:

Film: Tri-X 400
EI: 800
Dilution: 1:100
Time: 11:00
Temp: 20C/68F
Agitation: Rotary
Presoak: 3 minutes water presoak
Fixer: TF-4




Saturday, March 6, 2010

A New Scanner!


Julia and I have a new scanner, and she is working diligently to scan our archive of negatives and prints. The scanner is the bottom of the line Epson 4490, retailing for $149. It wil scan 35mm and MF negatives and prints up to 8x10. Julia has never scanned a negative before, so she's a good tester of the scanner's user-friendliness. This image is from Julia's first ever negative scan, and is not cropped, adjusted or edited in any way.

Film: Arista EDU 100
Developer: 510-Pyro
Dilution: 1:100
Time: 7:30
temp: 70F
Agitation: 10 sec/minute

Scanner: Epson 4490
Resolution: 300dpi

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

The Darkroom Cookbook, Third Edition

510-Pyro has been published in the third edition of The Darkroom Cookbook, by Steve Anchell, thanks to editor, Mark Booth. I'm honored to have my formula included in this indispensable darkroom reference book.