I am new to bleaching. I understand that Farmers Reducer is the bleach of choice for prints, however, the product labeled "Farmers Reducer" indicates in the directions that it is for negatives, and makes no mention of prints. Is this what is used for bleaching prints or should I be looking for another "Farmers Reducer"?

-- N. L. Ricketts (NORicketts@AOL.com), January 17, 2000

Answers

Farmer's Reducer (ferricyanide/hypo) is the 'bleach of choice' only for certain applications, for both negatives and prints.

-- Alan Gibson (Alan.Gibson@technologist.com), January 17, 2000.

If you want to learn about bleaching, one book you might take a look at is Tim Rudman's "The Photographers Master Printing Course". There are others, I'm sure, but I like this one a lot.

-- Thomas Wollstein (thomas_wollstein@web.de), January 18, 2000.

Mix each part of farmer's w/ 4 oz of water(not the directions for negatives), then use equal amounts of part A & B. May add more water if it works too quickly(and it will when it is fresh). After 20 min. it will be exhausted. Good luck!

-- Doug Rhinehart (drhinehart@coloradomtn.edu), January 18, 2000.

You can use reducer locally with a brush. Farmers reducer is not proportional, so it increases contrast. I believe it is mostly used just because of that.

Sakari

-- Sakari Makela (sakari.makela@koulut.vantaa.fi), January 19, 2000.

Farmer's reducer can be used as a cutting reducer as well as a proportional reducer. Mix part A and part B together and it works as a cutting reducer i.e., it reduces density uniformly all over. If you use Part A first, then part B, I believe it acts as a proportional reducer i.e., it reduces density in proportion to the actual deposit i.e., greater amounts of density are removed form high density areas. This leads to a lowering of contrast. DJ

-- N Dhananjay (ndhanu@umich.edu), January 19, 2000.

It is only a cutting reducer. It removes silver equally from all areas of the film/print. Thin areas seem to get thinner faster than dense areas because the dense areas have more silver. Same with prints. It increases contrast so be careful. James

-- Mr.Lumberjack (james_mickelson@hotmail.com), January 20, 2000.