Hello list members. This may have been covered before, but I'm curious if anyone has a suggestion for distressing negatives during development? I'm talking about severe distressing for artistic purpose, not just an extreme increase in grain.

I've seen some examples in contemporary art shows, and the effect has the same look as acid etching away the emulsion. It also is very similar to the edge effect from Polaroid Type 55 film, for example.

Thanks in advance for any suggest

-- bill noll (bill@neoview.com), July 03, 2000

Answers

Are you referring to reticulation? It used to happen if the variation in temperature between developer and stop was high - a sort of crinkling of the emulsion. I've never tried it but I've heard it is quite difficult to do with modern emulsions. Try a big temperature difference and a strong acid stop (which is supposed to help). Good luck. DJ

-- N Dhananjay (ndhanu@umich.edu), July 03, 2000.

I've only had one film 'recirculate' and it was Konica IR750 which was in the tank with a roll of FP4 at the same time. The FP4 showed no affects, but the Konica had the very distinctive pattern. I have seen another example of Konica doing this, although much finer pattern than my example, so maybe if this is an effect your after, this would be a good film to experiment with. In my example, I believe my wash temp climbed to approx 40C after the 'mixer' tap was bumped. The devl, stop & fix steps were as the correct temps. I haven't tried to repeat this as I guess you need to plan your pictures to suit! Some of my images were of the Shrine (a stone building) here in Melbourne and I could see that the effect could probably be used to some use.

If you're after negs with big imperfections, maybe take to it while drying with a hair dryer... you could get crinkles, splotches and cracks I guess! I've never tried this I might add!

-- Nigel Smith (nlandgl@eisa.net.au), July 03, 2000.

In 'The book of pyro' g.hutchings explains that you can not use dev temps higher than 80 degrees with pmk because the emulsion starts to swell as the pyro tries to harden the emuslion,or something to that effect so you might try pmk at very high temps.-J

-- josh (devil_music@usa.net), July 04, 2000.

I have only heard, never tried, that radical changes in Ph will also cause reticulation. I have a friend that uses the parking lot and his palm. One short twist or slide at a time, assess, repeat if necessary (it works for him!)... t

-- tom meyer (twm@mindspring.com), July 09, 2000.

If you want the film to reticulate, it's really quite easy. Fix the film using a non-hardening fixer. This is one of the keys to doing this as hardening fixer causes the gelatin molecules in the emulsion to crosslink. The emulsion will not swell as much, and the gelatin's melting point is raised by the hardener.

After you fix the film in the non-hardening fixer, wash the film gently in 80 degree water (you're trying to get the gelatin to swell up). Then, soak the film in 100 degree water for about 2-3 minutes to get the gelatin to really swell up. Don't go any hotter or much longer as the gelatin will start to dissolve in the warm water. Then immerse it ice water for about 2-3 minutes and you should have reticulated film.

-- steve (s.swinehart@worldnet.att.net), July 10, 2000.