pyrocat-hd post stain ? post-stain pyrocat

greenspun.com : LUSENET : B&W Photo - Film & Processing : One Thread

after developing and fixing my film (Ilford FP-4 5x7) in a 1:2:100 dilution of pyrocat-hd i stuck it back into the developer again (straight from the fix) for 2 minutes expecting to get a post stain similar to the PMK works... however after a 20 min. wash no post stain at all.

i cut the neg in half and post-stained half - no difference at all.

any thoughts? thanks.

-- patricklocke (patricklocke@yahoo.com), March 14, 2002

Answers

With Pyrocat-HD there's no need for a second dunk in the developer. I use P-HD in homemade tubes, and I get a nice yellow-brown stain.

I've used HP5+ with P-HD. I've never used FP-4 with it.

-- Ken Miller (andawyr@hotmail.com), March 14, 2002.


My experience with Pyrocat-HD has been that all the staining action takes place during development, so a post-fix alkaline bath is not necessary or useful. I know Sandy King had recommended it at one time, because he assumed it would work the same way PMK does, but my experience doesn't back that up.

-- Ed Buffaloe (edb@unblinkingeye.com), March 14, 2002.

Pyrocat-HD does not induce as much fog as PMK. So if you were expecting the negatives to look like PMK, that might be part of the problem. Also, the stain of catechol is more subtle appearing than pyro; the stain is more image specific, not a general stain. However, its effect, in terms of printing, is quite pronounced. This is particularly true with VC papers. Lastly, slower films in general do not appear to stain as heavily as faster films. Nonetheless, the net effect is still pretty strong; there is simpy less fog with slower films so they appear less stained.

-- Ted Kaufman (writercrmp@aol.com), March 14, 2002.

Moderation questions? read the FAQ