Thread: drop processing
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Old 4th December 2019, 02:35 PM
Terry S Terry S is online now
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Location: Southend on Sea, Essex, England, UK
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Hmmm, many points to think over given so far.

Quote:
Originally Posted by verene View Post
By overnight I meant 8 hours. As to why is because I was shown (gorgeous) examples of results by someone who claimed to have done it...
As already said, 8 hours is a long time, with stand developing being in the one hour-ish length of time usually. And I too do wonder, if with a very diluted developer, that much, if anything, actually happens after the one hour mark?

And the prints that you have seen, that you describe as 'gorgeous', may be just in your eyes(?) or maybe he's just a very good printer and the long development makes little difference and he's able to print well with a 'normal' negative as well?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Mike O'Pray View Post
The famous photographer Bert Hardy retells a story of how in desperation to get some kind of a negative he used a mixture that he had learned about from some Fleet Street darkroom worker and after a fashion it worked well enough a newspaper picture but it was a last resort method

Mike
And as Mike says, '...after a fashion it worked well enough [for] a newspaper picture but it was a last resort method'. This too makes me wonder that if it was good enough years ago, it would have passed into normal practice for some and it wouldn't be such a mystery as it seems at the moment.

Quote:
Originally Posted by verene View Post
It was a customer who told me he was doing that but was very reluctant to tell me what dilution or product he used... I asked the tech people at Harman/Ilford and other people and all were non-plussed. Anyway I guess I will have to give it a bash in the dark and potentially waste some film.
It's also strange to me that he seems so secretive about it...? And if anyone would know, I would of thought that someone at a large manufacturer like Ilford might know.

But yes, as you say, if it has peaked your interest enough, you are indeed going to have to 'give it a bash' and 'waste some film' as you say.

Quote:
Originally Posted by verene View Post
Maybe he slept with it. But true, in this weather I might as well keep the tank in the fridge.
This comment, for whatever reason, sounded vaguely familiar to me, for I too remember in the long distant past I'm sure, read about someone doing exactly that - putting the tank in a fridge overnight. I've done some searching but can't find anything similar...

Well, if nothing else, you have made me curious but not enough to spend a good bit of time and materials on it, especially having not seen any of this work that you highly praise. If I had, then maybe, just maybe, I might have taken it a little further.

But good luck to you and I'm sure that there's a few of us now who would be interested to hear your findings, at a later date.

As a final thought, if you could find out the customer's name, it might take you a small step to finding out a bit more with a search on the web.

Terry S
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