Wow!!! the power of Pot Ferri

[Terry S]

First off, please note that I have just posted the same question on another different forum that I belong to. I have done this as I believe there are different members and i.e. different opinions on both of them. Apologies if you are on both as a member.

Anyway, onto my question...

Wow!!! is the first word that came out of my mouth after the first use by myself of Pot Ferri for bleaching back, on Monday just past.

I spent some time in the darkroom on Sunday, printing up some postcards for an exchange group that I belong to. I thought all was fine, after I viewed the test strips and the final cards under a daylight bulb in the darkroom and then the bathroom light whilst they were in the wash.

I can only put it down to the artificial lighting, and my tired eyes on the Monday, but the next day when I viewed the cards, which were now dry, I couldn't believe how lifeless they looked.

I know all about dry down etc. but the prints lacked any highlights, which were all light-ish grey.

At first I thought that I would have to reprint them all, or maybe bleach them right back (as I have Pot Ferri and Hypo from toning experiments) and then snatch them from the redevelopment, in the hope of getting a better set of prints.

Over a mug of coffee, I decided to read bits of Tim Rudman's printing course book and for the first time, thought that I would have a go with lightening the prints slightly in a bath of Pot Ferri. First I thought of using a brush on certain parts but after reading, I read a passage that says (something like) that some photographers regularly over print slightly and then put the prints through a Pot Ferri solution. Then there were the various formulas, all talking about making a litre of this and a litre of that...

Finally I read another bit of text somewhere (in the Darkoom Cookbook?) that says to use one half of a teaspoon of Pot Ferri in 200ml of water.

Well, the transformation after putting a DRY print (so as to affect the highlights first and mainly overall) into the solution for just 30 seconds amazed me.

I still have the enlarger set up in the correct position and I keep notes of all my printing, so next time I'm in the darkroom, I'm going to try and print a card again with slightly less exposure (I use an RH Analyser.) I am going to do this as I am curious to see if I can get a similar print as achieved, or whether I should routinely over expose from now on and bleach back slightly.

I can't put a print or two up for you to see the difference as they have only just been put in the post and I don't want to ruin the effect for people receiving prints through the post, unseen elsewhere.

So, to finish, does anyone do the above regularly?

Many thanks.

Terry S

[Richard Gould]

Personally I have only used it very occasoinly as purely a rescue attempt, it works, but I think it better to get the print right in the first place, every so often what ever you do it does not look right and as a last resort I will try local bleaching, but certainly never ever would I print to bleach to get things right, for me only for emergency rescue
Richard

[Mike O'Pray]

I have never used pot ferri so cannot comment really. A pity that the before and after cards can't be shown as this might help me to decide about trying it. Secondly half a teaspoon in 200 mls sounds quite strong but clearly you were able to stop the action quickly once you got to where you wanted to be.

Was it an immediate dunk in stronger than normal fix or just normal fix? Crucially can you wait and only dunk when what you see in the pot ferri solution is what you want or do you have to "predict" where it will be in say X secs so the fix is given the time it needs to work?e

In theory over exposing and bleaching back should produce no better an effect that getting the exposure right, shouldn't it? However in practice it may in fact be easier to get the same of slightly better effect from this than attempting the "perfect exposure" I just don't know.

For instructional purposes I'd love to see 3 prints, namely, 1. the overexposed;2. the bleached back and 3. the correct exposure to compare and contrast.

Mike

[big paul]

that's great terry if you made some prints that you were not a hundred percent happy with and that solved it ,that sounds like a great and easy fix ,also sounds like a great money saver ,I made some prints the other night and when they were dry the next day I tore up two 10x 8 prints that I could have tried to salvage , I have never used Pot Ferri but I should have some for emergencies ,who sells it ..


www.essexcockney.com

[John King]

Originally Posted by big paul

that's great terry if you made some prints that you were not a hundred percent happy with and that solved it ,that sounds like a great and easy fix ,also sounds like a great money saver ,I made some prints the other night and when they were dry the next day I tore up two 10x 8 prints that I could have tried to salvage , I have never used Pot Ferri but I should have some for emergencies ,who sells it ..
www.essexcockney.com

You can get it from here:- http://www.morco.uk.com/ Mine came from there.

That is where I get a lot of my B&W materials from. For some film and papers they are cheaper in both price and postage than AG

[Mike O'Pray]

Originally Posted by John King

You can get it from here:- http://www.morco.uk.com/ Mine came from there.

That is where I get a lot of my B&W materials from. For some film and papers they are cheaper in both price and postage than AG

I had a quick look here John but couldn't find pot ferri. Which section is it under?

Thanks

Mike

[skellum]

Found this-
Comes as two packets.
Solution 1 is potassium ferricyanide, solution 2 is fix.

http://www.morco.uk.com/black-white-...s-reducer.html

Also, in browsing,

http://www.tmax100.com/photo/pdf/farmers.pdf

[John King]

Originally Posted by Mike O'Pray

I had a quick look here John but couldn't find pot ferri. Which section is it under?

Thanks

Mike

Actually I had to ask if they stocked it. They did and I bought a kit of, I think 4 sachets of each component.

Likewise at the same time I bought re-loadable cassettes which again were not on their website.

If they cannot help you could always try Silverprint who used to be in London but have now moved out to the sticks. https://www.silverprint.co.uk/

[Terry S]

Originally Posted by Mike O'Pray

1. A pity that the before and after cards can't be shown as this might help me to decide about trying it.

2. Secondly half a teaspoon in 200 mls sounds quite strong but clearly you were able to stop the action quickly once you got to where you wanted to be.

3. Was it an immediate dunk in stronger than normal fix or just normal fix? Crucially can you wait and only dunk when what you see in the pot ferri solution is what you want or do you have to "predict" where it will be in say X secs so the fix is given the time it needs to work?

4. In theory over exposing and bleaching back should produce no better an effect that getting the exposure right, shouldn't it? However in practice it may in fact be easier to get the same of slightly better effect from this than attempting the "perfect exposure" I just don't know.

1. (cont;d) For instructional purposes I'd love to see 3 prints, namely, 1. the overexposed;2. the bleached back and 3. the correct exposure to compare and contrast.

Mike

Hi Mike and all.

Quite a few questions there Mike, but I'll have a go at answering each one.

1. After a couple of weeks, to let the prints sent get received by the recipients, I'll scan and put some prints for comparison at the end of these posts. Hopefully my scanning will be good enough to show the effects, but as we all know, what looks good on my monitor, (which is calibrated by a Pantone Huey btw) may look totally different on others monitors.

2. I have no idea what sounds strong or not, as various chemicals are used at various amounts in different formulas, but I was very happy to find the 'easy way' to make some Pot Ferri up. I preferred this rather than ending up with litres of the stuff and this can be stored and reused for a while at least. Using half a teaspoon of Pot Ferri in 200 mls was a nice easy way to mix some up and I didn't have any trouble controlling its action. It was also just the right amount to put some postcards in (doing them all individually), using a 7 x 5 inch tray. When I thought a now bleached print looked right, I whipped it out as quick as i could and put in in a tray of water and agitated for about another 30 seconds and the prints came out fine. There might have been a very slight difference between the various prints at the end after drying, with some having an extra second or so in the solution, but nothing was noticeable to my eyes. And I presume one could dilute the solution with a bit more water for slower action but I was able to use it with no problems at this dilution.

3. As for re-fixing, directly after the rinse, I put the prints in a freshly made solution of plain Hypo. Again a small amount was made and put in a 7 x 5 inch tray. I believe Hypo is recommended as it doesn't have a bleaching effect, which the faster fixes might have on something that has just been bleached in Pot Ferri.

4. In theory, yes, over exposing and bleaching back should produce no better an effect that getting the exposure right, but as said that's in theory and theories do not always seem to follow through. The only way to tell, for me anyway, is to look at prints, side by side, after I have done another print as before but with slightly less exposure. I will then compare the two or three prints together. Whether one process is easier than the other is open to debate and I'm sure some would prefer one process over the other.

I hope I have answered all of your questions.

Terry S

[Terry S]

Originally Posted by Mike O'Pray

Secondly half a teaspoon in 200 mls sounds quite strong but clearly you were able to stop the action quickly once you got to where you wanted to be.

Mike

EDIT: It seems you were correct in your thoughts Mike.

Something made me look at my measuring spoons again last night as something didn't click quite right in my thoughts. So, back to skimming through The Darkroom Cookbook, to find my original source. Luckily I have dozens of post-it-notes on various pages for things that are relevant to me.

And there we have it at the bottom of page 303:

'Alternately, dissolve approximately 1/4 (!!) teaspoon of ferricyanide in 200ml of water.'

So there we have it, it is 1/4 and NOT 1/2 teaspoon as I first wrote.

Apologies to anyone who might have followed the first post, although if your reactions are were quick enough you might have been fine.

Terry S