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  #21  
Old 17th May 2021, 11:08 AM
tillari tillari is offline
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In the Darkroom Cookbook , Anchell also says thak you can add a sodium carbonate solution to the developer to enhace the blacks and potasium bromide solution to make more brillant whites, increasing the contrast. And other solutions are an internegative with lith film and/or a lith developer (I don't know if are still available)
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  #22  
Old 17th May 2021, 12:18 PM
Terry S Terry S is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by tillari View Post
In the Darkroom Cookbook , Anchell also says thak you can add a sodium carbonate solution to the developer to enhace the blacks...
And there is a thread about this sometime ago, that can be found here:

http://www.film-and-darkroom-user.or...dium+carbonate

Terry S
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  #23  
Old 18th May 2021, 12:13 AM
Stocky Stocky is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by JOReynolds View Post
The conventional way of getting extreme contrast used to be a lith developer, which uses hydroquinone in a highly-alkaline medium.

The formula I used, long ago, was Kodak D9 (chosen because it uses neither formaldehyde nor acetone):

Part A
500mL HOT water 50C
22g sodium bisulphate
22g hydroquinone.
22g potassium bromide.
to 1L of water.

Part B
1L COLD water
sodium hydroxide 55g*

* sodium hydroxide evolves heat when added to water. Wear hand and eye protection.

Keep parts A and B in stoppered bottles for a few weeks at most.

Mix equal volumes of parts A and B for use. It feels soapy.

I have no idea if this works with modern emulsions such as Multigrade. In 2013 Tim Rudman wrote a report on lith-ing different papers.

I bought Ascher digital weigh-scales through the Wish website. Not trusting an unknown brand at a ridiculously low price (£9) I also bought calibration weights. The scales are really accurate, 200g down to 0.01g.

Be careful - these scales are used by class A drug dealers to measure doses of cocaine and heroin!
Should that be bisulphite (i not a)?

If so, metabisulphite is more available (brewers' suppliers)

Would it be worth trying a bit of hydroxide in your usual paper developer?
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  #24  
Old 18th May 2021, 04:06 AM
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Uwe Pilz Uwe Pilz is offline
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> Would it be worth trying a bit of hydroxide in your usual paper developer?

Probably not. Developers are buffered and the pH changes only slowly with acid or alkali add on
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  #25  
Old 18th May 2021, 09:13 PM
SlawekD SlawekD is offline
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The foremost thing is what kind of light do you have in your enlarger? Do you have condenser enlarger of cold-cathode?

Condenser gives by default 1-1.5 higher contrast in the expense of higher grain and less protection from dust on the film, so you must have very clean negatives.
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  #26  
Old 19th May 2021, 08:14 AM
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Hmmm - just had a thought after watching a new vid on youtube... What about over-printing somewhat and then bleaching back the highlights in Farmer's reducer? That would add some contrast.

But with possibly muddy shadows now I think of it - damn, these magic bullets are illusive buggers. Might be worth a try tho?
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  #27  
Old 19th May 2021, 11:29 AM
Mike O'Pray Mike O'Pray is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Bob View Post
Hmmm - just had a thought after watching a new vid on youtube... What about over-printing somewhat and then bleaching back the highlights in Farmer's reducer? That would add some contrast.

But with possibly muddy shadows now I think of it - damn, these magic bullets are illusive buggers. Might be worth a try tho?
Bob, is this the John Finch of Pictorial Planet fame recent video? If it was then I too have just had a look at it and once again it was well explained and delivered at the right pace as his videos always are.

My only problem was that it wasn't clear to me how well it worked. There was, I think, some kind of an improvement but I found it difficult to be sure.

A "before" print along with his "after" print might have been worthwhile

Mike
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  #28  
Old 19th May 2021, 02:23 PM
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Yep, that was the one Also, I thought exactly the same as you - a with/without shot would have been very useful to compare the effect.

I have used Farmer's before but typically, over-did it... So it was useful to see John Finch's approach. I also have a negative of sheep that could do with the sheep brightening up in the print...
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  #29  
Old 19th May 2021, 04:39 PM
Mike O'Pray Mike O'Pray is offline
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What surprises me to an extent is why he doesn't say that in the early days of using Farmer's when good judgement on when to stop can be difficult to achieve and overdoing it can occur, another route is to use only ferri, wash thoroughly and immediately then if you have judged it correctly dunk into fix.

That way if you have overdone it you can redevelop
stop, fix and wash then apply the ferri

This would work, wouldn't it?

The only snag with this, assuming it would work, is that it much more of a palaver and I suppose on balance it might be easier to just re-print.

He does say to constantly err on the safe side so you could say that that is the "catch-all" answer

Mike
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  #30  
Old 19th May 2021, 06:11 PM
SlawekD SlawekD is offline
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I mentioned to you what gives the best result already. You can try re-development with 1:1 PQ or even in stock (but stock is not always a solution due to chemical reactions).
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