Re: Reuse of Pyrogallol developer
Posted: Sun Jan 16, 2022 10:20 am
Hi Martin,
Thank you for taking the time to reply. The “acutance dye” being an anti-halation dye? When I was using the 3-step alcohol dry process many years ago in which I observed a pink hue left in the 50/50 bath, it was mostly with Agfa 8E56HD and Millimask plates.
I’m testing a possible new 660nm red laser and have four 4x5” plate materials available to me, 10E75NAH, 8E75, 8E75HD, and Ilford SP696T. All of these materials are at least 30-40 years old. In theory, all these materials are sensitive in the 660nm range.
The test shot is a white light viewable achromat (open aperture) H2 transfer tests from a 12x16” ruby pulsed H1 portrait.
My plan has been to use Pyrochrome processing for everything to start with and, once I have a baseline, move to Nick’s#5 (slightly different formulations for Ilford & Agfa) dev with FeEDTA followed by photoflo rinse. I dislike photoflo but my unscientific experience using SP695T with 532nm discouraged me from using alcohol drying with Ilford materials. I’d be very happy to go back to alcohol drying though and ditch the photoflo for transmission holograms.
So far, I’ve gotten surprisingly good results with the 10E75NAH (see photo). For some reason, after five tests, I’m getting absolutely nothing with SP696T plates. Just an all over even tanning of the emulsion side with not even plate holder occlusion area. Either it’s a bad box of plates, or it’s not at all sensitive to 660nm, or there’s something about the pyrochrome it doesn’t like. I’m going to do one more test with just Dev/fix this afternoon and, if nothing there, try another box. If still nothing, then I’ll move on to 8E75 tests. It would be a damn shame because I’ve got a lot of the old SP696T plates.
Looking at your last suggestion re Jeff B’s printout prevention bath, how would that compare to Ilford’s old recommended potassium iodide anti printout bath.
Ultimately my goal is the old very bright clear plates that “pop”.
Re attached photo, I know that I can get rid of wood grain by changing from s-pol to p-pol. Right now for testing, not necessary .
Thank you for taking the time to reply. The “acutance dye” being an anti-halation dye? When I was using the 3-step alcohol dry process many years ago in which I observed a pink hue left in the 50/50 bath, it was mostly with Agfa 8E56HD and Millimask plates.
I’m testing a possible new 660nm red laser and have four 4x5” plate materials available to me, 10E75NAH, 8E75, 8E75HD, and Ilford SP696T. All of these materials are at least 30-40 years old. In theory, all these materials are sensitive in the 660nm range.
The test shot is a white light viewable achromat (open aperture) H2 transfer tests from a 12x16” ruby pulsed H1 portrait.
My plan has been to use Pyrochrome processing for everything to start with and, once I have a baseline, move to Nick’s#5 (slightly different formulations for Ilford & Agfa) dev with FeEDTA followed by photoflo rinse. I dislike photoflo but my unscientific experience using SP695T with 532nm discouraged me from using alcohol drying with Ilford materials. I’d be very happy to go back to alcohol drying though and ditch the photoflo for transmission holograms.
So far, I’ve gotten surprisingly good results with the 10E75NAH (see photo). For some reason, after five tests, I’m getting absolutely nothing with SP696T plates. Just an all over even tanning of the emulsion side with not even plate holder occlusion area. Either it’s a bad box of plates, or it’s not at all sensitive to 660nm, or there’s something about the pyrochrome it doesn’t like. I’m going to do one more test with just Dev/fix this afternoon and, if nothing there, try another box. If still nothing, then I’ll move on to 8E75 tests. It would be a damn shame because I’ve got a lot of the old SP696T plates.
Looking at your last suggestion re Jeff B’s printout prevention bath, how would that compare to Ilford’s old recommended potassium iodide anti printout bath.
Ultimately my goal is the old very bright clear plates that “pop”.
Re attached photo, I know that I can get rid of wood grain by changing from s-pol to p-pol. Right now for testing, not necessary .