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The perfect combination by Eddie Ephraums, from Ag26 |
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Do pyro developed negatives scan as well as they print in silver, asks Eddie Ephraums? In the last issue of Ag (Ag25) I rattled on about the benefits of Gordon Hutchins' PMK developer when used with my preferred 35mm fast film, Ilford Delta 3200. The results were amazing; they were also quite unexpected (I had not found any recommended development times for the film). Until then, all that I had read and heard about pyro implied that it was a good developer for only medium and slow speed films and that its yellow-stained negatives could only be printed on blue sensitive graded paper. However, the prints I made were on Multigrade paper. Thankfully Gordon Hutchins’ Book of Pyro had put an end to the myth of ‘graded paper only’. But, the pleasant surprise that pyro negatives printed excellently on variable contrast paper still left an unanswered question: how well would the negatives scan for digital output? And maybe going down this route would reveal more pleasant surprises? Scanning negatives: Like many photographers, I still prefer to expose my images originally onto film, giving myself the choice of printing the negatives conventionally or scanning them and printing them digitally with all the advantages that Photoshop has to offer. With this in mind, to date I have favoured Ilford’s XP2 chromogenic film - its low density dye image prints well in silver and it scans beautifully. But, would pyro negatives work as well - or better - perhaps? Like XP2 its negatives are relatively low in both contrast and density. All b&w films have some base colour: XP2’s is red, Agfa’s might be slightly blue and pyro’s is yellowish - quite strongly yellow. However, with pyro this colour is more than a base fog - it is also image forming. The degree of staining in the pyro negative is in direct proportion to the amount of developed silver, that is there is both a silver image and a stained one. Next Page >> |
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• The final image, after some minor adjustments in Levels and the application of a tone using the Duotone tool. © Eddie Ephraums Page 1 0f 4 |
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