Alternatives to kodak photoflow6/4/2023 This was intended to pre-wet the surface of the film and soften it very slightly in order to allow the developer quicker, and thus more even, access to all of the surface. At least, I think they do the town council might just have been being kind to me and not wanting to embarrass a well-intending foreigner - perhaps the Durst has long vanished into oblivion! I realised on the first attempt that handling large containers of stop and fixer was not sensible after a heart attack - though covered with plastic sheeting, those carpets were silently screaming at me to wake up! Then, I thought I´d try again with prints. Anyway, it got little use and we eventually put in fitted carpets. In the event, water shortages made me avoid using it as did the inconvenience of putting up the light screens. (I hate air-con, as did my wife - it was only for that one room and the quest for 68 degrees F!) All my later pro work was transparency but I still liked b/w prints, so when we moved to Spain I built an office which provided office space along one wall and wet-bench possibilities along the other, plumbed and with an air-con unit fitted. You´re not joking! In fact, that´s partly a reason for my closing down the last darkroom. I polish these off gently with cotton gloves I found chamois leather would scratch, Sometimes I find a long streak on the film but never spots as when using more or no photoflo. I then hang the films and finger squeegee. This doesn't cause bubbling which I understand to be bad. Rather than mix it, I drop the photoflo into a tank and then add the water so that I don't create extra bubbles.Īfter washing, i dump the spool into the tank containing photoflo and spin it gently for a minute or so. I do this before I crack the films open so as it settles without bubbles. My final wash is in DH20 and I mix photoflo 0.5ml (measured in an insulin syringe with the needle removed) into 1l or water. I wash using the Ilford method and Brita filtered water for the first two washes. wisdom suggested 1:2000 and this works lots better. I don't have a spec sheet to hand but I believe photoflo recommended dilution is 1:1000 which I found awful. I would be most interested to hear why you do this - and will settle for anything between reasoned science and superstition - fact is, sometimes, I get watermarks and they are a pain! Mikeseb's suggestion (plenty of agitation) runs contrary to everything I've been taught though I've no reason to doubt it works for him - afterall, his photography is pretty hot!) Similarly, Rob's presoak is alien to me. That might well no longer be the case! Here, in Spain, the water is so hard that washing is almost tantamount to ensuring a deposit of scum on the dried film, another reason that discourages me from using film, though I did use distilled water for everything else in the process (in Spain).Īll this might well have been an exercise in futility, but it was the best I could think of and seemed to work most of the time. Also, importantly, the Glasgow water supply - my branch line of it anyway, was so soft that you could use it in the car battery instead of distilled water. Whether or not it helped is hard to say: you can´t process the same film twice. This was made up days in advance and allowed to settle until no froth was evident. Used them for papers though.Īs a final dip after washing, I used a stock solution made up of water, in about a 5 ltr bottle with a single drop of wetting agent. I was always in two minds about stop baths - mainly against. But always slow inversion, with a pause in between each, in an attempt to give the fluid time to float any bubbles off the film face. The point is, if you get a routine and stick to it, you find the correct times by experience. Then, after a minute or two, I´d empty that out, shake the tank well and then pour in the developer and agitate via inversion, slowly, for the first minute, regardless of instructions to the contrary. My technique used to be to make up a full tank ´s worth of plain water at 68 - 70 degrees F and pour that into the dev tank as a pre-developer bath in the hope of getting the film evenly wet, agitating by inversion. I don´t like the idea of too vigorous a shaking: you can create bubbles that way.
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