Filmwasters
Which Board? => Articles => : EarlJam October 24, 2020, 09:45:27 PM
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As the war in Europe wound down in Spring, 1945, my dad had time on his hands and started experimenting with warm tone developers for B+W prints. I came across his notebook this week and found his notes on the basic formula and modifications, along with sample prints, which I'll detail in subsequent posts.
In brief, it appears that this formula divides the silver in such a way that it absorbs blue and reflects green and red light. My dad used to talk about another developer he had made that gave a light green tone to the print, apparently reflecting only that part of the spectrum, but I haven't been able to find any notes on that formulation.
If you'd like a PDF of this post, PM me with your email address.
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22 April 1945
WARM TONE DEVELOPER
Original and Basic Formula
Sodium Sulphite, anhy 40 grains
Hydroquinone 7 grains
Potassium Bromide (K Br) 4 grains
Sodium Carbonate, mono ¼ ounce
Water to 10 ounces
Use Type 1 paper, give about 8 times the normal exposure and develop for about 3 minutes. Average negatives on contrast 2, without a ground glass in the printer, require about 16 seconds exposure.
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5 May 1945
BROWN TONE DEVELOPER – Modification 1
Sodium Sulphite, anhy 27 grains
Hydroquinone 14 grains
Potassium Bromide (K Br) 4 grains
Sodium Carbonate, mono 60 grains
Water to 10 ounces
Use Type 1 paper, contrast 4, and develop for 3 minutes.
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5 May 1945
BROWN TONE DEVELOPER – Modification 2
Sodium Sulphite, anhy 27 grains
Hydroquinone 14 grains
Potassium Bromide (K Br) 4 grains
Sodium Carbonate, mono 60 grains
Ammonium Chloride 14 grains
Water to 10 ounces
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5 May 1945
BROWN TONE DEVELOPER – Modification 3
Sodium Sulphite, anhy 27 grains
Hydroquinone 14 grains
Potassium Bromide (K Br) 4 grains
Sodium Carbonate, mono 60 grains
Ammonium Chloride 28 grains
Water to 10 ounces
Use Type 1 paper, contrast 4; developing time is less than 3 minutes
NOTE: Developers of this sort containing ammonium chloride give a beautiful yellow tone when wet, but turn to chocolate brown when dry. More dilution, however, might produce other colors.
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11 May 1945
BROWN TONE DEVELOPER – Modification 4
Sodium Sulphite, anhy 27 grains
Hydroquinone 14 grains
Sodium Carbonate, mono 60 grains
Ammonium Chloride 14 grains
Water to 10 ounces
Use Type 1 paper, contrast 4; developing time is less than 3 minutes is about 1 minute.
This is without doubt the best brown developer yet. Following are some of the tonal variations which are possible merely by change of exposure and development time, and not by any change in the composition, strength, or temperature of the developer itself.
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NOTES ON TECHNIQUE OF USING BROWN DEVELOPERS
FIXING 8 May 1945
Do not fix overly long, as hypo gradually reduces the image; prints left in acid hardener type hypo overnight will be completely blank the next morning.
CONTRAST CONTROL 8 May 1945
Contrast control with brown developer is obtained as follows:
Short exposure plus long development time gives a contrasty brown image
Long exposure plus short development time gives soft and browner images up to an orange-brown which is redder when there is no K Br in the solution, and yellower when some is present
COLOR CONTROL 14 May 1945
With ammonium chloride warm tone developer, the conclusions reached in the matter of color control are as follows:
Without K Br more brown tones can be obtained with the colors ranging from a purple-brown through copper tones to a rose copper which is particularly pleasing
With K Br the tone is more consistent, but not as rich or pleasing, and the development is slower
DEVELOPING TECHNIQUE 28 May 1945
1. Develop print half way up in tray, lift out, drain and hold over rinse tray until desired tone is reached; then plunge the print into rinse or preferably short stop. The reason for this is that the ammonium chloride-hydroquinone-carbonate developer without bromide works so rapidly that this is the easiest method of control, inasmuch as complete development is often arrived at in 30 seconds.
2. The developer is very sensitive to temperature, inasmuch as merely dabbing at the submerged emulsion surface with the fingertips will produce dark brown spots.
DEVELOPER MODIFICATIONS 3 June 1945
For an easier-to-work developer add 1 grain of K Br per 10 ounces of Brown Developer Modification 4. Without any bromide, the developer works too rapidly and has a tendency to stain or fog on prolonged development as short even as 1-½ minutes. A slight amount of K Br might remedy this, or perhaps the hydroquinone content might be halved.