Negative Prime

Film development is endlessly fascinating to me, and led me to neglect printmaking in favor of negative making, in which the print is a proof of a negative, and any kind of manipulation obscures its purpose.
Making negatives begins at exposure and ends with a proof print, from which a fine print might be made.During exposure, creativity and technique are managed in real time as measured by discrete exposures. To the extent that conditions change over time, an exposure cannot be both discrete and identical. The only other real time event during the photographic process is film development. A discrete exposure can only be developed once, by an irreversible chemical process. After exposure, it is often suggested one should abandon creativity in favor of control, to secure the unique information latent in the undeveloped film. I don't consider creativity and control mutually exclusive.
Creative film processing takes all potential development controls into account to determine which combination of controls best serves the image. Film is necessarily chosen before exposure, and many or all of the processing choices might be made before, during or after exposure in anticipation of, or in reaction to exposure conditions . Controls vary in their influence and begin with the film/developer combination, which defines a set of conditions. Plain emulsion graphic arts film developed in a tray with print developer is going to make a different kind of negative than one made from the same film, developed in a dilute developer with reduced agitation. The influence a developer or development technique has on standard, panchromatic pictorial film is far more subtle than the example above, but its impact can be substantial.
Film developers are formulated to balance characteristics like emulsion speed, grain, sharpness and gradation, or to prioritize them. A good measure of a developer is that it maintains the balance of characteristics while enhancing the priority characteristic. Having a range of developers on hand allows for more creativity and more precise control.
Hypercat was formulated to produce high acutance while maintaining full emulsion speed, fine grain and excellent gradation. Despite being well balanced in characteristics, there is a price to pay for the sharpness of Hypercat; it is demanding of the processor. Unlike 510-Pyro or GSD-10, Hypercat is a two-solution developer and it is not suitable for rotary processing or significantly reduced agitation. Dilution and agitation are critical and must be determined by testing for desired effect. Inadequate agitation can result in streaks and other development defects, and excessive agitation results in a loss of film speed. In between the two extremes lie adjacency effects ranging from subtle to startling, available to those willing to commit the time and energy required of this developer. All that being said, the range of development times and agitation frequencies that give the best, most consistent results is in the normal range for standard developers; 6:00-10:00 minutes with ten seconds agitation per minute, but dilution and agitation frequency can be adjusted over a fairly wide range to suit desires and conditions.


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Foma 200

Since Kurt is using Foma 200, and I like this film, too, and have some on hand, I finally made time to test it in the new version of Hypercat. Despite Kurt's report of thin negs at 5:30, my test results show 5:00 is about right for printing on a middle grade of paper with an Exposure Scale of 1.15, or about Grade 1 1/2-2. I haven't verified these results in the field, so consider this a starting point for personal testing. For those unfamiliar with BTZS data, SBR refers to Subject Brightness Range, and 7 correlates to a normal scene. Average Gradient is a measure of contrast, like CI, and EFS is Effective Film Speed. ES stands for Exposure Scale and represents the contrast/grade of the paper. Grade 2 papers typically have an ES ranging from .95-1.15, so 1.15 is on the border between grades 1 and 2. This data is consistent with printing using a diffuse light source, as in a cold light or dichroic color head, or contact printing. The use of a condenser enlarger would require a lower contrast negative to print on the same ES/grade of paper.

This data suggests ther isn't much room for contraction development by reducing development time, and reducing agitation might result in streaking, so a more dilute working solution would probably be most practical, or perhaps reduced carbonate concentration. I'll try both, eventually.

Film: Foma 200
Format: 120
EI: 200
Dilution: 1:10:300
Volume: 500ml
time: 5:00
Temp: 70F
Agitation: 0:10/1:00

Hypercat mixing instructions

To make up Hyercat, you'll need: a pyrex mixing container, a hot plate, lab burner, or dedicated microwave, and lab safety gear including dust mask or respirator, lab glasses, and gloves, and the constituent chemicals. Work in a well ventilated area.

Stock Solution A

Add 3/4 the total volume of propylene glycol to the Pyrex mixing container at room temp. Add dry chemicals, and stir into a slurry. Top up to final volume with propylene glycol. Heat with stirring until all of the chemicals have completely dissolved (about 150F). Allow to cool before transferring to permanent storage container.The color of the concentrate should be a light, peachy-amber. Your concentrated stock solution A is now ready to use.

Stock Solution B

Add 750ml of distilled water to the mixing container. Slowly, with stirring, add 200g of sodium carbonate. Stir until completely dissolved. Top up to 1 liter with distilled water. Your concentrated stock solution B is now ready to use.

Introduction

The secret to Hypercat’s effectiveness is in its simplicity. Hypercat is a tanning/staining developer, making it rare among film developers, but it is also a single-agent developer, and the only single-agent, tanning/staining developer formulated for modern, thin emulsion films, which makes it unique. Hypercat contains no sulfites or bromides, and no secondary developing agent to regenerate the developer and reduce sharpness, or prevent adjacency effects and compensation. The result is a developer that delivers the maximum acutance potential of any film. This type of simple developer is not new, its benefits are well established, and have been prized by photographers who demand the ultimate in sharpness since early in the last century. The problems with this type of developer have historically been of preservation and convenience, and these problems have kept this kind of simple developer out of the mainstream market. Few have been willing to stock the constituent chemicals, weigh out and compound a developer for each use, but these problems have been entirely eliminated in the formulation of Hypercat, which takes the form of two highly concentrated stock solutions of indefinite shelf life, that are combined and diluted with water to make a working solution.
Hypercat exhibits some interesting properties due to its simplicity. Since Hypercat contains no sulfites or secondary developing agents to regenerate the developer in solution, it exhibits all of the characteristics of a true acutance developer. The tanning of the emulsion and local exhaustion of the developer in areas of high density combine to produce adjacency effects, and compensation effects, for increased apparent sharpness, and a boost in film speed, with controlled highlight rendition. Hypercat produces adjacency effects and compensation with normal, intermittent agitation for 10 seconds/minute, but these effects can be increased to any desired degree by further reduction of agitation. The effects can become extreme, and streaking can occur with inadequate agitation, so some experimentation is required to find the level of effect that best suits one’s taste. I consider 10 seconds agitation every third minute a practical minimum.
Hypercat is ideally suited to slow and medium speed, fine grain films that build contrast quickly. The tanning action and local exhaustion of developer in the highlight regions tames contrast, and improves film speed and sharpness without increasing the appearance of grain. In fact, since development takes place almost entirely at the surface, and the image stain makes up a large part of the highlight printing density, where grain is most apparent, grain is effectively minimized.