rayfc Posted May 6, 2003 Share Posted May 6, 2003 Just curious folks... Many people seem to have problems printing PMK negs on VC paper. I have no complaints at all with this combination and as a matter of fact, have quite good success with it. My enlarger is a condenser type and I use kodak, below-the-lens PC filters. 90% of my printing is done with basic split-filter techniques. I use three different paper developers; Dektol 1:2, Dektol 1:3 and Dektol 1:4. For those of you who experience problems, would you mind describing your setup? ... Just a matter of curiosity on my part ... Regards Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
everheul Posted May 6, 2003 Share Posted May 6, 2003 I have been using PMK for 3 years and have never looked back. It solved the problem of excessive contrast in many of my nature pictures. Printing is now a joy, and burning/dodging are usually done for asthetics, rather than to save a crappy negative. The only tomes I don't use PMK is when using Tmax100 (it's the only b/w in readyloads) or when I want speed or compensating development Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scott_killian1 Posted May 6, 2003 Share Posted May 6, 2003 I have a Saunders 4550XLG, but have printed my PMK negs on other VC enlargers with the same issues - blocked up highlights. While the negatives look good, it takes a great deal of burning in the highlights to get what I'm after. I used graded papers for years with a Zone VI (Aristo) cold light head and these same negatives printed much better so I have a direct comparison of the same negatives on both graded and VC papers. Since graded & VC papers are sensitive to blue light, the most effective pyro dye mask color is yellow - the complement of blue rather than the greenish mask that PMK produces (this would block the most blue light from hitting the paper). This is why I've been messing around with WD2D+ as it produces a yellow-orange mask. My tests of developing the same negative in both PMK and WD2D+ have been favorable. THere is one posted elsewhere on this board at: http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=004jfb Just my two cents. My PMK negs print great on graded, but I am having a hard time with many of them (particularly compositions with big skies) on my new VC head enlarger. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ben_calwell Posted May 7, 2003 Share Posted May 7, 2003 Ray,So far, no problems printing PMK on vc papers (contact prints using non-cold light enlarger head as light source). As I've posted before, the PMK/vc papers work well, as least for me, on night scenes. Neon signs print with great detail. I recently shot some daylight stuff (a white church in diffused sunlight)and contact printed them on vc paper, and they look good (at least to me, they do). The only thing I don't like about Pyro is having to wear gloves. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mark_sampson Posted May 7, 2003 Share Posted May 7, 2003 I've been printing 4x5 PMK negs on VC paper, using an old (blue) Zone VI cold light, for eight or nine years, and have never had problems with highlights blocking up. And I've used a variety of papers too. Often I use filtration towards the lower end of the contrast range, but that's what seems to work. My approach followed the first printing of Hutchings' book, and found it quite accurate. People's reported problems mystify me, but then a lot of things do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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