B&W film/printing chemicals - need some suggestions please

[anthony_hughes1]

<p>Hey there,</p>

<p>Okay I purchased some chemicals in relatively small bottles for in-home printing/processing.<br>

I have:<br>

Kodak professional photo flo 200<br>

Kodak professional indicator stop bath<br>

Clayton P20 print developer<br>

Clayton Odorless fixer<br>

Clayton F76 plus Film Developer Fine Grain Developer<br>

The biggest prints I will make are 8x10 prints and maybe smaller.<br>

(I use Ilford Multigrade IV De luxe Glossy paper)<br>

On the bottle of the photo flo 200 it says dilute 1 part concentrate 7 parts water, does that mean if I am using 100 ml of photo flo, I have to use 700ml of water mixed in it for it to be effective?<br>

On the Kodak indicator stop bath it says "add this concentrate in water in proportion of 2 oz to 1 gallon: Does that mean 1 gallon of stop to 2 oz of water?<br>

My trays are not that big, about 12in x 15in - so, what do you recommend I measure all my chemicals to before putting them in the trays?<br>

Now, what chemicals are safe to use over again (but pouring them in separate containers)?<br>

In regards to getting BW prints and using multigrade filters(ilford), any good sites or books you can recommend (even better with pictures)? I found a few, just want to see If theres anything better out there.</p>

<p>Thanks a lot<br>

-Anthony </p>

<p> </p>

[mukul_dube]

<p>How many gallons of stop have you bought?</p>

[anthony_hughes1]

<p>Nothing I purchased is in gallons -<br>

Stop bath and photo flo: 437ml 16 fl oz<br>

print developer and film developer and fixer - 946ml 1 quart</p>

[DWScott]

<p>Anthony, I suggest you doublecheck that bottle of PhotoFlo. My bottle of Kodak PhotoFlo 200 says "1 part photoflo to 200 parts water", which means I put 3 millilitres of PhotoFlo and 600 ml of water.<br>

The Kodak Indicator Stop has slightly more confusing language, but read the proportions in the same order as the components are mentioned. Therefore, concentrate (of stop) = 2 oz, water = 1 gallon. The point of providing these chemicals in highly concentrated form, is that you can buy/ship a little bottle, and you add lots of your own water at home to make the working concentrations. A small bottle of photoflo and stop will last you a long time, because they are so highly concentrated and because they do not exhaust themselves that quickly.</p>

[anthony_hughes1]

<p>What if my trays cant hold 1 gallon of water? Would putting 1 oz of stop and 1/2 gallon of water be equally effective?<br>

David you were right, that 1 part concentrate and 7 part water was for the fixer. I dont understand what "1 part concentrate, 7 part water". What does "part" mean?</p>

 

[bob_sunley]

<p>Well if your tray held 8 gallons, you would use 1 gallon of concentrate and 7 gallons of water, or if your tray held only 8 ounces, you would use 1 oz of concentrate and 7 oz of water. The size of the "parts" is determined by the volume you need after mixing. So if you need 800ml of fixer, divide 800 by 8 and that is the amount of concentrate(100ml) and add 7 times as much water to end up with 800 ml.</p>

[kari v]

<p>Also note that people tend to use 1+5 and 1:5 interchangeably when it comes to photo chemicals. Normal way is to read the instructions like Bob says.</p>

<p>PhotoFlo and similar products should be 1+200, you really need just a Small amount of the stuff. You'll know when you've overdone it. ;) But don't worry, it won't do any harm.</p>

[brucecahn]

<p>It is 2 oz of stop bath and 1 gallon of water. The Photoflo has to be mixed weaker than Kodak recommends. Disregard their instructions. With a 16 oz bottle measure the Photoflo thus: halfway up the threaded part of the cap mixed with a half gallon of water. Mix very thoroughly, very.</p>

[Alan Marcus]

<p>Photo Flow 200 is mixed with water in the proportion of 1 part Photo Flow to 200 parts water 1:200). Best if you buy some metric measuring cups and the like. Likely your measuring cups are calibrated using both ounces and milliliters. You can buy a baby medicine dropper at the drugstore and use it to measure tiny amounts in milliliters. However, 1 teaspoon is 5 milliliters; also, 1 teaspoon is 0.1666 fluid ounces. To make a gallon (128 oz) mix 128 ÷ 200 = 0.64 oz of Photo Flow. This is 3/4 of an ounces of Photo Flow to a gallon of water. If you buy the baby medicine dropper you can mix 5 milliliters of Photo Flow to make 1000 milliliters of working solution as 5 x 200 = 1000ml = 1 liter. </p>

[bob_sunley]

<p>By the way, a working solution of Photoflo at 1:200 will go "off" when stored for too long. The best way is to mix as required, use 1ml per tankfull of water, which is approx a dilution of 1:600. This is usually ok, especially with distilled water as a final rinse for your film. The distilled water really helps in preventing water spots if you have hard water or your tap water is from a water softener. </p>

 

[david_r_lewis]

<p>Anthony,<br>

Ratios for mixing can be confusing. When I mix up the Kodak Indicator Stop, I start with a one gallon jug of distilled water, remove two ounces, add two ounces of stop, shake well and write the date mixed on the container. When the liquid starts to turn purple or six months has passed, whichever comes first, I discard. For Photo-Flo, just a capful to a gallon is a good mix, using distilled water also. Before I go to use it, I shake the container and if I see a bunch of " flotsam " floating around, I discard and make new. That stuff floating around can dry on film and cause all kinds of trouble. For the most part, chemicals are not that expensive and I always use the freshest I can because it is a lot less expensive to use fresh chemistry than to have to re-photograph everything.<br>

Warmest regards,<br>

David R. Lewis</p>

[hjoseph7]

<p>"On the Kodak indicator stop bath it says "add this concentrate in water in proportion of 2 oz to 1 gallon: Does that mean 1 gallon of stop to 2 oz of water?"</p>

<p>No you got it backwards. We would all be broke by now if that was the case. It means 2 oz of Stop Batch to one gallon of water !<br>

For Photo Flow your best bet is to get an eye dropper and just add a couple of drops to the water in the developing tank. A couple of extra drops won't hurt so I would not worry about it too much.<br>

Same thing for the Stop Bath, if you want to use it as "one-shot", just pour enough Stop Bath in a beeker of water until you could slightly smell the stop bath then stop. Another thing is to look at the color if it's too dark add water. <br>

You could usually use stop bath over an over up to a point but it's so cheap why bother. Same thing with Photo Flow. For developer and fixer I would recomend using a fresh batch unless you only developed a few prints and want to continue later.</p>

<p> </p>

[DWScott]

<p>Anthony, "part" is just a substitute word for whatever unit of measurement you wish to use.<br>

<strong>2 parts PhotoFlo to 200 parts water</strong><br>

is the same as saying<br>

<strong>2 ml PhotoFlo mixed with 200 ml water</strong><br>

or<br>

<strong>2 gallons PhotoFlo mixed with 200 gallons water</strong><br>

or<br>

<strong>PhotoFlo 2+200</strong>.<br>

It all depends on how much you want to mix up at one time!<br>

You will end up with three "containers" of sorts, for each chemical.</p>

<ul>

<li>The original bottle of developer/stop/fix/whatever, which you will draw from occassionally.</li>

<li>A new jug holding the mixed chemical + the water needed (this is called the "working solution").</li>

<li>And a tray or tank to process in.</li>

</ul>

<p>You can make up as big a bottle of "working solution" as you want. It needs to be at least as big as you will need to fill your tray. If it's bigger, that's fine, you don't have to pour the whole contents of your working solution into your tray.</p>

[DWScott]

<p>One more tip that I can offer. (I was not a science guy, so I had to figure this stuff out myself too!)<br>

I keep a diary with my developing/darkroom stuff. I write down what the dilution guidelines are for the different chemicals, and then I do the math for what the actual units of measurement are. Then I don't have to re-do the mental math every time, or risk making a mistake. I can simply refer back to my diary and I know that: <em>To make 750ml of PhotoFlo (with a dilution of 2+200), I need to put 8ml of PhotoFlo and 742ml of water. </em>I keep a note for every size of container I might want to mix up.</p>

[cj8281]

<p><strong>David Scott </strong>PhotoFlo is mixed 1 part PhotoFlo to 2oo parts water, not 2 parts PhotoFlo to 200 parts water. That would double the amount of concentrate in the solution.</p>

 

[DWScott]

<p>Duh, of course... :-) I was focused on the ideas and not the content! Thanks!</p>