[Leica] Re: Print Development: The lost B&B solution long

[Jim Brick <jim@brick.org>]

As far as I am concerned, Mark is the B&W LUG person that should be very
carefully listened to. He has been professionally doing this for a very
long time. When I get my darkroom remodel finished, I will be looking to
Mark for B&W advice. At Brooks Inst., 75% of the curriculum (1960/61) was
B&W. I worked as a commercial photographer 1961 - 1969 and about 75% of my
work was B&W. The Dektol time I quoted is something that I used in school
and in business. But Mark has actively doing B&W printing for decades. So
listen to him.

Thanks Mark,

Jim


At 01:49 PM 8/9/99 -0700, you wrote:
>With something along the lines of Dektol 1:2 and Multigrade Fiber I am now
>developing for a minute and a half. Why?
>If I pull the print out at 1 minute and 45 seconds the extra 15 seconds
doesn't
>produce a noticeably different print. In other words: things are not
happening
>fast. I don't pull my print out when things are happening fast. That's my
take
>on "Total" development.
>With the Multigrade Fiber WARM (in that nice chocolate box) I give it 2
minutes
>because at a minute and a half I can plainly see that things are still
happening
>fast. I don' like to interrupt it while it is developing. If I jump the
gun the
>blacks will noticeably suffer and so might the highlights. Lack of "Total"
development.
>
>I have in some cases used extending print developing time to offset longer
>enlarging times and I have used Glycin, a developing agent which requires at
>least 3 minutes but loves 5.
>
>I set my darkroom timer so it beeps every 30 seconds. I lift, drain and flip
>over every thirty seconds. IT is upsidedown in the middle 30 seconds. I
like to
>watch it develop.
>
>Because of the extremely wide variety of safelights I've got going in my
>darkroom at the same time the chances of some fog occurring from "unsafe"
light
>is high. So I often put in a capful (5-10 mls) of additional restrainer
into my
>developer to counteract this.
>Ansel Adams used to infer that one should do this as un scienfic or un-
>Ansel-like this might sound.
>The restrainer in Dektol is potassium bromide and you can make a 10%
solution of
>by putting 100 grms in a liter of water. Then you can use it by the capful to
>clear you lighter areas when they need it; other than safelight fog there
is old
>paper. Most often it is just the requirements of your particular Negative.
>
>The other stuff which is more cool literally to clean up your prints with is
>Benzotriazole which has been sold in tablet and liquid form: Kodak anti
fog #1
>or Edwal Orthazite??.
>
>The B&B solution
>
>Edward Weston in his ancient daybooks refers to the mystical "B&B" solution.
>(Maybe it was Minor White) Which he used to obtain not cool, not warm but
>neutral silver tones in his prints. However he never put down the formula
as to
>what that was and it was lost to us:
>
>UNTIL NOW
>I have rediscovered the lost mystical "B&B" solution. After much channeling I
>have determined that "B&B" means Bromide and Benzotriazole although it
might be
>Benzotriazole and Bromide. Get back to me on that one.
>100 mls of Bromide and 10 of Benzotriazole per liter. So a 10 ml squirt gives
>you as they say in Jewish cookbooks "A nice amount" of each chemical: .1
ml of
>Benzotiaozole and 1 grm of Bromide.
>Your prints will almost look like they don't need toning.
>Mark Rabiner
>