PMK Pyro a working solution

I am no stranger to making up developers from powders into stock solutions. The first thing you notice is the very small amount it makes up. Next, it comes in two parts and last, the powder needs to be mixed into distilled/de-ionised water ( used for car battery top ups ).

Solution A mixes up as follows:

Pour 80 mls of de-ionised water at room temperature into a measure. Open the packet marked A inside there are two sachets, take the smaller one and mix that in until it dissolves, do the same with the second one. It is important that they go in, in the right order. Make the solution up to a 1oo mls once done pour into a small storage container.

Solution B

Pour 160 mls of de-ionised water at room temperature into a measure. Add the contents of packet B slowly to the water stirring all the time until dissolved. Then top up to 200 mls. Again pour into small storage container.

Some notes:

By the time all the powders are mixed in, the amount of top up will be very small. The distilled/de-ionised water helps it to stay fresh and will keep well in partly filled bottles. Solution B has a bit of drop out and will need to be shaken clear before use. Makes up to 10 litres of working developer.

Freshly made PMK Pyro

Making up a working solution:

A normal mix is as follows,

•   One part A + two parts B to One hundred part of water.

e.g: To make 600 mls of working developer. Measure out 500 mls of water add 6 mls of solution A then add 12 mls of solution B and top off to 600 mls and stir. It is important that they go in in this order.

Notes:

•   When you add part B to the water it will turn a straw colour, if this happens it's OK to use.

•   Working temperature should be 20- 21 degrees C depending on which make of film you are using. You can check this with Digital truths massive dev chart.

Used PMK Pyro
developer.You reuse this at the
end of the process to add extra
stain to the negatives.

•   Prepare everything else before you make up the working developer then use it straight away as it oxidises very quickly.

•   When you pour the developer out at the end of the allotted time the solution will be very dark brown.

•   It is a 'use once and throw away' developer.

•   It is not necessary to re-dip the film in the developer after it has been fixed to increase staining.

•   Make working solution up with filtered tap water.

What next for PMK Pyro?

This year I decided to push the boundaries of my black and white film photography with a bit of dangerous living; well, flamboyant then!!. By using three makes of film I have not tried before: Agfa's relaunched APX 100 35mm, Adox CHS 100 35mm and 120, Fuji neopane 400 35mm. All of whom are going to be finessed with PMK Pyro staining developer in to reveling their latent images.

The first of these to receive Pyro's tender kiss is Agfa's APX. I have had a quick look at Digital truth massive dev chart ( thanks guys) and have discovered that the data they hold could be out dated as it is for the original film emulsion. A quick film test (quick! just joking) as described in another post, to check the time and if needed adjust it. I'll be using the suggested dilution formula of 1+2+100 and the 13 minutes as the normal process time for comparison.

It is a fine bright warm day just right to choose a subject and take pictures for the test. Wow! that's the fastest 22 frames I've taken in a long time! So as not to waste the rest of the film I took a walk round the local area to use up the other frames. Film is becoming expensive. Now all I have to do is find the time to process the film.

The results of my first use of PMK Pyro

The results are not faultless. I will come to that later, first I have forgotten to mention that the films being processed are Ilford FP4+, used at ISO 125. 120 format producing a 6x6 negative. Now I'll outline the procedure used.

1. The working solution was made up using filtered tap water at 21 degrees C and poured in straight away.
2. Once the developer was in the tank I agitated it continuously for the first minute.
3. The tank was inverted twice every 20 seconds and tapped to dislodge any bubbles.
4. stopped, fixed and washed as normal.

I did not re-dip the film in the developer after fixing to intensify the staining. This is up to you but I was advised it did not make a noticeable difference.

Whenever I process a film I find that I'm a bit apprehensive as to what the outcome will be, even more so with a new developer! so just before I wash the film I have a little look to see if there is a negative, so far I have not been disappointed.

First impression, once the film was dry I noticed there weren't any water staining marks, that's a bonus. The film base has a slight mauve colour to it which increased in strength slightly with longer development times. The negatives overall were evenly processed. The contact prints revealed that there are dark spots on the neg's which I think may have been caused by air bubbles. I have just processed another film this time I gave it a two-minute pre-soak and there are no black spots on the negs.

To re-cap: Two minute pre-soak, pour developer in and agitate for first minute, then invert tank twice every twenty-seconds, stop,fix and wash as normal. You should get some very very fine grain negs.

I have printed four pictures so far. The first two on Foma 113 variant gloss, F11 grades 2.5 and 3 and they have a cool tone to them. The next two on Ilford multi-grade gloss, F11 grade 2 and 2.5, these have a warmish tone to them. Both papers were developed in Ilford -multi-grade print dev.

The pictures that appear in this post have been scanned from prints and do not convey how well they have printed. These are straight prints with no dodging or burning in. I wanted to show how well the negatives have printed and how evenly they have developed. I will be producing a final print set on FB paper at a later date using a mix of ordinary and warm tone developers.

Will I use Pyro again? Yes! it is likely to become my default film developer. The grain produced by this developer is minut to the point of making it difficult to see when focusing the negative for enlargement. I feel that the twenty-second double inversions of the tank is a bit fraught but I think it will get better the more I get used to it. Without Trevor's advice it may have taken a few more films to get it right. Thanks Trevor!


Other articles from this blog on PMK Pyro

What next?

Agfa test strips.

Working solution

Solution B

After bath

FP4+ development

Adox art 

PMK Pyro raw

Making up PMK Pyro from raw

Adox results

Negative comparison with PMK Pyro

PMK Pyro grain comparison

Rodinal or Pyro which will I use.

I was first introduced to Pyro by Trevor Crone when he mentioned it in a post on the film and darkroom users forum a year or so ago. I purchased a packet of the developer shortly after from my favorite supplier Silverprint. It has sat on the shelf gathering dust waiting for a suitable project.

The worst weather in over a hundred years postponed my trip into London to stock up, leaving me without any of my default developer Ilford ID11. The deluge of snow had revived a project started in the last snows at the beginning of 2010. I was starting to build up a back log of exposed film. I like to develop used film straight away. I had two developers on the shelf that could produce enough developer for the job, Rodinal or Pyro, I plumped for Mister Hutchens PMK pyro partly because it was a staining developer and it may bring something extra to my pictures of the snow.

Related post:

First use of PMK Pyro.

What next for PMK Pyro.

Agfa APX sorting out the test strips

Agfa APX test results

PMK Pyro working Solution

Solution B PMK Pyro

PMK Pyro afterbath