# Pyro Developer



## doobs (May 25, 2008)

I tried PMK Pyro Developer. Didn't like it.


----------



## Efergoh (May 25, 2008)

Doesn't seem so bad to me.
What don't you like about it?


----------



## doobs (May 25, 2008)

They turned out kind of flat. Not sure if it was an issue of exposure, or the actual development, but it seems that across the board the negs came out bad. 

I suppose on the last one, when it was actually converted to black and white and not scanned as a color neg, it looks pretty fine.

It was interesting.


----------



## ann (May 26, 2008)

to add contrast you need to adjust the development time.

they certainly don't look very sharp, at least until the last one.

i use pryocat hd with semi-stand development and they are terrific.


----------



## doobs (May 26, 2008)

ann said:


> to add contrast you need to adjust the development time.



The guy whose chemicals I used, told me you're supposed to shoot the film at half speed, but then we figured if we cut the development time in half, it'd work.



ann said:


> they certainly don't look very sharp, at least until the last one.



That could be due to the fact that I shot these pictures with a Holga.



ann said:


> i use pryocat hd with semi-stand development and they are terrific.



I used PMK with agitation every 20 seconds.


----------



## ann (May 26, 2008)

oh , no.
cutting the development time in half is a real issue for these negatives.

1 fstop of  light which is what you did, is not necessarily a huge over exposure. at the most , perhaps a reduction of 15 % in development time would be enough. if you needed more contrast you would need to increase the time not reduce. 

 It really is importnat to do a bit of testing before making such large adjustments in development times.

regardless of the holga  they still aren't as sharp as one would expect. (I have several students who use a holga with pryocat hd with wonderful results.) as the staining developers create very sharp edges which gives sharper negatives.

off the top of my head i don't remember the agitation pattern for pryo. with semi -stand it is 30 seconds every 3 minutes. always in a different rotation pattern.


----------



## JC1220 (May 30, 2008)

In general, with PMK the negs will look flat due to the large amount of general stain you get with PMK formula. But when printing you will see the difference. I have never liked PMK due partially to the general stain and felt you had to extend printing times to print through it. ABC or one of the pyrocat formulas produce better image stain without the massive, often green, general stain of PMK.

Oh, put the holga in the bin, what a waste of pyro.


----------



## doobs (Jun 2, 2008)

Yeah, I just noticed after printing, I liked the prints.

And no! I love the Holga!

(Plus the Pyro wasn't mine and these were rolls to experiment with)


----------

