DIY ILFOCHROME CHEMISTRY (Page 4)

Yellow Dye Bleach
Dimethyl Formide (99.5%)        1.75 parts
Water 1 part
Wash. Solution keeps for months.

Magenta Bleach Dye
Chloramine                                 1.15g
Water                                          1 litre
Wash. Solution keeps for months.

Cyan Bleach Dye
Sodium Dithionhe                      3g
Sodium Bicarbonate                  3g
Water                                           1 litre
Wash. Solution keeps only for a few hours.

Total Bleaches for all Colours
Vanadium Chloride                     1 - 5g
6% Hydrochloric Acid               l00mI
Wash.

or, you can use a permanganate bleach which is used in normal black & white print bleaching.
Potassium Permanganate           0.5g
Conc. Sulphuric Acid                 5m1
Water to                                       1 litre

Clear the residual stain in
Potassium Metabisuiphite          2g
Water l00m!
Wash.

NOTES:
(1) The manufacturer’s processing schedule for process P30 and P30p at 24°C is Pre-rinse 30 seconds
Developer 3 minutes (My time is 4 minutes for my developer)
Rinse 30 seconds
Bleach 3 minutes
Fixer 3 minutes
Wash 3 minutes

At a higher temperature of 29°C the processing time will be 2 minutes for the developer, bleach and fixer.

(2) Dye Chrome Research Co. Inc. located at 120E Washington Ave in Lake Placid, Florida, USA.

(3) Hal Berg “Getting the most out of

Cibachrome” Popular Photography USA

July 1980 vol. 87no 1.

(4) As a slight digression I should say I once experimentally carried this process to the point where I got some very interesting iridescent colours plating out on the print surface due to diachronic fogging. No good for normal prints but perhaps useful for the maker of abstract work.

© Terry Dennett 2003

(Terry Dennett is the recently retired Staff Photographer at the Institute of Zoology, London. He is a member of The Institute of Patentees and Inventors and a Fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute. Hopefully these non-photographic interests will stop him from rusting away as a pensioner! Fortunately for us he is also a member of the C.R.C.

Variable Colour Bias

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