OVER MANY YEARS, and in the light of
thousands of words, both written and spoken it has become unquestionable.
The one factor that governs the success of a home processed colour: slide
is the pH of the First Developer. Isn’t that so?
I am about to dispute that, hitherto,
indisputable fact. Which means, too that I am not only going to let loose
an outsized ‘Moggie’ into the pigeon loft, I’m also having to eat a
good selection of my very own words. For haven’t I maintained in my,
“Here & There” column that to achieve success with transparencies
it is the First Developer that is the key and, what is more it is the pH
value that is the one deciding factor necessary if one is to gain good
colour and an outstanding slide.
Well that cat can now run around And I
hereby hide my head in abject shame as I retract every word I have ever
spoken, and every typewriter key I’ve ever tapped. For I now proclaim to
all you good people that I was wrong.
For I now believe that the roadway to
complete success is via the COLOUR DEVELOPER. I believe that, within
limits, of course, the vital factor is not the pH of the First Developer
but the pH of the Colour Developer.
Come to think of it I do believe there
were many other people, and yes many members of the C. R. C. with the same
beliefs as I. Have I not read, many times, that the whole success depends
on, mainly the pH of the First Developer? Have I not? So what has
happened, as it were, to turn the tide? I’ll tell all.
Oliver Barron really started it when he
asked me if I would do some tests using Borax as the alkali and on the
other hand, Sodium Meterborate as an alternative. Were they
interchangeable? If so what differences in quantities would be needed.
And, finally, what would be the result - using the same film and general
technique, of course.
So I started out with my favourite
Sakurachrome. E.6 of course. But. I had but one cassette left. Still I
could always get some Konicachrome. Which might show any differences with
the old named version and, perhaps, help to solve the contraversay with
the CRX of Barfen fame. Using basically the Arnold Moorhouse formula of
circa 1979 I mixed four versions of Dl, and processed to make nine tests.
Five were on Sakurachrome and four on Konicachrome. The subject was a few
bottles and tins of different colours on my garage shelf. The pH of the
First Dev. varied between 9.3/10.3 and the amounts of Borax between
12g/30g. SM was one to, 8g. The astounding fact to emerge was that the
final colour frames were affected, not by the pH of the Dl but by a
variation of the pH of the Colour Dev.
How did I determine this? By the simple
fact that the first five ‘tests were conducted at a Colour Dev. pH of
l1.3 and all were deficient, of green. (funny that Z When one thinks back
at the difficulties there used to be to GET RID of the green and here am I
cant find any). The pH of the D1 varied - but still the green was absent,
But immediately the pH of the Colour Dev. was raised to 11.5 back came my
illusive green. A bit too much for me, as it happened. So subsequently I
dropped this to 11.4 for the remainder of the exercise.
FOOTNOTE.
Whilst researching into the foregoing I came across an article by the
eminent writer and originator of formulae, Ernest Charles Gehret and here
I quote - “Variations in First Developer pH chiefly affect it’s
activity, raising or lowering it’s reduction power, and resulting in an
increase or reduction in the speed of developing. Fluctuations in the
Colour Developer pH can result in variations of the colour balance of the
subject matter of the exposures.”
So there you have it! I may well have
exploded a myth. With a, little help from the late Ernest Charles Gehret
But I’ll tell you this. I’m glad I have. For I’ve found it much
easier to control the colours via the Colour Dev. Than ever.