A
CIBACHROME EVOLVEMENT
By Bill Broadhurst. Area 4.
The fact that you are reading this indicates that our Editor thinks enough of a couple of prints I sent him as to allocate Newsletter space.
Right away I must state my total qualifications as a photo chemist: for 27 years I was a dairy farmer.Two things started me off. A packet of apparently faulty Ciba paper and the 1987 BJ Annual. The latter suggested possible alternatives to
Ilford`s chemicals. At the time I was using Bromophen for B/W printing so I gave it a go. Used at full strength, success; used at 1:3 it
needed an exposure and filtration shift, but this gave good results.About this period I was reverting to weigh and mix based on Rayco, so I tried their bromide formula. Results as with Bromophen, and
comment from my none-photo conscious wife that the prints were as good as any I had ever done. Encouraged I wondered about the
2-bath idea as in the BJ Annual and mixed up as given. Disaster, a pale purple disaster. What causes a pale purple mess? Fixer in the
developer says the Ciba manual. Developer B shows "sodium thiosulphate", the posh name for fixer. So I left it out and just used Sodium
carbonate. Success again.So I looked at developer A. It contains sodium chloride, salt. What are we making developer or pea soup? I then looked at things from the
other point of view. What can`t I do without for a soft working developer which will cope with a contrasty trannie?
Here is the recipe:-Metol 8 gms
Sodium sulphite 40gms
water to 1 litre.
Developer B
Sodium carbonate 110gms
water to 1 litre.
Stop Bath
2% Acetic acid.Bleach has to be Ilford`s own. Bought as a 5 x 1 litre I found no trouble dividing a packet to make 500cc, bottle the rest
for use in a couple of months time.Fixer
Ammonium thiosulphate 200gms.
Boric acid 25 gms.
Water to 1 litre.
Method. 1st. print: 28 deg C in 10" x 8" water bath manual drum. Pour in 60cc Dev. A for one full minute. Pour out and retain. Pour in 60cc
Dev. B for one full minute, pour out and retain. Pour in at least 60cc stop for ten seconds, pour out and retain. Open the drum and place
the print in a dish. Pour on "some" Bleach (see later). Warming for those with a dicky ticker. The print will go totally black. Agitate, rinse
the drum and agitate the bleach. Dry your drum and agitate the bleach. Get the message? failure to agitate the bleach has given dark stains.
I have found that 3 minutes in the drum as Ilford`s instructions to be insufficient and 4 minutes in the dish is better. When you have the
positive well visible transfer to a dish of fixer. Fixer taking about 5 minutes.I mentioned "some" chemicals earlier. My usual session is about 8 prints. For this I would take 150cc of Stop and it will last the session.
For Bleach I get about twice the acreage that Ilford say though for a test strip or an odd 5" x 7" I soak a small pad of cotton wool and swab
the surface as needed. Fixer is re-usable as for B/W with the same reservations.Second print: Top up Dev. A. to 60cc. Take 30cc of used Dev. B. and make up to 60cc. This seems to work OK for me and is very
economical.This may not be my final word for I had one of those bits of luck that the man who invented 6Up may have needed. At the end of a
session I had one sheet of 5" x 7" left, not worth storing, and no Dev. B. There was once a 2-bath Meritol-caustic developer on the market.
So I re-exposed my last trannie to give me a direct comparison, gave it 1 minute in Dev. A, 30 seconds in 1% Sodium hydroxide and got a
perfect print. Watch this space!!!!