Printing with Pyro & Caustic Soda

Pyro was a reducer that I began working with after I had been using more conventional reducers, like Metol, Hydroquinone and Rodinal. Each have their qualities that can be used for specific tasks. The Pyro I used was Pyrocatechol ~ Pyrocatechin. It is the white flaked type. It is also the most Oxygen hungry of all the reducers, high oxidation rate. Because of this, Pyro also is a bit different i that it needs a slightly acidic environment to counter the natural oxidation rate. It is also advisable to keep the reducer & preservative (sodium sulphite in one container, and the accelerator in another., For the preservative, many formulas call for bisulfite or metabisulfite, either sodium or potassium, as the accelerator, as they are acidic, where as sodium carbonate is a bit alkaline.

I began, using the alkaline sodium carbonate as the accelerator, which was a good formula, with good acutance in the negative image. The formula I used for the most part, soon after, was the Windish Pyro formula, which uses sodium hydroxide, a caustic soda, the most volatile of them all. A gram of it plopped into a 1000 ml beaker of room temperature water will make it boil. But the acutance it can produce is unmatched. It's fabulous.

Pyrocatechin is a fully compensating developer, using either accelerators. That means excellent shadow detail as well as full control of the highlights during development. I also believe that this developer offers the longest tonal scale potential while keeping everything in textural range. For detail, texture and acutance it is absolutely the best in my estimation. I used that formula in all shooting conditions, flat light, very bright and a perfect five stop day. It can be easily used for a compaction and expansion. The image below was taken mid afternoon, before the golden blow time, which didn't unfold until a bit further down the river that afternoon.

I was shooting FP-4 rated at 80. The black area would have normally come out as a zone 3 placement, but knowing of the extra shadow detail I would get I placed that area on zone 2 to ensure I would get a good dMax black, and to compensate for that placement, it was necessary to expand the tonal scale {N+1} or what for this lens & silver arrangement N+1 turns out to be one minute extra development time. Still, the highlights were correctly placed.

Salted Silver Print ~ "Where the Kids Play"
1986 ~ 5"x7" ~ Unique
Eugene, Oregon