Digital BW, The Print

Brian Ellis wrote:

>
>Why are you switching to pyro? I've read that it's good for scanning though 
>I haven't read an explanation of why that's so. I never found any benefit 
>from PMK with wet printing. I've been tempted to try it again now that I 
>scan and print digitally but I'd like to know why it's supposed to be 
>particularly good for scanning before trying it again.
>  
>
Hi Brian,

I'm not the original poster, but I imagine that pyro stain will help 
lower the granularity of the scanned slide. How big a deal this is, I'm 
not sure. Today a Nikon Coolscan V arrived, and I'll scan some PMK 
negatives later this week and see how things go. I to don't use PMK for 
developing anymore, though, as it lead to extremely compressed highlight 
on VC silver paper.

If someone is interested in determining the effects of a pyro stain on 
scanning results, try the following: Make the best scan that you can of 
a negative developed in a non-staining developer, something like D76 1+1 
or any other reasonably fine-grained developer.  Bleach the negative in 
a re-halogenating bleach (a sepia toner type bleach will work, i.e. a 
solution of potassium ferricyanide and postassim bromide), and 
re-develop in PMK. You can re-develop with the lights on.  The negative 
will now have a pyro stain.Wash and dry the negative, and then scan it 
again.  Which gave the best result, the regular or stained negative?

Peter