The sodium sulphite is highly soluble in water and it has an effect of replacing chemicals with itself (through some kind of ionic bonding, can't remember exactly) (after the bleach it pushes out the bleach products) but like you discovered you need to give a good rinse to remove the sulphite itself from the print. (Sodium sulphite is also used after fixing to shorten rinse time, the same principle applies. The suplhite is easier to wash out, than fixer.) High concentrations of sulphite can be used as highlight clearing agent and contrast reducer. (In high concentrations it acts as a weak fixer) 200g / liter. up to one minute (clear highlights), longer will start to reduce the image. if you keep too long you will loose highlights and get low contrast. (Need to make some tests) personally I use potassium-permanganate bleach, but the same principles apply. You can also use Farmers reducer after second development, or a simplified version of it: Solution A: 2g potassium-ferrycyanide / liter; Solution B: 50g thiosulphate / liter put final print in solution A for 30 seconds with constant agitation, then give a good rinse, and put in Solution B,then rinse. If the effect is too weak - repeat. :) The farmer reducer (the above one - which is weak) tends to work more on highlights, and has an effect on increasing contrast. These techniques are especially useful when working with fiber based paper which needs more rinsing has tendency to stain more and has more silver in it to play with it more :) Ahh and you can use a leveled teaspoon of "iron out" as a second developer which acts as fogging developer and converts every grain to silver.
I have been trying your process for a while and had lot of good results, just the dam stains after the second development but know ik that i need to get some sodium sulfate, also my process is a bit faster as i live in Puerto Rico so here its always likes its summer
Ethan's photos look like they are wet plates from 1880. Love it. Is there a current recipe and time for this process? Temperature compensation not needed yet, would like to experiment. Paper is rated at 2 if my swiss cheese memory serves.
Expose the paper around 3 stops more than ISO 3 (about ISO 0.3). First developer Dektol, 2-3 minutes, citric acid stop for 3-4 minutes. Mix the citric from powder as concentrated as you can get the powder to dissolve in water. Don’t scrimp on citric acid powder. Then in the light: 12% peroxide until the image is bleached. Under room lights the negative should look paper white, but in outdoor daylight you’ll get a purple positive image from the latent silver halides auto developing in UV light. Then 3-4 minutes in sodium sulfite bath, mixed from powder. Then thorough water wash, followed by second developer (Dektol is fine). The print should turn positive in less than 30 seconds. No need to fix, there shouldn’t be any halides left to remove, just rinse and dry. I don’t have exact measurements for citric acid and sodium sulfite. If the image doesn’t bleach out in the peroxide bath you need either more exposure, stronger/longer citric acid or both. If the print gets brown stains in the second developer, you need stronger/longer sodium sulfite and more thorough rinsing before the second developer.
Hi! i'been trying the peroxide process outdoors and i get no real White highlights as on this video. I dont have sodium sulfite bath but im rinsing It very well. What would you say is the case? On Ethans demo video he doesn't use wash aid indoors and seems yo have clear highlights. Thanks!
I probably missed this by not paying attention but where did you get the vertical deep tanks that you are using inside of the camera? I am also curious if you have ever tried the potassium permanganate/sodium bisulfate reversal process. I ask because in that process sodium metabisulfite is used as a clearing agent instead of sodium sulfite. I wonder if sodium metabisulfite would work in your peroxide process as well.
Ethan laser cut the tank parts from acrylic and solvent welded them together. We use the peroxide process as a less toxic method. Your suggestion of sodium metabisulfite is good, but we’ve not yet tried it. More experiments are in order!
@@Joe_VanCleave Both the permanganate and the peroxide reversal processes seem to work because the bleaching agents are such strong oxidizers. I imagine it should work fine and I think I'll give this peroxide process with metabisulfate a shot this weekend. If you are interested, Home Depot sells Bonide Stump Remover which is just sodium metabisulfate. It's worthless for stumps but works great in the darkroom!
Well done!
A less-scary entry in the infinite Joe series
Pretty cool.
The sodium sulphite is highly soluble in water and it has an effect of replacing chemicals with itself (through some kind of ionic bonding, can't remember exactly) (after the bleach it pushes out the bleach products) but like you discovered you need to give a good rinse to remove the sulphite itself from the print. (Sodium sulphite is also used after fixing to shorten rinse time, the same principle applies. The suplhite is easier to wash out, than fixer.)
High concentrations of sulphite can be used as highlight clearing agent and contrast reducer. (In high concentrations it acts as a weak fixer)
200g / liter. up to one minute (clear highlights), longer will start to reduce the image. if you keep too long you will loose highlights and get low contrast. (Need to make some tests)
personally I use potassium-permanganate bleach, but the same principles apply.
You can also use Farmers reducer after second development, or a simplified version of it:
Solution A: 2g potassium-ferrycyanide / liter;
Solution B: 50g thiosulphate / liter
put final print in solution A for 30 seconds with constant agitation, then give a good rinse, and put in Solution B,then rinse. If the effect is too weak - repeat. :)
The farmer reducer (the above one - which is weak) tends to work more on highlights, and has an effect on increasing contrast.
These techniques are especially useful when working with fiber based paper which needs more rinsing has tendency to stain more and has more silver in it to play with it more :)
Ahh and you can use a leveled teaspoon of "iron out" as a second developer which acts as fogging developer and converts every grain to silver.
200g/Ltr seems very high!
I have been trying your process for a while and had lot of good results, just the dam stains after the second development but know ik that i need to get some sodium sulfate, also my process is a bit faster as i live in Puerto Rico so here its always likes its summer
So cool…
❤️
Ethan's photos look like they are wet plates from 1880. Love it. Is there a current recipe and time for this process? Temperature compensation not needed yet, would like to experiment. Paper is rated at 2 if my swiss cheese memory serves.
Expose the paper around 3 stops more than ISO 3 (about ISO 0.3). First developer Dektol, 2-3 minutes, citric acid stop for 3-4 minutes. Mix the citric from powder as concentrated as you can get the powder to dissolve in water. Don’t scrimp on citric acid powder. Then in the light: 12% peroxide until the image is bleached. Under room lights the negative should look paper white, but in outdoor daylight you’ll get a purple positive image from the latent silver halides auto developing in UV light. Then 3-4 minutes in sodium sulfite bath, mixed from powder. Then thorough water wash, followed by second developer (Dektol is fine). The print should turn positive in less than 30 seconds. No need to fix, there shouldn’t be any halides left to remove, just rinse and dry.
I don’t have exact measurements for citric acid and sodium sulfite. If the image doesn’t bleach out in the peroxide bath you need either more exposure, stronger/longer citric acid or both. If the print gets brown stains in the second developer, you need stronger/longer sodium sulfite and more thorough rinsing before the second developer.
If you are in DC this weekend , come by I am having a show of afghan camera prints , shot in kabul with an original afghan camera. Cheers
Hi! i'been trying the peroxide process outdoors and i get no real White highlights as on this video. I dont have sodium sulfite bath but im rinsing It very well. What would you say is the case? On Ethans demo video he doesn't use wash aid indoors and seems yo have clear highlights. Thanks!
I probably missed this by not paying attention but where did you get the vertical deep tanks that you are using inside of the camera? I am also curious if you have ever tried the potassium permanganate/sodium bisulfate reversal process. I ask because in that process sodium metabisulfite is used as a clearing agent instead of sodium sulfite. I wonder if sodium metabisulfite would work in your peroxide process as well.
Ethan laser cut the tank parts from acrylic and solvent welded them together.
We use the peroxide process as a less toxic method. Your suggestion of sodium metabisulfite is good, but we’ve not yet tried it. More experiments are in order!
@@Joe_VanCleave Both the permanganate and the peroxide reversal processes seem to work because the bleaching agents are such strong oxidizers. I imagine it should work fine and I think I'll give this peroxide process with metabisulfate a shot this weekend. If you are interested, Home Depot sells Bonide Stump Remover which is just sodium metabisulfate. It's worthless for stumps but works great in the darkroom!
@@thisismynyame Let me know your results, I’m interested!