Chriscrawfordphoto
Real Men Shoot Film.
I've wanted to photograph this interesting old storefront for a very long time, but there were usually cars parked in front of it during the day. After months of driving past the building on South Calhoun Street in Fort Wayne, which I pass every day when I drive my son to school, I found the parking lot empty! This beautiful little building looks out of place in the row of plain looking buildings that it is part of.
The building is home to Alley Kat Ink, a tattoo shop. After I made my photographs, I spent a while talking to the owner, a man about my dad's age, about art. Several younger members of his family all work there too.
I shot it yesterday afternoon and developed the film in the middle of the night at 4am. Scanned and edited it this afternoon!
Film was 120 size Tmax 400 in PMK. Really liking this combination.
DNG
Film Friendly
It looks so cute?
very nice photo... I do like the firm tonal quality from shadow to highlights...
What is PMK? always curious about different developers...
very nice photo... I do like the firm tonal quality from shadow to highlights...
What is PMK? always curious about different developers...
farlymac
PF McFarland
From the looks of the building to the right, I think the charm of it is because it hasn't been remodeled into something more 'modern'. If you can call the '50s modern.
PF
PF
Chriscrawfordphoto
Real Men Shoot Film.
Yeah the place to the right is 1950s, but this building looks like something out of a Charles Dickens novel. It can't be that old, this part of Fort Wayne wasn't built up much until the early 20th Century, but it looks that old!
Chriscrawfordphoto
Real Men Shoot Film.
PMK is a Pyro based developer formulated by Gordon Hutchings in the late 1990s. He wanted to formulate a staining pyro developer that would work well with modern films. It gives less speed with most films than normal developers (I shoot Tri-X at 200, Tmax 400 at 250, Acros at 65) but it has gorgeous tonality and has higher sharpness, like Rodinal.
The formula is published, so you can mix it yourself, or you can buy it from Freestyle (made by Photographers Formulary). I buy the premade liquid from Freestyle. The kit is $30, but it is highly diluted for use, so the kit lasts forever. The stock solutions last for years and I have had mine a year and only used about half of it!
Hutchings wrote a book, called The Book of Pyro, that explains how to use it. Its more toxic than most developers so you MUST wear protective gloves, and it requires more agitation than normal. Hutchings says agitate for the first 30-60 seconds (I use 60 seconds) and then every 15 seconds for the rest of the developing time. I do two inversions every 15 seconds.
I also use Photographers Formulary TF-4 fixer, which Freestyle sells, because negs developed in PMK should be fixed in an alkaline fixer for maximum stain formation. Pyro negs get their great tonality from the fact that the image is largely made up of a greenish-brown stain on top of the silver.
I've tried PMK for Tri-X, Tmax 400, Fuji Acros 100, Efke 100, and Foma 100 and gotten great results with all. I plan to try it on Tmax 100 soon.
robklurfield
eclipse
Chris, I love the glow from the light bulb above the door. A nice punctuation mark on a great image.
Turtle
Veteran
I have put my use of TMY-2 on the the back-burner until I find the right developer for it. Clearly Xtol/DDX is not it, unless you want beautiful tonality but no acutance at all.
I was thinking Rodinal, but also pyrocat HD (similar to PMK of course but with less softening of contrast when wet printing with VC papers). Your enthusiasm for PMK means I will have to give it a go soon. I like the idea of being able to shoot handheld with a reasonably fast 120 film and having the performance of a 100 speed film.
How have you found the PMK combo looks compared to what you used before?
I was thinking Rodinal, but also pyrocat HD (similar to PMK of course but with less softening of contrast when wet printing with VC papers). Your enthusiasm for PMK means I will have to give it a go soon. I like the idea of being able to shoot handheld with a reasonably fast 120 film and having the performance of a 100 speed film.
How have you found the PMK combo looks compared to what you used before?
Chriscrawfordphoto
Real Men Shoot Film.
I've used TMY-2 in D-76 1+1 and Tmax Developer 1+7, as well as PMK. I'm still experimenting with PMK to get the absolute best developing time, but I did this one at 11 minutes at 75 degrees, exposure was at EI 200. I've only shot a few rolls of the film that I've developed in PMK so far, compared to many, many developed in D-76 and Tmax Developer. So my comments are kind of preliminary.
I get, with my technique and meter, a EI of 320 with this film in D-76 1+1 or Tmax 1+7, and its perfectly usable at EI 400 in either developer. PMK cuts speed a lot with every film I have tried, and I'm getting best results at EI of 250 or 200.
Results in PMK are a bit grainier than in D-76 or Tmax Developer. I've only used PMK to develop 120 film so far, so I don't know how it would look in 35mm, but I think the grain is still a bit less than you get with Tri-X in D-76.
Tonality-wise, I get good results with all three developers, but I think that gradation is a little harsher with Tmax Developer than it is with D-76 and D-76 is a little harsher than PMK. Its not a matter of overall contrast being too high with those developers. If that was it, a reduction in developing time would fix it. Microcontrast, or tonal transitions are harsher. PMK controls highlight contrast very well, with subtle tonality in white tones that sometimes get lost with D-76 and Tmax Developer. Reducing developing times to control that also reduces midtone contrast, while PMK keeps midtone contrast high enough without losing detail in light tones.
The price is that you lose almost a stop of speed, but shooting with a Hasselblad, speed is not important. In 35mm handheld work is sometimes is. I shoot A LOT of Tri-X in 35mm, because I bought a ton of it from Freestyle under their name when it was $2 a roll. I shoot it at 200 in PMK and 320 in D-76 1+1 (my previous favorite developer for Tri-X). I still use both developers so that when I need that little extra speed, I can use D-76, otherwise I use PMK and shoot at 200.
I am scanning my negatives in a Nikon LS-8000ED scanner, not wet printing, so I do not know if my developing times for PMK would work well for traditional printing. My developing times for regular developers work perfectly for scanning and wet printing, but since the stain prints differently on VC papers than on graded, I imagine it may scan differently too.
Here's some other Tmax 400, 120 size, PMK images.
Turtle
Veteran
Tks Chris, interesting info. I felt I was getting the best from a number of modern films with Pyrocat HD some years back (acros, Tmax) and suspect this TMY-2 is a prime candidate for the same. I will use Pyrocat because the brown stain projects less of the yellow that softens contrast with VC papers and also because it has somewhat finer grain.
I want to be able to produce some very large prints from 6x7 negs, shot hand held, and suspect this will be the best bet. D400 is another option but TMY-2 is one notch higher when it comes to resolution and fineness of grain. The other handy fact about TMY-2 is that it is available in 5x4. I just need to be able to get prints I like the look of, which I have not managed thus far (far preferring the tonality of TriX).
I want to be able to produce some very large prints from 6x7 negs, shot hand held, and suspect this will be the best bet. D400 is another option but TMY-2 is one notch higher when it comes to resolution and fineness of grain. The other handy fact about TMY-2 is that it is available in 5x4. I just need to be able to get prints I like the look of, which I have not managed thus far (far preferring the tonality of TriX).
Chriscrawfordphoto
Real Men Shoot Film.
This is the place next door to the tattoo shop. Same roll of Tmax 400-2 developed in PMK. Turn-N-Headz Barber Shop.
Richard G
Veteran
Nice story, lovely little building and a wonderful lesson in developing/exposing. There was a thread on here where someone had exposed 400 Neopan at 100. I think someone did suggest developing in Rodinal. I love how you waited and waited to get the shot. Photographers notice these little jewels. And know how to wait.
Chriscrawfordphoto
Real Men Shoot Film.
Thanks Richard. Neopan 400 was a beautiful film, I used a lot of it in high school, developed in Rodinal. After that, it became hard to find where I lived so I began using Kodak films for most things.
I often wait weeks or months waiting for just the right light on a subject, or waiting for there to be no cars in the way. The picture with the American flags in the window is another one where it took several months of trying to get the photo because there were usually cars parked in front of it (its the window on a gas station/convenience store and the parking lot is right under the window!). My work is about the places I see everyday, where I live, in Fort Wayne, Indiana. I see so much and when the time is right, I get my photo that I visualized the first time I'd seen the place.
I often wait weeks or months waiting for just the right light on a subject, or waiting for there to be no cars in the way. The picture with the American flags in the window is another one where it took several months of trying to get the photo because there were usually cars parked in front of it (its the window on a gas station/convenience store and the parking lot is right under the window!). My work is about the places I see everyday, where I live, in Fort Wayne, Indiana. I see so much and when the time is right, I get my photo that I visualized the first time I'd seen the place.
farlymac
PF McFarland
My problem is I don't remember just where the heck I was when I visualize a shot for later. Then I'll go by the place, and go "Oh yeah, I wanted to shoot that in this light", and won't have a camera on me. :bang:
PF
PF
Chriscrawfordphoto
Real Men Shoot Film.
I have an almost flawless memory. I'm working on my MA in history and when we have to give presentations or lectures in class, the other students read their presentations or speeches. I recite mine from memory, and have given lectures over an hour long that way. I always get an A!
Fort Wayne is not a terribly large city, about 300,000 people, and I grew up here so I know the entire city so well that I can easily go back to any interesting thing I find.
Chriscrawfordphoto
Real Men Shoot Film.
Here's a new color photograph of Alley Kat Ink, which I made this morning.
farlymac
PF McFarland
Keep your memory working for as long as you can, Chris. Strokes tend to scramble the works. For me, it's what I call "The New Normal". But it helps to be able to forget how bad I felt about missing a shot, instead of dwelling on it.
PF