Tanol Developer on Paper
I while back as I headed deeper into committing to large format I was looking into a range of subjects and came upon staining developers. These developers not only reduce the silver ion to metallic silver but also incorporate a staining effect around the film grains. There are claims of high accutance and some swear by the effect the colored stain has on VC papers when printed from staining developers as the VC papers have spectral sensitivity. Better gradation of tones is one highlight of this. These developers started out based on pyrogallol back to 1851. There are a number of formulas available among them are Pyrocat-HD, ABC Pyro, Rollo Pyro, PMK, and WD2D+. A few articles here for the interested. 1) Introduction to Pyro Developers 2) Staining Developers I went to my usual source for darkroom sorcery Wolfgang Moersch to see what he had to offer. He has Pyro 48, Finol, Tanol and Tanol speed. I decided Tanol looked best to try out first. (The new Pyro 48 looks interesting...