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Emulsion making and research started out as a hobbyist's occupation.  Reading the old literature, you can sense the excitement.  They shared openly and gave credit freely.  By 1900, give or take a few years, the literature dried up.  In 1929, E. J. Wall wrote in Photographic Emulsions,

"There is nothing in the literature upon the subject (photographic emulsions) which helps one much when undertaking this sort of research work.  Practically all the knowledge is secreted in the great factories.  The worker at this point stands practically in the position of the man who first discovered emulsion photography, and he must battle his way through and pull himself up until he has acquired a knowledge equal to what is known at the present day.  This is far from a simple matter, but once I set to the task it proved tremendously fascinating."

We are today in the same place as Wall in 1929, but every year we are losing the people and materials that are needed to bridge the gap between yesterday and tomorrow.  If this research is allowed to languish much longer, the darkrooms will be gone.  Yes, there will still be beautiful black and white photographs hanging in museums (or more likely, in private collections) and there will even be old darkroom technique books left to buy used, but the intimate, casual experience of working the materials will be gone. The bridge burned.  Time's a wasting and secrets and egos are an unaffordable indulgence.

Some final advice from Mr. Wall, which I echo:

"Successful emulsion making depends upon so many and in some cases apparently trivial factors that the information given must be looked upon rather as signposts pointing the way than milestones conveying definite and accurate information, though no formula or method is given that has not been tried out practically".

Now, to the cooking.

I. Getting Started

Tools and Materials: (Important note: No aluminum, copper, bronze, chromed or galvanized tools)

  • Laboratory scale, ideally digital, calibratable, and accurate to .01 g.  Almost every other tool used in emulsion making can be fudged, but an accurate scale is essential.  My scale is accurate to .01 g but it only weighs to 300 g.  This is an affordable way to go.  For larger quantities (where the tolerance for error is higher) I use an ancient triple beam balance.  eBay is always a good source for used (and new) lab equipment, but check accuracy with good calibration weights.
  • Set of calibration weights.
  • Stainless steel chemical spatula.
  • Magnetic Stirring Hot Plate and a couple of sizes of stirring rods to fit snuggly or loosely in your beakers.
  • Digital hot plate or similar (I used the bottom of a detachable-style slow cooker for the first six months.)
  • Countdown digital timer
  • 25 ml glass stopcock burette with stand (http://secure.sciencecompany.com).
  • Monoject syringes (12cc/ml).
  • Assorted beakers. 50 ml, 250 ml, and 400 ml.
  • Graduated cylinders. 10 ml and 100 ml.
  • Pyrex covered dish (two if you aren't using a thermostatically-controlled hot plate).
  • 1/2-pint canning jars.
  • Lightproof refrigerator storage canister(s).  (I use the large size stainless steel watertight brush cleaner canister sold by Daniel Smith Art Supply.  My grocery/household goods store sells a stainless storage canister with a sturdy clear plastic spring-hinged lid that can be made lightproof with a couple of layers of black plastic secured between the lid and the canister.)
  • Plastic wrap.
  • Plastic spoons and forks.
  • Digital thermometers.  Two straight probe, and one with a long, flexible oven probe. (Mine are all Sunshine kitchen models.)
  • Red or amber safelight(s).
  • Small flashlight with red film over lens.
  • Gold mesh coffee filters.  Two basket style and one cone style.
  • Stainless steel tea strainer.
  • Plastic funnels.  One small that fits into the top of the burette and one wide mouth canning funnel.

Materials for 'I♥':

  • Hard bloom photographic grade gelatin.
  • Silver nitrate (AgNO3).
  • Sodium chloride (NaCl).
  • Citric acid.
  • Potassium bromide (KBr).
  • Potassium iodide (KI).
  • Photoflo 600 (or Daniel Smith Acrylic Flow Reducer cut 1:1 with distilled water).
  • Glyoxal.
  • Everclear or similar (keep some in a small atomizer bottle for spritzing).
  • Distilled water (keep some in the refrigerator).

Materials for 'Warm ♥':

  • Hard bloom photographic grade gelatin.
  • Silver nitrate (AgNO3).
  • MASU brand 100% Sea Water Salt (Version #1) or NaCl (Version #2).
  • Cupric Chloride (Version #1) or Potassium Chloride (Version #2)
  • Citric acid.
  • Ammonium bromide (NH4Br))H4Br
  • Potassium iodide (KI).
  • Photoflo 600 (or Daniel Smith Acrylic Flow Reducer cut 1:1 with distilled water).
  • Glyoxal.
  • Everclear or similar (keep some in a small atomizer bottle for spritzing).
  • Distilled water (keep some in the refrigerator).

I ♥ Emulsion

A Neutral Tone Developing-Out Contact Printing Paper

Gel A:  13 g gelatin / 75 g cold distilled water

  • Bloom gelatin in a covered canning jar for 1 hour starting with refrigerated distilled water.
  • Melt to 42-43C in a water bath on a 90C hot plate (starting with 40C waterbath).

Gel B:  13 g gelatin / 75 g cold distilled water (or: 65 g if coating wet paper).

  • Bloom gelatin for 1 hour.

Have ready:

  • Fine nozzle Monoject syringe marked at 10 ml.
  • Two canning jars with plastic wrap and lid bands.
  • Stopcock burette, primed with distilled water, ready to swing over beaker.
  • Two lightproof refrigerator canisters, filled with about a half inch of very cold water. (Store the empty - except for water - canisters in a refrigerator until right before you go to safelight.)
  • Weighed chemicals:
3.9 g Sodium chloride (NaCl) / 12 g distilled water (room temp)
0.5 g citric acid (dry)
0.5 g citric acid/ 10 ml water
1.0 g Potassium bromide (KBr)
5.6 g Silver nitrate (AgNO3) / 20 g distilled water (room temp)

In 50 ml beaker, dissolve NaCl in water - set at room temp. (This is a very nearly saturated solution.  Stir with the clean handle of a plastic spoon until the NaCl dissolves. Add additional water, drop by drop, with stirring if necessary to just dissolve the salt.)

In 50 ml beaker, dissolve AgNO3  in water - warm to 40C.

Dissolve 0.5 g citric acid in 10 ml water - warm to 40C.

  • Strain Gel A through a tea strainer into a 250 ml beaker in the waterbath on the magnetic hot plate. Turn off heat.  Start stirring at medium low speed, making sure vortex is centered on the center of the beaker.
  • Add in this order: KBr, 0.5 g citric acid, and dissolved NaCl.
  • Suck up 10 ml AgNO3 solution in the syringe and set aside upright in a clean beaker.
  • Add the warm  citric acid solution to the remaining 10 ml AgNO3 solution and pour into the primed, closed burette.  Swing the burette over the beaker so that the stream will hit the gelatin about 1/2-inch in from the wall of the beaker.
  • Spritz gelatin with Everclear.

    GO TO SAFELIGHT

  1. Turn on burette.
  2. Immediately begin silver injection at the very bottom of the beaker, between the rotation path of the stirring rod and the beaker wall/floor edge.  Over 1-1/2 to 2 minutes, slowly and evenly inject 10 ml AgNO3 solution.  Aim for the burette and the syringe emptying at about the same time.
  3. Stir an additional 3 minutes.
  4. Fluff the bloomed Gel B with the tines of a plastic fork.  Over 2 minutes, add it to the melt. When it's all been added, stir the top of the mix and press any fresh gelatin under the surface.  Stir an additional minute. (i.e. 3 minutes total). 
  5. Take the beaker of melt out of the water bath.  Let settle 1 minute.
  6. Strain through a tea strainer into a clean pouring beaker and immediately divide between two 8 oz. canning jars.  Cover each with plastic wrap secured by a lid ring and immediately refrigerate in cold lightproof canisters pre-filled with a half inch of cold water.  Store in the refrigerator at least 8 hours.  Storage time is to a certain extent an emulsion characteristic variable, so try to be consistent or take good notes.  Emulsion can be stored for at least a week without a preservative.  I've never used thymol or any other preservative, so I don't know the effect, if any, on my recipes.

ADDING FINALS BEFORE COATING

Preheat magnetic stirring plate with waterbath for 250 ml beaker to 50-52C. 

Preheat hot plate to 65C.

Have ready:

  • Dropper bottle of 1% Potassium iodide (KI).
  • Dropper bottle of Photoflo 600.
  • Dropper bottle of glyoxal.
  • Coating tools and surfaces.
  • Precut paper and small pieces of adhesive tape (I tear off about 36 1-inch pieces and line them up on the clothesline over my sink.)
  • Small jar of Everclear.
  • 250 ml beaker with stirring rod.
  • Strainers (tea and gold mesh coffee filters) and plastic canning funnel.
  • Hot distilled water.
  • Wash buckets (one with hot soapy water, one with hot clean water).
  • A 250 ml beaker nested inside a 400 ml beaker with enough water (room temp) to come within a 1/2-inch of the top.

GO TO SAFELIGHT

Melt one jar (1/2 batch) of emulsion: Remove jar from the lightproof container and place in a 40C waterbath (have the water level at about the height of the top of the emulsion).  Stick a thermometer through the plastic wrap into the emulsion.  When the temperature of the emulsion hits about 38C, remove the plastic wrap and gently stir with a clean plastic spoon until the emulsion is 41-42C. 

Strain the melted emulsion through a stainless steel tea strainer into the 250 ml beaker in the waterbath on the magnetic hot plate.  Start magnetic stirring at medium low (it remains stirring throughout the finals step).  Keep the waterbath temperature at 49-51C.  Add 15 drops 1% KI solution at about a drop per second, stir one minute.  Add 12 drops Photoflo 600, stir one minute.  Add 15 drops glyoxal and then spritz the surface of the emulsion with Everclear.  Remove the beaker from the water bath and wipe the outside dry.  Pour into the 250 ml in 400 ml beaker jacket through a stack of two or three gold mesh coffee filters.  Spritz with Everclear.  Set the water jacket on a hot plate set at about 65C.  The water should warm up at the same rate as the emulsion cools.  A little experience with your workflow will quickly help you determine your temperature parameters.

The first coating pass with tell you two things:

1) Is the emulsion cool enough?  If the coating is too warm it will go on too thin and you'll be able to see the dull paper through the shiny emulsion.  Just wait a couple of minutes, give the emulsion a gentle stir with a clean plastic spoon, and try again.  Mark this first sheet because it's not wasted.  It can be cut into test strips when you start printing.

2) Is the surfactant right?  If you see air bubbles or spots (repellency indicators) add another drop of Photoflo 600 and give a gentle stir. 

A few tips:

  • Tiny bubbles, often in a cluster, indicate that you probably added air in the emulsion take-up.  Have an atomizer bottle of Everclear close at hand and immediately spritz the bubble patch from about 4 inches.  The bubbles should disappear.  If they remain, don't try again.  After the emulsion starts to set, Everclear can leave its own marks on the surface.  Make note as to the location of the defect and avoid printing on that area. 
  • Keep a black permanent marker close at hand.  Right after coating, the surface of the emulsion is shiny and any and all defects are plainly visible.  It is a simple matter to make a map along the uncoated edge of the paper to guide your printing.
  • After the paper is dry, and you start to stack the sheets for storage in a paper safe (or light proof bag) triage the sheets.  Start with the 'ugly' ones on top.  These will be your test strips and you'll soon value them.  They eliminate the stress of cutting up perfect sheets for testing ;-)

Don't forget to have fun with all this.  Play around with small batches.  Following a few parameters, which you'll soon become familiar, substitute within chemical families and vary weights, temperature, and timing.  You'll probably see your share of disasters, but then again, it's much more likely you'll see some great successes.  (Take good notes!)

I was reading along in one of the old emulsion making books and for the umpteenth time I regretted the intriguing recipes that included miniscule amounts of odd chlorides.  It suddenly occurred to me that seawater salt likely had a mix of odd chlorides.  I had a brand in my kitchen cupboard that claimed to be the purist stuff available and in my darkroom cupboard I had some cupric chloride from years gone by that I wanted to try.  The recipes that I have seen that use cupric chloride also use ammonium bromide rather than potassium bromide.  Voila: 'Warm ♥ #1'.

I am starting to really understand the flexibility and creative potential of emulsions.  'Warm ♥  #1' is only a little warmer than 'I ♥', but it is different in subtle ways.  It's a little softer, but with a slightly better range.  It's more reliably pepper-free, and it has a nicer color untoned, but it's not as responsive to selenium toning.   Right now, I'm using Fabriano HP Extra White with 'Warm ♥ #1' for my silvergums  and 'I♥' for my selenium-toned b&w's.  There's no telling what I'll be using tomorrow.  'Warm ♥ #2' on Fabriano HP Traditional (warm white) is almost sensuous. 


Warm ♥ Emulsion, Version One

A Warm Tone Developing-Out Contact Printing Paper

Gel A:  13 g gelatin / 75 g water

  • Bloom 1 hr. starting with refrigerated distilled water.
  • Melt to 43C in waterbath on 90C° hot plate (starting from 40C water).

Gel B:  13 g gelatin / 75 g cold water (or: 65 g if coating wet paper).

  • Bloom gelatin for 1 hour.

Have ready:

  • 250 ml beaker with centered stirring rod in waterbath on magnetic hot plate at 52-53°C.
  • Monoject syringe (fine nozzle variety marked at 10 ml).
  • jars, plastic wrap and jar lid bands.
  • weighed chemicals.
4.0 g MASU 100% Sea Water Salt / 12 g water
2 drops 1% cupric chloride (CuCl2*2H2O)
1.0 g citric acid (dry)
0.5 g citric acid / 10 ml water
0.6 g Ammonium bromide (NH4Br)
5.6 g Silver nitrate (AgNO3) / 20 g water

Dissolve sea salt in water – set at room temp.

Dissolve AgNO3 in water – warm to 40C.

Dissolve 0.5 g citric acid in 10 ml water – warm to 40C.

  • Strain melted Gel A into beaker in waterbath on magnetic hot plate. Turn off heat. Stir at medium low speed.
  • Add in this order: NH4Br, 1.0 g dry citric acid, and dissolved salt and cupric chloride.
  • Suck up 10 ml AgNO3 in syringe, set aside.
  • Add warm citric acid solution to remaining 10 ml AgNO3 solution, and pour into primed, closed stopcock burette. Swing the burette over the beaker so that the stream will hit the gelatin about 1/2-inch in from the from the wall of the beaker.
  • Spritz gel mixture with Everclear.

GO TO SAFELIGHT

  1. Turn on burette.
  2. Immediately begin silver injection at the very bottom of the beaker, between the rotation path of the stirring rod and the beaker wall/floor edge.  Over 1-1/2 to 2 minutes, slowly and evenly inject 10 ml AgNO3 solution.  Aim for the burette and the syringe emptying at about the same time.
  3. Stir an additional 3 minutes.
  4. Fluff the bloomed Gel B with the tines of a plastic fork.  Over 2 minutes, add it to the melt. When it has all been added, stir the top of the mix and press any fresh gelatin under the surface.  Stir an additional minute. (i.e. 3 minutes total). 
  5. Take the beaker of melt out of the water bath.  Let settle 1 minute.
  6. Strain through a stainless steel tea strainer into a clean pouring beaker and immediately divide between two 8 oz. canning jars.  Cover each with plastic wrap secured by a lid ring and immediately refrigerate in cold lightproof canisters pre-filled with a half inch of cold water.

ADDING FINALS BEFORE COATING

Preheat magnetic stirring plate with waterbath for 250 ml beaker to 50-52C. 

Preheat hot plate to 65C.

Have ready:

  • Dropper bottle of 1% Potassium iodide (KI).
  • Dropper bottle of Photoflo 600.
  • Dropper bottle of glyoxal.
  • Coating tools and surfaces.
  • Precut paper and small pieces of adhesive tape (I tear off about 36 1-inch pieces and line them up on the clothesline over my sink.)
  • Small jar of Everclear.
  • 250 ml beaker with stirring rod.
  • Strainers (tea and gold mesh coffee filters) and plastic canning funnel.
  • Hot distilled water.
  • Wash buckets (one with hot soapy water, one with hot clean water).
  • A 250 ml beaker nested inside a 400 ml beaker with enough water (room temp) to come within a 1/2-inch of the top.

GO TO SAFELIGHT

Melt one jar (1/2 batch) of emulsion: Remove jar from the lightproof container and place in a 40C waterbath (have the water level at about the height of the top of the emulsion).  Stick a thermometer through the plastic wrap into the emulsion.  When the temperature of the emulsion hits about 38C, remove the plastic wrap and gently stir with a clean plastic spoon until the emulsion is 41-42C. 

Strain the melted emulsion through a stainless steel tea strainer into the 250 ml beaker in the waterbath on the magnetic hot plate.  Start magnetic stirring at medium low (it remains stirring throughout the finals step).  Keep the waterbath temperature at 49-51C.  Add 15 drops 1% KI solution at about a drop per second, stir one minute.  Add 12 drops Photoflo 600, stir one minute.  Add 15 drops glyoxal and then spritz the surface of the emulsion with Everclear.  Remove the beaker from the water bath and wipe the outside dry.  Pour into the 250 ml in 400 ml beaker jacket through a stack of two or three gold mesh coffee filters.  Spritz with Everclear.  Set the water jacket on a hot plate set at about 65C.  The water should warm up at the same rate as the emulsion cools.  A little experience with your workflow will quickly help you determine your temperature parameters.

The first coating pass with tell you two things:

1) Is the emulsion cool enough?  If the coating is too warm it will go on too thin and you'll be able to see the dull paper through the shiny emulsion.  Just wait a couple of minutes, give the emulsion a gentle stir with a clean plastic  spoon, and coat the next sheet.  Mark the first sheet because it isn't wasted.  It can be cut into test strips when you start printing.

2) Is the surfactant right?  If you see air bubbles or spots (repellency indicators) add another drop of Photoflo 600 and give a gentle stir. 

A few tips:

  • Tiny bubbles, often in a cluster, indicate that you probably added air during the emulsion take-up.  Have an atomizer bottle of Everclear close at hand and immediately spritz the bubble patch from about 4 inches.  The bubbles should disappear.  If they remain, don't try again.  After the emulsion starts to set, Everclear can leave its own marks on the surface.  Make note of the location of the defect and avoid printing on that area. 
  • Keep a black permanent marker close at hand.  Right after coating, the surface of the emulsion is shiny and any and all defects are plainly visible.  It is a simple matter to make a map along the uncoated edge of the paper to guide your printing.
  • After the paper is dry, and you start to stack the sheets for storage in a paper safe (or light proof bag) triage the sheets.  Start with the 'ugly' ones on top.  These will be your test strips and you'll soon value them.  They eliminate the stress of cutting up perfect sheets for testing ;-)
  • One defect that doesn't show up until printing is "slugs".  If you see them, you'll recognize them.  Good straining all but eliminates the problem.

Version Two of  'Warm ♥' is identical to Version One, except for the substitution of standard sodium chloride (NaCl) for sea salt and potassium chloride (KCl) for cupric chloride.  This is the formula I use for the low tech recipes.

Warm ♥ Emulsion, Version Two

A Warm Tone Developing-Out Contact Printing Paper

Gel A:  13 g gelatin / 75 g water

  • Bloom 1 hr. starting with refrigerated distilled water.
  • Melt to 43C in waterbath on 90C° hot plate (starting from 40C water).

Gel B:  13 g gelatin / 75 g cold water (or: 65 g if coating wet paper).

  • Bloom gelatin for 1 hour.

Have ready:

  • 250 ml beaker with centered stirring rod in waterbath on magnetic hot plate at 52-53°C.
  • Monoject syringe (fine nozzle variety marked at 10 ml).
  • jars, plastic wrap and jar lid bands.
  • weighed chemicals.
3.9 g Sodium chloride (NaCl) / 12 g water
0.5 g Potassium chloride (KCl)
1.0 g citric acid (dry)
0.5 g citric acid/ 10 ml water
0.7 g Ammonium bromide (NH4Br)
5.6 g Silver nitrate (AgNO3) / 20 g water

Dissolve NaCl in water – set at room temp.

Dissolve AgNO3 in water – warm to 40C.

Dissolve 0.5 g citric acid in 10 ml water – warm to 40C.

  • Strain melted Gel A into beaker in waterbath on magnetic hot plate. Turn off heat. Stir at medium low speed.
  • Add in this order: NH4Br, 1.0 g dry citric acid, and dissolved salt and KCl.
  • Suck up 10 ml AgNO3 in syringe, set aside.
  • Add warm citric acid solution to remaining 10 ml AgNO3 solution, and pour into primed, closed stopcock burette. Swing the burette over the beaker so that the stream will hit the gelatin about 1/2-inch in from the from the wall of the beaker.
  • Spritz gel mixture with Everclear.

GO TO SAFELIGHT

  1. Turn on burette.
  2. Immediately begin silver injection at the very bottom of the beaker, between the rotation path of the stirring rod and the beaker wall/floor edge.  Over 1-1/2 to 2 minutes, slowly and evenly inject 10 ml AgNO3 solution.  Aim for the burette and the syringe emptying at about the same time.
  3. Stir an additional 3 minutes.
  4. Fluff the bloomed Gel B with the tines of a plastic fork.  Over 2 minutes, add it to the melt. When it has all been added, stir the top of the mix and press any fresh gelatin under the surface.  Stir an additional minute. (i.e. 3 minutes total). 
  5. Take the beaker of melt out of the water bath.  Let settle 1 minute.
  6. Strain through a stainless steel tea strainer into a clean pouring beaker and immediately divide between two 8 oz. canning jars.  Cover each with plastic wrap secured by a lid ring and immediately refrigerate in cold lightproof canisters pre-filled with a half inch of cold water.

ADDING FINALS BEFORE COATING

Preheat magnetic stirring plate with waterbath for 250 ml beaker to 50-52C. 

Preheat hot plate to 95C.

Have ready:

  • Dropper bottle of 1% Potassium iodide (KI).
  • Dropper bottle of Photoflo 600.
  • Dropper bottle of glyoxal.
  • Coating tools and surfaces.
  • Precut paper and small pieces of adhesive tape (I tear off about 36 1-inch pieces and line them up on the clothesline over my sink.)
  • Small jar of Everclear.
  • 250 ml beaker with stirring rod.
  • Strainers (tea and gold mesh coffee filters) and plastic canning funnel.
  • Hot distilled water.
  • Wash buckets (one with hot soapy water, one with hot clean water).
  • A 250 ml beaker nested inside a 400 ml beaker with enough water (room temp) to come within a 1/2-inch of the top.

GO TO SAFELIGHT

Melt one jar (1/2 batch) of emulsion: Remove jar from the lightproof container and place in a 40C waterbath (have the water level at about the height of the top of the emulsion).  Stick a thermometer through the plastic wrap into the emulsion.  When the temperature of the emulsion hits about 38C, remove the plastic wrap and gently stir with a clean plastic spoon until the emulsion is 41-42C. 

Strain the melted emulsion through a stainless steel tea strainer into the 250 ml beaker in the waterbath on the magnetic hot plate.  Start magnetic stirring at medium low (it remains stirring throughout the finals step).  Keep the waterbath temperature at 49-51C.  Add 15 drops 1% KI solution at about a drop per second, stir one minute.  Add 12 drops Photoflo 600, stir one minute.  Add 15 drops glyoxal and then spritz the surface of the emulsion with Everclear.  Remove the beaker from the water bath and wipe the outside dry.  Pour into the 250 ml in 400 ml beaker jacket through a stack of two or three gold mesh coffee filters.  Spritz with Everclear.  Set the water jacket on a hot plate set at about 65C.  The water should warm up at the same rate as the emulsion cools.  A little experience with your workflow will quickly help you determine your temperature parameters.

The first coating pass with tell you two things:

1) Is the emulsion cool enough?  If the coating is too warm it will go on too thin and you'll be able to see the dull paper through the shiny emulsion.  Just wait a couple of minutes, give the emulsion a gentle stir with a clean plastic  spoon, and coat the next sheet.  Mark the first sheet because it isn't wasted.  It can be cut into test strips when you start printing.

2) Is the surfactant right?  If you see air bubbles or spots (repellency indicators) add another drop of Photoflo 600 and give a gentle stir. 

A few tips:

  • Tiny bubbles, often in a cluster, indicate that you probably added air during the emulsion take-up.  Have an atomizer bottle of Everclear close at hand and immediately spritz the bubble patch from about 4 inches.  The bubbles should disappear.  If they remain, don't try again.  After the emulsion starts to set, Everclear can leave its own marks on the surface.  Make note of the location of the defect and avoid printing on that area. 
  • Keep a black permanent marker close at hand.  Right after coating, the surface of the emulsion is shiny and any and all defects are plainly visible.  It is a simple matter to make a map along the uncoated edge of the paper to guide your printing.
  • After the paper is dry, and you start to stack the sheets for storage in a paper safe (or light proof bag) triage the sheets.  Start with the 'ugly' ones on top.  These will be your test strips and you'll soon value them.  They eliminate the stress of cutting up perfect sheets for testing ;-)
  • One defect that doesn't show up until printing is "slugs".  If you see them, you'll recognize them.  Good straining all but eliminates the problem.



Defender 55Dwr Paper Developer
Modified from the classic Defender 55D:
The Darkroom Cookbook, 2nd Edition. Stephen Anchell, 2000.

Mix together in the following order:
Distilled water (125F/52C) 500 ml
Metol 2.5 g
Sodium sulfite 37.5 g
Hydroquinone 10.0 g
Sodium carbonate, mono 45.0 g
Potassium bromide 14.0 g
Glycin 6.0 g
Water to make 1 liter

Working solution. 1:1 or 1:2 parts stock to water plus 25 ml 2% benzotriazole per liter working solution.  One and a half to two minutes at 68-70F. I generally use up to one-half of the previous working solution (filtered) as part of the stock measurement.

Note: With any developer on handcoated emulsion, don't go off safelight until the paper has been fully fixed.  I wait until I'm half way through a 5 min plain hypo fix.  (I use the two fix bath method.  I'll follow with a second fresh fix bath after I've accumulated enough prints to making toning time efficient.)
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