I received my order of cool tone Ilford Fibre and Potassium Ferricyanide from B&H today. It was waiting on my doorstep when I woke up from my afternoon nap. You got to love it, free shipping and home delivery. When I am older and in worse physical shape that kind of service will be essential. I can just stay home, have all my supplies delivered free to the front door and print baby print!
I will not be able to try out the cool tone stuff until after I finish the show printing. My hope is that I can eventually only use 2 photo papers, Ilford warm and cool tone. That way I will really get to learn the paper and how they work with my negs. I will completely learn how they develop, tone, and how they bleach. This could be the start of a very creative darkroom period. If you want to become a master printer you really need to know your tools. Hopefully this is a step in the right direction. I am to much of a jack rabbit hopping from paper to paper, by simplifying I should become a better printer.
I am still waiting on the 3 rolls of bulk Tri-x I ordered a few days ago, expect that to take at least another week to arrive. The bulk film is from Amazon.ca and also includes free home delivery shipping. When I use the film will depend if it is outdated (it might be by a bit), if it is not outdated the film when it arrives will go right into the freezer, I will probably not use it for 5 plus years. If it is outdated it will move to the top of the batting order depending how it fits into my other outdated Tri-x 35mm.
With the 1lb. bottle of Potassium Ferricyanide I got today I probably have around 2 pounds of the stuff. I had another old bottle of PF (bleach) that I forgot about, must have picked it up at a estate auction I went to a few years back. I am doing more and more bleaching now, so no doubt will eventually use it all up. What I have now should last me at least 3-4 maybe 5-6 years. I find when I do my spray bottle bleaching method I use up a fair amount of PF quite fast. It's not that expensive a chemical and is readily available, so this should not be a problem.
I will not be able to try out the cool tone stuff until after I finish the show printing. My hope is that I can eventually only use 2 photo papers, Ilford warm and cool tone. That way I will really get to learn the paper and how they work with my negs. I will completely learn how they develop, tone, and how they bleach. This could be the start of a very creative darkroom period. If you want to become a master printer you really need to know your tools. Hopefully this is a step in the right direction. I am to much of a jack rabbit hopping from paper to paper, by simplifying I should become a better printer.
I am still waiting on the 3 rolls of bulk Tri-x I ordered a few days ago, expect that to take at least another week to arrive. The bulk film is from Amazon.ca and also includes free home delivery shipping. When I use the film will depend if it is outdated (it might be by a bit), if it is not outdated the film when it arrives will go right into the freezer, I will probably not use it for 5 plus years. If it is outdated it will move to the top of the batting order depending how it fits into my other outdated Tri-x 35mm.
With the 1lb. bottle of Potassium Ferricyanide I got today I probably have around 2 pounds of the stuff. I had another old bottle of PF (bleach) that I forgot about, must have picked it up at a estate auction I went to a few years back. I am doing more and more bleaching now, so no doubt will eventually use it all up. What I have now should last me at least 3-4 maybe 5-6 years. I find when I do my spray bottle bleaching method I use up a fair amount of PF quite fast. It's not that expensive a chemical and is readily available, so this should not be a problem.
