Prescysol EF – Precision in processing

Paul Gallagher - Landscape Photographer

When it comes to creative photography, colour workers have committed a lot of their efforts to capturing their chosen image using filters and accurate exposure. The next stage is to hand over the films to a trusted laboratory for either E6 or C41 processing, depending on whether you are using transparency film or negative film. If, however, you are a monochrome worker, you are at will to do the same or you can choose to venture into the complex world of monochrome processing. When I say complex I can almost hear people saying, “It’s only dev, stop and fix!” – but is it?

It is at this stage that you can make very important decisions as to whether you want grain or want to hide grain. Do you want to pull or push the manufacturer’s recommended film speed or increase or lower contrast? You have the choice of different dilutions, temperatures and amounts of agitation. In short, the control is infinite and in the wrong hands the results can be at best passable and at worst a complete loss of the image. I have personally made some classic cock-ups, which have resulted in golf-ball grain, pancake-flat contrast and complete loss of both highlight and shadow detail, not to mention spectacular streaks in sheet film. I am glad to say that this was many years ago now and since then I have finely tuned my methods to a point where I know what I am going to get with a few, specifically chosen developers, that fit comfortably with me and my requirements for fine art landscape work.

Some time ago, the late Barry Thornton introduced a series of developers for monochrome workers, based on refined developers of the past masters and received high acclaim for them. During this time I had settled with my own methods and chemicals and saw no need to deviate and try these alternative products. This remained the case until recently when I had repeatedly heard of a new product, introduced to the market by Peter Hogan of Monochrome Photography, who was also continuing to sell Barry Thornton’s developers. The product was Prescysol. I visited Peter’s website (www. monochromephotography.com) and could immediately see that it was an ‘Aladdin’s Cave’ for the fine art monochrome worker and after a further trawl through several pages of the web and discussion forums it was clear that this product was making some very big waves across the monochrome world. Furthermore, I had found that the original Prescysol had been upgraded and refined to Prescysol EF which was reported to be markedly finer and sharper than the original.

Prescysol EF is an extremely fine-grain, tanning and staining developer. As the developer is absorbed into the emulsion it begins to tan or harden depending on the amount of exposure it has received. As the tanning in areas of high exposure occurs it restricts the further absorption of more developer thereby ‘self limiting’ the development process. Conversely, in areas of low exposure, the lower tanning action allows development to continue – which, translated, means development of shadow detail beyond the development activity in the highlights. Because the stain, and tanning is proportional to the level of exposure, it provides a continuously variable mask of density and, as the staining occurs mostly between the silver grains, the grain is considerably softened, resulting in a smoother tonal gradation. Furthermore, because the developer is, by its very nature, ‘self limiting’, then most films can be processed for a standard time, using the same agitation. I simply had to try it!

The developer comes in two, 100ml bottles (Solutions A+B), which are diluted 1ml to every 100ml of distilled water. When A followed by B are placed in the water to make up the working ‘one shot’ developer then it’s ready to process. I wanted the best acutance (apparent sharpness) and smoothest grain structure,so followed the recommended partial stand method which involved a very limited agitation of only 10 seconds every 3 minutes for 10.5 minutes, at 24˚C. After this I simply used a stop bath for 1 minute, 4 minutes fix, and a generous wash of 5 minutes, followed by a wetting bath then hanging to dry. After drying, the close inspection began, as I tried to see what the benefits were. At first the tanning and staining could be seen in a brown colouration of the film emulsion, holding them up to the light showed a vast tonal range. I then scanned the film using an Epson 4990 flatbed scanner to create a large 16-bit greyscale file, which I viewed in Photoshop. With a basic scan with no curve or levels adjustment, a full tonal range was apparent before even considering any post-scan adjustments. Before me on the monitor was an image that was almost as Ihad visualised it in the field and I knew that the regular dodging and burning associated with other developers had been greatly reduced simply by what Prescysol EF had yielded during the developing stage. [1] During further scrutiny I could see the smoothness of the mid greys and superb acutance, particularly in the fine detailed branches of a tree in the image. [2] I then zoomed into the foot of the image where I feel detail and sharpness is essential to draw the eye of the viewer further into the image and could see delicate highlights in the remains of the white field crop and rich depth within the shadow they cast on the almost black soil. [3]

After a very limited time using some basic selections and curves to refine the tonal range to exactly what I needed the image was completed and ready to print. [Main image spread] I have tried many developers over the years and this is the product that has impressed me the most in terms of ease of use and accuracy. After processing several other sheets of film in Prescysol EF it reaffirmed my belief that this is indeed quite simply one of the finest products I have ever used. I mentioned earlier that I was set in my ways with a safe and reliable processing system for my films, well this has now changed and I can say that Prescysol EF is the only product that I will use until, perhaps, Peter Hogan introduces another!

Photo Quote: These people live again in print as intensely as when their images were captured on old dry plates of sixty years ago... I am walking in their alleys, standing in their rooms and sheds and workshops, looking in and out of their windows. Any they in turn seem to be aware of me. - Ansel Adams