From: Masha Godovannaya (email suppressed)
Date: Sun Feb 17 2008 - 22:48:49 PST
Hello Robert,
Monday, February 18, 2008, 2:39:37 AM, you wrote:
RS> Generally, you want to soften and then stress the gelatin. High pH and high
RS> temperatures will do this. Cold temperatures and low pH harden it. The
RS> general approach here is to abuse the gelatin until it cracks.
RS> Try using a solution of Sodium Carbonate, available in most US supermarkets
RS> as "Washing Soda" -- maybe 1 cup per gallon? It will be pH of something
RS> like 11. Make it warm, or even hot. Soak the film in it for a few minutes,
RS> then plunge it into ice water, maybe with vinegar in it to lower the pH.
RS> Repeat. Who knows? A friend of mine told me a story of talking to a
RS> retired Kodak engineer about how he had managed to get reticulation, to
RS> which the former Kodak person responded "You @#$#@! We worked for years to
RS> keep that from happening!" Maybe it's apocryphal, but it gets the point
RS> across: modern emulsions are designed NOT to reticulate, so you're working
RS> against the grain.
RS> Reticulation is an inherently unpredictable thing to do. My advice is to
RS> keep careful notes, so that if you get any results at all, you'll know what
RS> you did. I'm hardly an expert on reticulation; what has worked for anyone
RS> else that they'd be willing to share?
I had a pretty good reticulation with old Russian color stock "Svema"
developed in Kodak chemistry at A1 lab (almost ruining their
chemistry without knowing it): "Svema" needs really low temperature in
developing (around 20-25' C) and Kodak - in its 36-38'. So the guys at
the lab (as they told me) started to develop it as usual - in 38' and
when they saw that emulsion started to crack and came off, they
abruptly decreased the temperature (or put the film in cold water
right away) and continue developed it in low temperatures. The film cracked really really really beautiful.
So I would say experiment with temperature.
You still can find old color Russian stock. It's not good for using in
normal shooting - the emulsion is too unstable, but for some different
weird experiments - oh, yes, you can get a lot of interesting and
unexpected results.
+ found a few recommendations from previous discussions, they are below
Good luck!
Masha
Tuesday, January 2, 2007, 11:42:41 PM, you wrote:
ac> I'm probably way too late replying to this thread...
ac> just going through a massive backlog of emails right
ac> now.
ac> i've mostly used reticulation with 35mm stills ....
ac> T-max 100 (TMX) to be precise. I've used two methods.
ac> #1. use boiling water for pre-bath before
ac> developing... proceed with normal temperature (20C)
ac> afterwards
ac> #2. stop devloping midway, pour in boiling water for
ac> 30 sec, dump out boiling water, continue developing as
ac> normal.
ac> one of those methods gave standard reticulation look
ac> with huge grain.
ac> the other method caused the emulsion to turn green and
ac> slide off in beautiful streaks. (unfortunately, i've
ac> lost the notes and am not sure which method yeilded
ac> which results... good thing i'm not doing medical
ac> research!)
ac> the general rule for reticulation of any film is that
ac> you need a difference of temperature of 10C for
ac> anything to happen... so you can go from hot to cold,
ac> or cold to hot... as long as there is a 10 degree
ac> Celsius difference that happens quickly.
ac> hope someone finds that useful.
ac> amanda dawn christie
Tuesday, April 27, 2004, 4:39:40 PM, you wrote:
jl> I think the film-group Metamkine in Grenoble told me that they used a
jl> hot solution of sodium carbonate,and also they were using some kind
jl> of acrylic medium in hot water which enabled 'veiling' (when the
jl> emulsion slides off the film< be careful). They would tilt the film
jl> after removing it from the bath and the emulsion would slide.
jl> Ah, here's a sheet on the use of sodium carbonate in my files now, :
jl> for simple reticulation: 30 g sodium carbonate (avbailable in any
jl> photo store) in 500 ml water at 60-ish degrees Centigrade. You do the
jl> math. I think it needs to be hot and constant but too hot and you'll
jl> melt the base.
jl> for radical reticulation: you use a weaker solution 15g of sc to 500
jl> ml hot water. You leave it in longer, till the emulsion slips off the
jl> base, watch out for that surface tension, it can pull the emulsion
jl> away from the base forever. They suggest at least 2 to 5 minutes for
jl> this weaker solution but I'm sure you will see what's going on with
jl> your own eyes.
jl> have fun.
jl> j.
www.mashagodovannaya.com
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