Response to Farmer's Reducer for film?

Terry, to answer your question, bleaching with ferricyanide is not the answer to the dilema unless you are very precise and accomplished in the darkroom. It is not something to use to overcome a problem with exposure. It is however "very unpredictable." Ferricyanide acts on all the silver equally. Therefore the shadow densities get eaten up before any appreciable density changes occur in the highlight areas of the neg. What you end up with is a negative that has no density in the shadows and still the same densities in the highlight areas so it just gets worse. If you have a 4 or 5 stop "overly dense" negative that is already 2 or 3 stops overexposed, then and only then will you have a chance to modify your negative in a positive manner. So with this in mind I hope you see the efficacy of my statement to the question. By all means have at it and try reducing with Farmers Reducer. But don't expect an improvement in the neg. It will have nice blacks but no detail in the blacks. James

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