GVPX1 is a highly experimental/”special” print developer which produces notably warm blacks on nearly all papers, specifically trending more toward brown rather than the olive colors that many warmtone developers give on modern papers. It does this by incorporating a lot of silver solvents in the developer, which effectively eat away at the grains on the paper, making it finer and with the end result of a brown tonation. The exact colors highly depend on the paper as usual, but with most neutral tone papers it will give cold highlights, somewhat olive midtones, and brown shadows. On warmer tone papers, the highights will appear more olive tone and the brown creeps into the midtones some, but unfortunately contrast can suffer due to blacks not being greatly deep. On colder tone papers, it may only appear to have olive colored shadows with no real brown. Basically it depends on the starting grain size of the paper.
Overall Characteristics
Overall warmtone, but accomplishes this in a unique way with shifting colors from highlight to shadows; specifically designed to give brown warm blacks and shadows
Slightly slow, typical development time is 2m for RC and 2.5m for FB.
Overall lowered contrast (by about 1/4 grade) in appearance, with lower contrast shadows and slightly darker highlights compared to Ansco 130
Unknown stability. The developer itself should be fairly stable, but the ammonia component is volatile and may have poor tray life. If the ammonia dissipates out of the solution, it will be a slightly cold tone developer with deep contrasty shadows
Has a “seasoning” period. The first 2 or 3 prints will be significantly less brown and with weaker black tones
In tests, seems to last at least 2 hours and capable of developing at least 20 8x10 prints in the tray. Can be kept in a bottle between sessions safely and reused
Might give dichroic fog (“scum”) on some papers due to how much of an abuse this developer is in its action. This becomes more likely as the developer is used to process more prints. Dichroic fog becomes more likely as more prints are processed.
Will give normal fog on some papers (add benzotriazole to counteract)
Absolutely requires a good acidic stop bath to avoid staining appearing around the edges. Do not use weak stop bath or water rinse with this. If using TF-4 or another alkaline fixer, you should rinse the paper after the stop bath. Some papers will have uneven edge staining regardless
Will smell moderately of ammonia when paper is in the developer. It will have only a faint smell when in a tray idle, and a strong smell when mixing. People sensitive to ammonia fumes (resembles those of TF-4) may require good ventilation setups.
Recommended for neutral and cold tone papers, warm tone papers will not respond well to the solvent effect, giving weak shadows and dichroic fog
Works equally well for tested modern RC and FB papers
Will leave silver scum on trays and bottles used to hold the used solution. This can be removed by a simple dilute mixture of ferricyanide and thiosulfate (fixer) to make the fine silver scum soluble. This can also be used for prints with dichroic fog
Solution will begin perfectly clear, but proceed to become a cloudy grey with usage due to dissolved silver
Formula
700ml of hot water
“pinch” of sulfite
1.5g metol
30g sodium sulfite
5g hydroquinone
50ml triethanolamine 99% (commercial grade TEA is not suitable, sourced from Photographer’s Formulary)
15ml glycerol/glycerin (without this, tray life and ammonia smell will likely be much worse)
0.15g benzotriazole (can be replaced with 15ml of 1% solution if lacking a scale of suitable precision)
6.5g ammonium chloride
0.5g ammonium bromide (can be replaced with potassium bromide, or completely excluded and replaced with more benzotriazole for less olive midtones)
1.5g ammonium thiocyanate
12g sodium metaborate (note: can be made in solution by borax + sodium hydroxide in molar ratios)
Top to 1L
Measured pH, 9.5-10
Usage
Some papers might give better results if rinsed first, the majority though show minimal difference by rinsing first. Developer for 2m for RC paper or 2.5m for FB. Some papers may require more or less time. Develop for 30s longer after the image seems to be complete. Extended times may produce fog. Always use with an acidic stop bath. I use a simple citric acid stop bath. If the stop bath is too dilute, it may lead to edge staining.
Note: reduce the ammonium thiocyanate to 1g or 0.5g as well as reduce the benzotriazole to 0.1g to reduce the primary solvent effect and thus to make dichroic fog less likely. This may allow for unsuitable papers to be used, but will also decrease brown coloration of shadows.
Formulation Notes
This is formulated to keep as much ammonia in solution as possible, which is provided by the ammonium salts. The glycerol will prevent the ammonia from evaporating as quickly from the solution. The relatively low pH for a print developer also prevents as much ammonia as possible from evaporating. Finally, the formula carefully avoids carbonate, as carbonate will become neutralized over time and usage to produce carbon dioxide gas which will also destroy the ammonia.
If the ammonia gas released from mixing is too noxious, the ammonium salts can be added as the final step in the final bottle and capped after adding. All of the salts should go into solution easily with shaking of the bottle.
Without the ammonium salts, or with too little, the warmtone effect will be completely lost and the developer will give surprisingly slightly cold tone results with very deep blacks. This may be exploitable as a separate formula, but not one I’m exploring for now.
Papers Tested
Ilford MGV RC — Great results with minimal tendency for fogging or scum
Ilford MG FB — More responsive than MGV RC, and with minimal tendency for fogging or slight risk of scum
Ilford Warmtone FB — Not suitable, produces very weak black tones and scum
Fomatone Warmtone Classic FB — Not suitable, produces very weak black tones and a lot of scum
Fomaspeed RC — Good results, skews more toward cold highlights and warm blacks. Slight risk of scum and fogging
Ilford Coldtone FB — Needs additional BZT to prevent fog around edges. Gives cold highlights and colder brown blacks
Arista.EDU Ultra FB (Fomatone FB) — Skews colder but still with good effect, gives neutral highlights and coldish brown black tones