Purchasing tips
From Silvergrain Products
Contents |
Selecting the right print developer
Two flavors of Tektol print developers
Tektol print developers come in two major flavors: standard and black.
Tektol Standard is the right choice for most creative photographers who want to get the maximum character out of the paper of choice. It offers beautiful gradation, gentle highlight and dark shadow, with great control of the development. It is also the best choice for prints that are finished with a toning process, such as selenium toner or brown toner.
Tektol Black is the preferred choice for people who prefer to get the blue-black image hue and crisp highlight, such as landscape photography. The development process may still be controlled by any of the methods known by experienced photographers, but the range of control may not be as great as with Tektol Standard.
Tektol Standard and Tektol Black can be mixed at any proportion, to control the image hue. If Tektol Standard is too warm toned but Tektol Black is too cold, we suggest mixing them 1:1 and then dilute as usual.
Still confused? Try Tektol Standard first.
Selecting the right size
Generally speaking, Silvergrain chemicals have good shelf life and can be purchased in bulk to stock up. However, we recommend quart and gallon sizes for long term stocking items. Five gallon cubes are for volume users who go through them rather quickly.
The plastic bottles used to store photographic chemicals are not perfect and they do let some air in through the plastic itself, even if the seal is not broken. This makes a difference if you are buying Tektol developers in bulk to stock up. We use the best available technology for each size, but *the quart bottle is best stuited for long term storage, followed by the gallon jug.*
Recycle information
Tektol developers in quart size come in PET (PETE) bottles, with the recycle code number 1. These containers are recyclable.
Tektol developers in gallon size come in jugs made from specially treated HDPE. These jugs are superior to most other HDPE containers. These containers are recyclable as HDPE.
These bottles used for Tektol developers (quart and gallon) are rather expensive in order to improve the oxygen barrier property of the packaging. *Silvergrain encourages you to save those containers, rinse them twice, and reuse them to store your working solutions or other darkroom chemicals. Make sure to label each bottle in blue, green or black marker, with all relevant information, such as the dilution and the safety/disposal instructions. Whenever possible, reusing is definitely the best way to use available resources efficiently.* (We are aware that the Tektol gallon jugs have a mark saying "do not reuse this container" but that imprinting was made by the manufacturer of the stock container, not Silvergrain or its manufacturer, Digitaltruth.)
Other quart and gallon size products come in regular HDPE containers and they are recyclable as any other HDPE containers.
Five gallon cube products come in hard shell HDPE container inside a cardboard box. Separate the plastic and paper materials, and they are recyclable as HDPE and paper.
