[Kirk Keyes]

The word of the master, Per Volquartz. I have never found him to be wrong and I do not waste my time testing every possibility in hopes I can raise my ego by finding a mistake.

I've spent a week with Per with him on his Free Oregon Coast Workshop. He's a nice guy and a very talented photographer.

But maybe you should do some testing for yourself sometimes. You may discover that some popular notions are not true...

Gordon Hutching, in his Book of Pyro recommended saving spent PMK developer to use as an "afterbath" for soaking your developed and fixed PMK films in to increase the strength of the pyro stain on the negatives. I first used PMK in the early 90s, and I followed his suggestion. To me, it initially seemed counter intuitive, but I did it as it was in the Book, and so I did it religiously.

After some time, that counter intuitive feeling got to me and I did some testing and I found that the afterbath merely added an overall stain to the image. The afterbath increased the yellow color of the neg and increased the printing exposure time needed. It was just like cranking in some yellow filtration on my color head - and did not add to the quality of the pyro neg.

By the way, I'm sure you've noticed that the afterbath recommendation is not made anymore. I guess others came to the same conclusion that I did.

Anyway, I questioned the recommendation of a Master. And I learned something by doing some test to find the answer myself. And yes, I stopped following the suggestion of a Master.