I received my Pinsta a few days ago and I have been enjoying it. I am using the same paper, developer and fixer shown in the website, as well as the developing times. I am very happy that I have been able to take successful pictures from the very beginning.
I took two pictures of the same area, one without and one with pre-flashing. As expected the one with preflashing has the strong contrast described. Using a new paper, I prefhalsed it for 25 second with a flashlight. I reduced by exposure time by 30 % (100 seconds of exposure without preflashing became 70 seconds of exporuse with the preflashed paper). Once developed, the image was good, which tells me that exposure time was currect. However, the image is still with the same strong contrast that I had before. I was not able to extend the tonal range at all.
Any thoughts as to why this may happen? I find it weird that the exposure time was reduced correctly, but I don't know what happens to the tonal range.
Thanks,
Albert
How are you determining the duration of the flash?
If you want the short answer (as you are using a torch and are probably unable to increase the intensity) try increasing the duration of exposure, further exposure would be expected to reduce the maximum density for HDPP (or increase the minimum density for normal paper), and change the exposure range.