February 2011
30 posts
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Ben's Colour Printing Adventure
Ben’s colour printing adventure. Cunningly recorded on black and white film (TMAX P3200, DD-X, mostly given +1 stop exposure).
The latest results are looking good!
A successful afternoon in the darkroom...
Prints of the photos I took at New Years - a good test of our new capability to print medium format ‘properly’ (as opposed to using the De Vere 504 set up for 5x4” with a glass holder and cropping massively). Delta 400 @ 3200, nice and contrasty at grade 3 on Ilford Multigrade RC Pearl.
A piece of lith film, exposed at ISO 6 (3s, f/32) in an Agfa Isolette, developed in...
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Making a picture...
Compose, Focus, Meter, Expose,
Load, Dev, Stop, Fix, Wash, Dry,
Focus, Crop, Expose, Dev, Stop, Fix, Wash, Dry,
Done.
I’m off for another fun Sunday afternoon in the darkroom, hopefully to print medium format ‘properly’ for the first time.
Pentax Auto 110 is flaky as. Is it worth buying another because I’ve bought 6 rolls of film?
AGFA HTU3 Test
A while ago I acquired (for free) a box of 15”x12” AGFA ‘Copyline HTU3’ graphics film, described as ‘high-contrast negative film’ on the box. It’s apparently a ‘Rapid Access’ film, so I don’t know how it compares to a true ‘lith’ film, of which we have a fair amount in our darkroom.
Either way, I wanted to see if I could get...
Darkroom sorting-out on film...
Finding what appeared to be an unexposed roll of FP4+ amongst the darkroom stuff, we did the obvious thing and loaded it up to document our endeavours. Needing some more film speed, the roll was shot at 800 with the intention of foolishly experimenting with pushing it the (almost) 3 stops in Rodinal for some crazy grain.
As it happened, I found a time for FP4+ (ISO125) at EI1000 in Kodak Xtol,...
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...and it continues...
There are a load of photos to come, taken on a roll of FP4+ we’re going to do horrible things to with Rodinal in an attempt to eke a 3-stop push out of it. But that’s a story for another day…
Whilst there’s still a lot of stuff, it’s increasingly ordered. Along with the chemicals and paper, all the photography magazines are now listed and stored away neatly. The...
The 'Darkroom A' clearout begins in earnest...
Digital photos I’m afraid. This is the somewhat overwhelming sight that faced us as the start of the day. We need to get ‘A’ back in action, so we needed to work out what we’ve actually got in here, and figure out what’s useful to us.
Ben turned to do some top secret experimental stuff in ‘B’ and made disapproving faces at my digital camera.
Will...
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Big order placed...
…and I’m excited to see just what almost 200 rolls of film and 10 boxes of paper in one place looks like*. Rollei C-41 chemicals too!
Now begins the process of getting the money off everyone before the credit card bill is due :-)
*Well, I suppose it looks like 200 rolls of film and 10 boxes of paper, but it’s still pretty exciting.
Skeletal trees.
Yashica Electro 35CC, Ilford HP5+.
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Film is not dead...
I’ve done 4, 2-person, 2-hour darkroom printing workshops in the last couple of days. These filled up in no time at all. I don’t know much, but I know enough to make decent prints from decent negs and that’s enough to get people started.
I’m about to place an order for £600 worth of film, paper and other bits on behalf of members of UoB Photosoc’s darkroom mailing...
chloehaney asked: Hi sorry I don't know how to reply to your question, but I just say its a pain because of having to mix the powder which didn't dissolve easily, then the fact that it forms a hard crust on everything it comes in contact with. Also it spoils- I have five litres of the stuff but it only lasts max six months.
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Smoke Fairies.
I went to see Smoke Fairies play at the Fleece in Bristol on Wednesday night. It was an excellent gig, the venue was packed and they are a band I look forward to seeing play again. Somehow I managed to miss them two years in a row at End of the Road, and it’s only now they’ve got an album out that I’ve discovered them. Still, the Fleece isn’t huge and when I bought their...
Dunno about you lot...
…but I spent my Friday evening in the darkroom (rather than in the pub!). Bit of a slow evening, but I wasn’t rushing and got my four films developed. I continue to be very impressed with Kodak TMAX 3200. Photos to follow very soon…
