Category Archives: processing

Paper Negative workshop

I’m writing a last minute post to mention a two day paper negative workshop I’m running in Haverthwaite, Cumbria (UK) at the end of April.
I have two places left and thought that perhaps I might find a couple of interested photographers here. The workshop will cover the use of different paper types, establishing a working [...]

Also posted in Darkroom, Experimental, Uncategorized, cameras, paper negative, seeing | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Using light meters intelligently

Looking at an analogue or digital hand meter for the first time can be very confusing, there are many options and often an overload of information. There are multi metering modes on advanced modern digital types which I find confusing even after using meters for thirty years, so I thought I might write a little [...]

Also posted in 35mm, Darkroom, General, Large format, Medium Format, Portrait, Street photography, Uncategorized, cameras, landscape | Tagged , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Snow scenes again -the images.

I have been out on a number of occasions since writing the last post. Some of the films are processed, but not all. We have had days when I could get to my darkroom and lots of days when I could not. I have had to scan the negatives to show the results here, but [...]

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Snow scenes again

It’s almost a year since I started this blog and one of the first articles I wrote was about shooting in the snow on Ortho film (See ‘High contrast snow scenes’, Feb ‘09). I also wrote another article on achieving higher contrast by altering the film ISO and increasing the development time (see ‘Flexible film’ [...]

Also posted in 35mm, Medium Format, Uncategorized, landscape | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Flexible film

Different photographers have different expectations from a film. They may buy a particular brand because they have seen that someone they admire has used it. Some are looking for good latitude, others for speed, acutance or fine grain. Others may be expecting contrasty, gritty results.
Buying a film and exposing/developing at the manufacturers recommended settings will [...]

Also posted in Experimental | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Consistent negative quality

One of the most important areas of photography is the processing of negatives. The quality of your images is dependent on how much care and attention you take with your developer, dilution, times, temperature and agitation. Following much of the literature which has been published on the matter though, could give you too many things [...]

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Three bath processing

At the University where I teach part time I have a number of students who stand out from the crowd because of the talent, dedication or ingenuity they display.
One such student, Chris Finch has recently been working with 5×4 and processing in two bath.
A couple of weeks ago, we were discussing the various ways sheet [...]

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Talk given to photo educators (UK)

Today I gave a talk and an all day practical darkroom lesson to around 10 Photo Educators from Colleges and Universities across the north of England.
The event was staged by Ilford/Harman and is part of their strategy to keep darkrooms as a viable part of photographic education. Here in the UK, the college budgets are [...]

Also posted in Lecturing | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

10×8 snow negs processed

I finished my printing this morning, so I put the 10×8 sheet film through the two bath developer. I process individual sheets in trays, so it takes quite a while, but the results were astounding!
The tonal compression that this method gives is just amazing.
I will do some prints as soon as I get a bit [...]

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High contrast snow scenes

I suddenly got the idea today that I could put Ortho film in one of the cameras, shoot some graphic contrasty snow scenes, over process the film and get a really high contrast result. This I hoped, would print as black and white with no mid tones.
I went out with an old Nikkormat and a [...]

Also posted in 35mm, Experimental | Tagged , , | 3 Comments