Another Dark Room Print

[Paradine]

I printed this today at school and I thought it came out sorta well so I thought I'd share:



This is a scan of it, I did do a slight contrast adjustment because the scan kinda killed the blacks, but now it looks pretty much what it looks like in person.

I took this at a carnival our school sponsors every year, this one was earlier in the year and we have another one coming up. On the right's a fun house and in the background you can see their ferris wheel.


The fun house is still a little bright and you can't see some of the detail at the top, but after the highlights being exposed for 60 seconds as opposed to the 10 seconds for the shadow and leaving it in the developer tray for almost 3 minutes, I decided to say it's fine.. and I like the tones except for maybe the very top part.


-----


So this post isn't just simply a photo post I'll explain a little about the dark room process. At school we do straight black and white printing, we have color process materials available to us but we have to buy all our own chemicals. They don't bother teaching it because the process is kinda long and drawn out and it's pretty much dead anyway with digital printing.. and the teacher's philosophy with color dark room printing is you really don't have to do anything hands on, it's all machine operated. I've never looked into it but from how she describes it, it just seems kind of lame.

Some may disagree that you don't need a background in dark room photography to be successful, but honestly, after doing it for two years, I have to say I've grown so much with my digital after learning how everything works together in a traditional dark room. Infrared photography (and I have to mention infrared because it's seriously taught me a lot through experimentation) also really helps give you an understanding of how f-stops, shutter speeds, and ISO work together when exposing.


Anyway, for black and white film (color is different as stated), first you have to shoot your film, yada yada. You shoot with your camera manual or automatic and then it's rolled up in to the cassette. Next comes the black bagging, which is basically an oversized t-shirt looking thing with an outer pocket and inner pocket closed with zippers on one end, and then to sockets that are like the sleeves of a shirt for your hands to go in. Inside the black bag you have your film inside the cassette, a film development tank (there's different sized tanks for different amounts of film), a reel for your film to be rolled on to, a post that goes inside the tank that you put the reels on to to keep the reel from sliding about inside the tank. Then you have a cone with is basically a funnel for the chemicals and blocks light and sits on top of the tank. You also need scissors and a can opener and the lid for the film tank.

Once everything is inside the bag, you start by using the can opener to basically peel the metal ring off the bottom of the film cassette and slide the film out, then you cut off the leader (the thing at the very beginning of the film cassette) as well as cutting the other end of the film from the bottom of the post that it's attached to. You then slide your film on to the reel and rock it back and forth until the film is on the reel. Then you take the reel with the film on it and you put it on the post inside the tank. Then you put the cone on top of the tank and turn it until it locks. Then you put the lid on the tank. You take the tank out of the black bag and dispose of the pieces of film and the film cassette.

Next is the chemicals, not everyone may do it exactly as well do but this is our process:

You have four main chemicals, your developer (we use kodak D76), your stop bath, your fixer, and your hypo clear.

The chemicals are done in ounces depending on how much your tank needs.

The chemicals also have ratios in which there's a certain part chemical to a certain part water.


The first step is to fill the tank with cold water and let it sit for four minutes to soften the emulsion on the film. After that, you need to set up or have already set up the other chemicals.

All chemicals need to be 68 degrees, this is pretty much the standard for all films.

Kodak D76 is usually 1:1, however some films call for straight chemical. You can change the ratio for the chemicals to anything you choose but it changes the development time. The D76 is what develops your film and creates an image. We usually do 9 1/2 minutes for the standard roll of film that is sold to us.

Stop Bath is straight chemical, it's done for about 30 seconds and has an acidic base the eats away at the remaining chemical.

Fixer is straight chemical, you do it usually for about 8 or 9 minutes, and it makes your film light safe so when you take it out of the tank it doesn't get ruined.

The last step is hypo clear, which is 1:4, and it helps clear any remaining chemicals on your film to help cut down on wash time.


After you're done developing you have to take out the cone and the post and stick the hose thing in the middle of the tank and have slow running water run for about 10 minutes to clear the remaining chemicals. If you don't use hypo clear wash time is generally 30 minutes. Then hang your film to dry.

After that you cut your negatives and put them in negative sleeves which are these transparency sheets that hold your negatives.


-----


For printing in the dark room:

Still have the same chemicals, although the temps don't matter as much.

The developer is different, we use Dektol but there's others available, and it's also 1:1.

For stop bath, fixer, and hypo clear we take the chemicals used in film and put them in the dark room for dark room printing.

Stop bath is still straight, fixer is now 1:2, and hypo clear is still 1:4. But again, that's just how we're set up.


For the print making part, you have your enlarger, a negative carrier, a timer attached to the enlarger, a grain enlarger, and an easil to hold the paper. We print standard on 8x10 although she has larger easils if you choose to buy larger paper.

You take your negative, put it in the negative carrier and put it in the enlarger. Then you raise or lower the enlarger to change the photo size to fit your easil. Then you put the grain enlarger on the easil and look through it (it's like this microscope looking thing) which basically magnifies the print that's projected. You then turn the focusing knob on the enlarger until you can see each little grain on your negative. Then it'll be in focus for printing. Then you're supposed to make a test strip, although some people don't bother because they can judge the times. A test strip is basically a little strip of photo paper that you start the timer at like 45 seconds, and every 5 seconds you uncover more of the paper (you cover the strip with card board), until you reach 0 and you have what the print will look like at each of those intervals and you can pick the best time.

However, sometimes what's a good exposure for the highlights won't be for the shadows so you'll have to burn and dodge which means cutting out the print and basically covering the part you want to keep light and exposing more time to the part you need darker.


After you've exposed your paper, you put it through the chemicals, Dektol is about 1 and a half minutes, stop bath is still 30 seconds, fixer is about 8 minutes, and hypo is still 4. Then you put it through the wash and you squeegee the remaining water off and let it dry.









And that's how your basic dark room works... if anyone read past the photo part I applaud you, this is what happens when I'm sick and know I'm not going to school tomorrow so I put off homework to do other, more pointless things such as this.

Also, @crys, I have the print here, I just need to get it sent out. Sorry I keep putting it off.

[chris_tal2004]

You're explination is pretty fasctinating.

Also, the pic itself reminds me of a scene from an old horror flick.

[Joyfull_music]

It is a very nostalgic print.