Film; the medium that just won't die.

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Speed
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Re: Film; the medium that just won't die.

Post by Speed »

I probably misunderstood your response.
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Re: Film; the medium that just won't die.

Post by pixelboy »

In high school we had an amazing dark room.. A dozen or more enlargers and trays with chemicals in the middle. The day we first scattered leaves and pencils on a sheet of photographic paper, exposed it and the watched it appear in front of our eyes I fell in love with photography.

I joined the local camera club in my teens and eventually had a dark room in the laundry at home. I must of used 5 rolls of gaffer tape making it light proof.

Later I did work experience for a guy who had the contract for the ARL (pre NRL). He had to supply all photos for various magazines including Big League. I then worked for him part time for a few years and spent the 86 grand final following him up the side lines changing 35mm films and the 87 grand final shooting widelux from the grandstand.

When I left school I worked in a photo studio in darlinghurst. We had an awesome supply of cameras including Nikon 35mm, Mamia RB67 and several 5x4 cameras. We also had a paper development machine and a room for film development.. An excellent place to hide :)

Some of the mundane tasks included Soul Pattinson Chemist catalogues and copying movie stills on a 5x4 to producing copies for the film studios to send to newspapers. Some of the more exciting included helicopter shoots for industry real estate sales.

Once the other assistant and I once took a 5x4 camera up to the blue mountains and got some amazing shots of the valley beyond the three sisters. We would spend hours setting it up right, checking exposure and shooting polaroid "proofs" before even thinking of getting the film out. We got some excellent shots, one still adorns my mum's wall.

Film is magical.. Dust is your enemy and the anticipation and building excitement as you process the negatives and then finally prints is now all but lost.

Norbs, if you do build a darkroom expect a visit from me ;)
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Re: Film; the medium that just won't die.

Post by J.D. »

For anyone who would like to go back to the darkroom but still have the flexibility of digital, you can.

Try processing your image in Photoshop and then invert it to create a negative. Then all you have to do is print it onto an overhead transparency sheet using a white paper backing. You can then do a contact print directly from the neg you created. A lot of people do this to make gum prints, using separated channels (in Photoshop) across three acetate sheets.

Here's an excellent site for anyone who's into alternative processing:

http://www.alternativephotography.com/wp/
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Re: Film; the medium that just won't die.

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Just ordered some chemicals at work. Looking forward to it!
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Re: Film; the medium that just won't die.

Post by J.D. »

From that roll a couple of weeks ago. Just some tests to see that everything was working.

Image

Processed on Ilford paper with a grade 2 filter. Neg was Ilford HP5 400 ISO.

Would have uploaded sooner but my scanner was on the fritz due to network issues.
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Re: Film; the medium that just won't die.

Post by DexterPunk »

Looks like it's working
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Re: Film; the medium that just won't die.

Post by J.D. »

Yes: the camera works. I put the neg through a densitometer because I wasn't familiar with that system and it read 1.5 (1.5 what, I'm not sure) which meant it was matched to a grade 2 filter. The grade 3 was higher contrast and probably didn't look as good. Lost too much shadow detail. I wasn't happy with the top bit of the shot but hey, this was a test, right?

I developed the negs at home, which was way cool! :nod:

Gotta get my black and white eye back in...
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Re: Film; the medium that just won't die.

Post by pixelboy »

Looks great JD..

The lower left area would make an interesting crop..
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Re: Film; the medium that just won't die.

Post by DexterPunk »

J.D. wrote:I put the neg through a densitometer because I wasn't familiar with that system and it read 1.5 (1.5 what, I'm not sure)
1.5 Densities probably :D

There's a formula... has something to do with log of opacity or some such. You need BPMP.
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Re: Film; the medium that just won't die.

Post by DexterPunk »

D = log (1/T)

T would be transmittance.

Edit:

Here, page 148
https://ia801806.us.archive.org/31/item ... tition.pdf
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Re: Film; the medium that just won't die.

Post by J.D. »

Ripper!

Thanks Dex!
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Re: Film; the medium that just won't die.

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pixelboy wrote:Looks great JD..

The lower left area would make an interesting crop..
Thanks mate. Most people seem to like the lower right bit. This was really a pretty rushed job because there were a lot of other people using the same darkroom (there are 6 enlargers from 35mm up to 5x4). I'd like to try it on some fibre-based paper and do some dodging and burning to fix the bits I don't like. I tried it with a No. 3 contrast filter in the enlarger and the results were less pleasing but showed some promise. Perhaps 2.5 would work.
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Re: Film; the medium that just won't die.

Post by Cursed »

This does make me wonder on the possibility of doing a bit of B&W at home one day in the future. I have all the kit, even an old condenser enlarger my old man gave me (hopefully the wooden base board hasn't warped over all this time). My main bathroom is windowless too, so it wouldn't be too much of a reach to turn it into a part-time darkroom. I'd need new film, paper, chemicals and probably a new bulb for the safelight.

One more thing to ponder ...
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Re: Film; the medium that just won't die.

Post by DexterPunk »

It's a fun hobby to have, and quite satisfying.
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Re: Film; the medium that just won't die.

Post by Cursed »

Not sure if the enlarger will handle the 6x6 negs from the Mamiya from memory. I'm fairly certain that finding a new neg carrier would be out of the question, although a new lens would probably be available out there somewhere if necessary.
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Re: Film; the medium that just won't die.

Post by DexterPunk »

I wouldn't mind betting you could pick up a decent enlarger for next to nothing. Just need to keep your eyes peeled. I've even heard of universities throwing them in the bin :(
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Re: Film; the medium that just won't die.

Post by J.D. »

Yep, you sure can, even for medium format. The only hassle is that the ones on eBay are almost all pick up only.

Also, enlarger lenses are quite reasonably priced these days.
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Re: Film; the medium that just won't die.

Post by Cursed »

Am I right in thinking that MF enlarging normally uses a different focal length lens or is it just a matter of how tall the mast on the enlarger is vs. how big a print I want?
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Re: Film; the medium that just won't die.

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You are correct, though I'm unsure if there is any exact formula. Some enlargers are fitted with turrets. Others are not so you may have to change lenses to get workable distances.

Think of it in terms of your standard lens. If it is 50mm on your camera, you probably want 50mm on your enlarger.

If it's 100mm, as it is for some medium format cameras, then you want 75-100mm (or near as you can get) on your enlarger. For the record, I developed that print with a 105mm f/5.6 lens, which, for a 10x8 print, left me with the lens about 50 cms of working room above the paper. If I'd had a 35mm film in there and a 50mm lens, I'd get much the same result (I think).

And yes, it's relative to print size.

Page 6 of this manual - which is for the enlarger I was using - has some information on lens focal lengths.

http://www.jollinger.com/photo/cam-coll ... chroic.pdf
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Re: Film; the medium that just won't die.

Post by durbster »

pixelboy wrote:Looks great JD..

The lower left area would make an interesting crop..
Hm. Not sure about that:
Image

Anyway, despite what I said earlier, even I can see how that photo looks distinctive and rather cool :)
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Re: Film; the medium that just won't die.

Post by J.D. »

Ha, ha!

I enjoy the process. Yeah, I know that, as a commercial medium, film is rarely used these days (there are still some applications). As I said earlier, there are things you can do with tactile media which could only be simulated in digital, a less authentic effect. But for a lot of us, the process is heaps of fun. Much as I like digital and will stay with it, I think film is harder to master and more involving and it doesn't forgive *. I have never been much chop at Photoshop.

There's nothing quite like opening the tank and seeing the negs you processed yourself.

* Well, neg does a bit. Transparency doesn't.
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Re: Film; the medium that just won't die.

Post by Swain OHaw »

Waiting for the first roll back from my 'new' Yashica TL' and 50 1.4 ... I'm having to use a phone light meter because the internal one still isn't working after changing the battery ... and I foolishly lent my light meter to a slightly eccentric and horrifically disorganised friend. Phone light meter is far from the end of the world though (as long as it works) as it's broadly similar to consulting a pocket light meter and I'm really enjoying it so far, and part way through a second roll which I need to be careful of as developing costs a fortune these days. (Currently shooting colour - it's summer here and the light is lovely, might as well work with it.)

I think part of what I enjoy about the process is that you take the photo and that's it, you can't check it and be either happy with it, or in my case generally a bit disappointed. You don't then get it back to the computer and have said happiness/disappointment confirmed/deepened after some fiddling in lightroom. It goes away and then when it comes back you get some surprises. (That and film wind-on, nothing beats film wind-on.)

I'm not sure yet how to digitise the results, as I own no form of scanner. Worry about that later, for now I'm enjoying it - if this continues then I'll look at a reasonably priced film scanner, of which there seem to be a few that do low-medium res scans and as the main purpose will be sharing online, not printing as I'll already have negatives for that, then this is fine.
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Re: Film; the medium that just won't die.

Post by J.D. »

Sounds good Owain. I used a light meter app on my iPhone and found it pretty accurate.

I'm waiting for the RB67 to come back from having the light seals replaced. I have some RVP waiting in the fridge...
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Re: Film; the medium that just won't die.

Post by Swain OHaw »

I did a basic test of the light meter using the same settings on my DSLR and it worked well enough.

RB67s are beasts.
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Re: Film; the medium that just won't die.

Post by norbs »

Unsubscribing before I go crazy on eBay again with film cameras.
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