couple b&w questions
Eddie McCreary
I put together a small b&w darkroom setup in my spare bedroom and have
had a great time making prints and experimenting. I have a couple
probably basic question I'd appreciate help on.
1) Contrast filters. I've seen people mention these but I haven't
been able to find any references. I assume these are used to vary
the contrast of a print? Is this for b&w or color only? Any
suggestions for online or printed references??
2) I have several b&w 8x10 prints with lost negatives. Is there a
way I can duplicate these at home, or am I better off taking them
to a lab? I'd rather do them myself just for the experience.
3) I'm currently using Ilford paper and chemicals, which of the three,
(developer, stop bath, fixer) can be reused between sessions? Is
there a good rule of thumb on how many times each can be used before
they become exhausted?
thanks in advance.
--
"Well, art is art, isn't it? Still, on the other hand, water is water! And
east is east and west is west and if you take cranberries and stew them
like applesauce they taste much more like prunes than rhubarb does."
Captain Jeffrey Spaulding
Eddie McCreary mailto:fo...@neosoft.com http://www.neosoft.com/~forge
Richard Knoppow
Eddie McCreary <fo...@neosoft.com> wrote:
>I put together a small b&w darkroom setup in my spare bedroom and have
>had a great time making prints and experimenting. I have a couple
>probably basic question I'd appreciate help on.
>
>1) Contrast filters. I've seen people mention these but I haven't
>been able to find any references. I assume these are used to vary
>the contrast of a print? Is this for b&w or color only? Any
>suggestions for online or printed references??
>
These probably are the filters used to adjust the contrast of
variable contrast printing paper. Printing paper comes in two kinds:
1, Graded paper, with a fixed contrast. If you need more or less you
use a different grade. 2, Variable Contrast paper. This has an
emulsion made up of two or more components, each of which is sensitive
to blue light but only one of which is sensitive to green light. They
are of different contrasts. The filters select how much blue and how
much green light gets through thus adjusting the contrast of the paper
at will buy changing the filters.
This works for B&W printing only. There are other filters used in
color printing but they are for correcting the color reproduction not
conrast.
>2) I have several b&w 8x10 prints with lost negatives. Is there a
>way I can duplicate these at home, or am I better off taking them
>to a lab? I'd rather do them myself just for the experience.
You can do it yourself. The exact method depends on what kinds of
cameras you have available. I assume we are talking about B&W but
color can also be duplicated although its harder to get satisfactory
results. If you must use a 35mm camera you should use a very fine
grain film like Kodak Technical Pan or Ilford Pan-F. The photo should
be lighted from the sides at about a 45deg angle and care used to
eliminate any reflections from the surface. You can use the TTL meter
in your camera to check exposure. Otherwise you can measure using a
white card and a reflected light meter. For this measurement set the
film speed indicator on the meter for five times the actual speed.
There are a lot of other hints.
Kodak publishes a book about copying see below.
>3) I'm currently using Ilford paper and chemicals, which of the three,
>(developer, stop bath, fixer) can be reused between sessions? Is
>there a good rule of thumb on how many times each can be used before
>they become exhausted?
Each manufacturer has literature describing the way their chemicals
should be used. Somel of this information is on the web sites listed
below.
Even thoug you are using Ilford products I recommend getting a copy
of _The Kodak Black-and-White Darkroom Dataguide_ which has a lot of
generally helpful information in it.
Another good Kodak book is _Black-and White Darkroom Techniques_
KW-15, CAT no. 144 0809, avaiable from The Silver Pixel Press.
Also see:
AGFA site: http://www.agfaphoto.com
Ilford site: http://www.ilford.com
Kodak site: http://www.kodak.com
Each of these pages has a massive amount of information on it.
Other good on-line information sources are:
http://www4.ncsu.edu/unity/users/j/jnweg/html/faq.html which has an
enormous number of links on it.
http://www.users.dircon.co.uk/~migol/photo/devframe.html Which has
developing information for almost every film and developer
combination.
http://www2.ari.net/glsmyth/ which has a lot of generally useful
information along with an introduction to alternative methods of
photography.
http://www.sound.net/~lanoue/ A darkroom page run by one of Ilford's
managers. Has a lot of Ilford specific data on it.
There is also Kodak's customer service number 1-800-242-2424 in the
US.
>thanks in advance.
>
>--
>"Well, art is art, isn't it? Still, on the other hand, water is water! And
>east is east and west is west and if you take cranberries and stew them
>like applesauce they taste much more like prunes than rhubarb does."
> Captain Jeffrey Spaulding
>Eddie McCreary mailto:fo...@neosoft.com http://www.neosoft.com/~forge
---
Richard Knoppow
Los Angeles, Ca.
dick...@ix.netcom.com
Michael A. Covington
Eddie McCreary (fo...@neosoft.com) wrote:
: 1) Contrast filters. I've seen people mention these but I haven't
: been able to find any references. I assume these are used to vary
: the contrast of a print? Is this for b&w or color only? Any
: suggestions for online or printed references??
They are used with Kodak Polymax and Ilford Multigrade black-and-white
enlarging paper, which has multiple layers with different amounts of
contrast. By changing filters you can vary the contrast of the paper
because the different layers are sensitive to slightly different colors
of light. You should find Multigrade and Polymax filters in any
camera store.
: 2) I have several b&w 8x10 prints with lost negatives. Is there a
: way I can duplicate these at home, or am I better off taking them
: to a lab? I'd rather do them myself just for the experience.
Yes -- light them from the side at a 45-degree angle and take pictures
of them. Underdevelop your film somewhat, to get low contrast.
: 3) I'm currently using Ilford paper and chemicals, which of the three,
: (developer, stop bath, fixer) can be reused between sessions? Is
: there a good rule of thumb on how many times each can be used before
: they become exhausted?
This information should be on the labels of the chemicals (under "Capacity").
Ilford Universal Fixer is very strong and quite reusable. I measure its
exhaustion by checking how long it takes to clear a small scrap of film.
As soon as this time starts to lengthen noticeably, I replace the fixer.
Stop bath is reusable until it changes color, but because it's so cheap,
you probably won't want to bother.
Developer is the one I am most reluctant to reuse because if it's
weak, your film will come out underdeveloped. (Crucial point: In stop
bath and fixer, we let the chemical reaction proceed to completion,
but in developer, we interrupt it when it's partly done. Thus
developer is much more critical.)
--
Michael A. Covington http://www.ai.uga.edu/~mc
Chairman, Computer Security Team, and
Associate Director, Artificial Intelligence Center
The University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602-7415 U.S.A.
Jean-David Beyer
Eddie McCreary wrote:
> I put together a small b&w darkroom setup in my spare bedroom and have
> had a great time making prints and experimenting. I have a couple
> probably basic question I'd appreciate help on.
>
> 1) Contrast filters. I've seen people mention these but I haven't
> been able to find any references. I assume these are used to vary
> the contrast of a print? Is this for b&w or color only? Any
> suggestions for online or printed references??
There is a class of photo paper (for black and white only)
calledvariable-contrast (VC) paper. This is in distinction to the traditional
paper, called (contrast) graded paper that comes in several grades.
These grades are usually numbered 1,2,3,4,5, with the lower numbers
having lower contrast. The variable contrast paper is normally used
with an enlarger with an incandescent light source, but it can be used
with many other light sources as well. These work because the paper
is coated with a mixture of 2 (or more) emulsions, one sensitive to
blue light (this one normally produces a high contrast) and one sensitive
to green light (this one normally produces a low contrast). By controlling
the proportion of blue and green light (with filters, usually), you can
control the contrast of the print. Most textbooks on B&W printing
should explain this, but there is not much to it. It can be more
flexible than graded papers if you have a situation where you want
some of your print to have different amounts of contrast than other
parts.
> 2) I have several b&w 8x10 prints with lost negatives. Is there a
> way I can duplicate these at home, or am I better off taking them
> to a lab? I'd rather do them myself just for the experience.
Sure: find a way to keep the prints extremely flat. If they are mountedon a
4-ply mat board, they may be flat enough. You can put them behind
a piece of glass (I would use a piece of 1/4" thick glass whose corners and
edges have been ground so you do not get blood over everything). Adjust
the lighting so you do not get glare and photograph it with a camera. Some
films give better results than others. Kodak make Professional Copy
Film 4125 and Kodak Ortho Copy Film 5125 that is made for this.
It is available only in sheet and 70mm unperforated long rolls. If you have
a camera that can take it, that is best. If you have only 35mm, you might
wish to try Kodak Technical Pan Film and develop it in something like
HC-110 Dilution B. You will not want the Technidol for this as it will
not usually produce enough contrast. If you have TMax-100 and want to
try it, expose it somewhat more than you usually do and adjust the
developing time (probably want a little more than when shooting pictures)
to get the contrast you want.
> 3) I'm currently using Ilford paper and chemicals, which of the three,
> (developer, stop bath, fixer) can be reused between sessions? Is
> there a good rule of thumb on how many times each can be used before
> they become exhausted?
The capacities are specified by the manufacturer. You might find themon the
Ilford web site.
The stop bath is the easiest one to do, but the least profitable. If you
use indicator stop bath, it changes from yellow to blue when it is
exhausted. I filter and re-use mine, but I do not wait for it to turn blue.
When it starts to change to an amber color, I dump it.
I carefully count the sheets I put through the (2-bath) fixer. With the
quantities I use in each bath, Kodak say I can process 100 8x10 sheets
before discarding the first bath. I quit at around 80, though.
If you are using something like Dektol, you can save it for the next day
if you have not processed too many prints in it. I do this only rarely.
Keeping it much longer will lower the Dmax you can achieve even
before it is do oxidized that it starts staining the prints.
--
Jean-David Beyer
Shrewsbury, New Jersey
Robert Pugh
> Eddie McCreary wrote:
>
>
> > 3) I'm currently using Ilford paper and chemicals, which of the three,
> > (developer, stop bath, fixer) can be reused between sessions? Is
> > there a good rule of thumb on how many times each can be used before
> > they become exhausted?
>
developed in Multigrade Developer - this can be kept for 24 hours, but
for me as a amateur working in my bathroom this means that for practical
purposes it is "one-stop", i.e. use for one session and then discard.
I use Ilfostop odourless stop-bath. This is an indicator bath and should
be good for 60-80 sheets of 8" x 10". Also it is odourless, which is
great when working at home as it doesn't stink the place out - also it
doesn't sting when it comes into contact with a cut.
I use Hypam Fixer. This can be kept as a stock solution for 7 days, but
again, for me as a part-timer this often becomes "one-stop".
Fortunately, the cost of these chemicals isn't earth-shattering.
Hope this helps.
Bob.
Michael A. Covington
Robert Pugh (rober...@virgin.net) wrote:
: I use Ilfostop odourless stop-bath. This is an indicator bath and should
: be good for 60-80 sheets of 8" x 10". Also it is odourless, which is
: great when working at home as it doesn't stink the place out - also it
: doesn't sting when it comes into contact with a cut.
: I use Hypam Fixer. This can be kept as a stock solution for 7 days, but
: again, for me as a part-timer this often becomes "one-stop".
: Fortunately, the cost of these chemicals isn't earth-shattering.
Are you in the United States? (Can't tell from your address.)
I've never seen Ilfostop in this country, and Hypam is a name not
often heard over here... Is there a US supplier of Ilfostop?
Thanks,
Robert Pugh
available here. Have you tried the Ilford Website? They ahould be able
to provide info on these products amd details of a US supplier.
Bob.