Day 19 Thursday 13th October 2011

Thursday 13th October 2011 Black and White Printing

What a really interesting day!

Starting the day off with the task of creating a contact sheet within the darkroom.
The film is simply placed (whilst still inside the sleeve, film shinny side down/emulsion up) with a sheet of photographic paper behind it (emulsion side facing the light and behind the negatives obviously)  inside the contact sheet maker.  Using about 7 seconds of light the paper is exposed, then removed before being fed through the paper processing machine (emulsion side down)

One  negative is selected for enlargement, you select the appropriate equipment which consists of: negative carrier and inserts appropriate to the neg size, focus viewer, easel, lens (signed out from stores-50mm for 35mm negs, 80mm for 120 roll film, 150mm for 4x5 film).
The lens is set to the mode whereby you can hear the clicks as you open up and stop down the aperture, then fitted via it's bayonet fitting into an enlarger. The easel is then set up to accept the appropriate image shape dependant on the  format of the neg (square/rectangular), mine was square having been shot through a Bronica. The film is carefully loaded into the neg carrier..The 'focus' button is used to illuminate the neg as allow the image to be sized and focused onto the easel (using the focus viewer). This process is best done with the lens wide open. You can also orientate the neg at this juncture.

Colin suggested setting the aperture to F8, time interval on the enlarger at five seconds, and selecting grade two. These would be the settings to use for your exposure test strip. Exposing the whole strip (precut via oneself on the guillotine) to five seconds of light via the 'exposure' button, you simply cover a small strip and expose again, continuing in this fashion until you paper has had a range of exposures in five second intervals. Remembering to always close your paper box to reduce chances of fogging! If the test strip proves to be unsuccessful you may be required to stop down the enlarger lens one stop, and double the exposure time using the timer settings (my experience today). Before completing a second test strip. After this we made an initial full size image based on the best exposure on the test strip.

Colin then went on to explain some negatives required multiple exposures using varying grades to creatively alter/or correct the density and tones of the image.
The grades go from zero to five, with zero creating tone and the higher numbers affecting the density. grade five for example being used to darken and enrich the deep blacks.

After more test strips we arrived at a three exposure combination for my final spanners image consisting of
: -1stop on the lens with 40 seconds of light exposed at; Grade 0, 25 seconds; Grade 2, 5 seconds; Grade 5, 10 seconds.
The 0 grade giving the overall image/background sufficient tone, Grade 2 giving the spanners more emphasis, and finally grade 5 giving more density and contrast to the black making a cleaner black that 'popped out' more.  Because my image served well as a method of showing the process and it's outcomes, Colin asked if i would create three extra strips showing the three component exposures that I had been required to combine together to create my final image. Those are the three strips on the right hand side side of my attached image, below the final large print. Each strip only shows one of the individual components (three exposures required), thus allowing us to see the building blocks used to layer and create the final image. 

Today's output:

 I then went on to complete test strips for a test shot from the Environment project brief. Colin suggested it warranted printing in fibre based paper, something I'll do when time becomes available to see and feel the difference in the quality of the final product.