Recovering a muddy image.

I was booked by Richie for a 1-1 darkroom workshop on Sunday.  It was a real pleasure to work with someone who had taken the trouble to learn how to correctly expose film, it makes life so much easier in the darkroom.  He explained that he took readings from the shadows and the sky then averaged the mid range for the exposure.  He was also looking at using different ISOs as a base for controlling tones for different conditions.  After processing a couple of his rolls of 120 film I could see that he was producing some pretty good negs.

We printed onto resin coated paper from is medium format negs with some excellent results.  He managed to keep detail in rapidly flowing water, at long exposure, while retaining the shadows.  While doing this I thought it would be an idea to demonstrate some of the advantages of fibre based paper.  I had been given a very old box of Report-Rapid 111 N by John Brewer so I used that.  The first print was rather dull and muddy, even using a hard mix of Dr Beers to dev it in.  I showed that by using a bath of Farmers Reducer to clear up the highlights, followed by Selenium Toner to darken the shadows and remove the warmth, you could get a reasonable print.

Orignal

Farmers Reducer and Moersch MT1 Selenium Toner

It's been a while!

I realised this morning that I hadn't blogged for a long time.  Doesn't mean things have been quiet, far from it.  The Engine Room opened fully in January, still a little rough around the edges but everything is now up and running.  The first show was just the Forest Nation, in an edited form, from last May just to get things started.  February saw an exhibition of the work of Mina Ahmed, looking at derelict and abandoned buildings, along with some high level night shots.  Yesterday we hung a set of images from some Level 3 photography students, more about that in a later blog.

Apart from having a base for me to work from, my intention for the engine room was to give other photographers a chance to develop their skills.  There is a small band of regular visitors building and it is really nice to see the place busy.  In addition to individuals there have been groups from a Level 3 Graphics and Animation course coming to use the darkroom, plus students from a Foundation Degree doing some historical processes, both from The Manchester College.

One person seems to have taken to the place more than any other, Nicola Pass.  Nicola is gradually working her way through just about every process offered, but more than that she has started to use each process for its merits and to suit the subject.  This means that she will use anything from digital, through film to wet plate for the strengths that it adds to the subject.  Yesterday she spent the entire day in the darkroom printing from 6x6 film, and progressed at a amazing rate. It makes all the work worthwhile when you see such passion for photography.

Lith Printing

I am about to make the Engine Room website live, which includes details of workshops that I am offering.  There are a few processes that I haven’t used for a few years so it would seem to be a good idea to check that I can still get them right.  The first one I have decided to revisit is Lith printing – the last one will definitely be bromoil – I still wake up in a sweat thinking about the hours spent trying to get this process right!

Before tackling lith I thought it would be a good idea to produce some 10x8 contact prints, seeing as these will one of the products of the large format workshop I plan to offer.  There was a time when I stopped taking photographs for pleasure, the dark days of DSLR.  I never wanted to work in a office, and there I was sat at a computer every day, might well have been a spread sheet on the screen for all the fulfillment I got from it.  Digital photographers just don’t realise how satisfying it can be creating images for the vast variety of methods open to traditional photographers.  Who cares about resolution when you can adjust the huge amount of formulas available to make images your own.  It was great to return to the darkroom, my first serious session in over a year!

I decided to make life easier by not mixing my own chemistry but use off the shelf.  One name that I have come to trust over the years is Moersch.  A few years ago I initially received a lot of useful advice, via flickr, from Wolfgang until it struck me that he shared a surname with the name on the bottle of one of my favoured developers, it was no wonder he gave such useful advice!  For this exercise I decided to use Moersch Easy Lith at a basic 1A+1B+40 water.  I will go one in the near future to play with the ratios to get different tonal qualities.  My paper of choice for this was Fomatone MG warm tone.  I over exposed the contacts by four stops, which gave me a dev time of between 8 and 10 minutes, which I was quite happy about.  I have memories of staring at a blank sheet of paper, while constantly agitating, for 30 minutes before the image cam through.

The results aren’t perfect yet, but I am happy with my first day back with lith.

Another day of Dark Memories

Another split personality day, half 10x8 film and half wet plate.  I switched back to the CFL lights today from the modelling lights in my 3K flash heads that I used yesterday.  The negs yesterday looked a little harsh.  I am finding it incredibly relaxing processing the 10x8 one at a time, as I shoot it, in open trays.  I tried a different agitation pattern today, but it seems to have intensified the edges.  I agitated every 60 secs yesterday and every 30 secs today.  I think that deep tanks are still my preferred processing method.

Wet plate was again whole plate with quick clear collodion and diluted dev.  I shot at f16, which meant a 3min exposure, not ideal with a wooden floor.  Now that I have a collodion and dev combination sorted this project should hopefully flow quite smoothly – famous last words.

While plates and negs were drying I paid a visit to John Brewer to stock up on raw chemistry and to take along a half plate camera that I am rebuilding.  I need a few bits for it an John said he had a box full, luckily he had a couple of the missing screws.  I also got to drool over the 10x8 Deardorf that John has just bought – shear quality.

The return to 10x8 and more

I was talking to John Brewer about how he is planning on shooting some 10x8 film, and I realised that it has been months since I have shot any myself.  I bought some Fomapan 100 and discovered that HC110 was not really compatible with it, gave poor shadow detail, so it has been shelved for a while.  Seeing as I had no outstanding work, and the day to myself I decided to have a play in the studio.

While getting the dark slides out of my van I found some dolls that I bought in the summer for the Dark Memories project, so these could be my subject for the day.  They are those horrendous porcelain faced repro things popular in the 90s.  I had been told that Rodinal works ok with Fomapan so I mixed up a tray of 1-50.  I have the Digital Truth app on my phone which makes life so much easier, you can turn the screen green so that you can see it while processing.  The shots produced, processed an in the dryer.

While John was at my studio the other day he noticed one of my slightly anaemic cyanotypes.  I explained that it was one of the types of paper that I had bought and it just didn’t work particularly well.  Apparently some papers have a buffer in them and the way to remove it is to soak them in a mid acidic bath, such as dilute white vinegar.  I gave it a go, and it did seem to give better results.

While everything was set up it seemed like a good idea to produce a plate as well.  I spent some time a few days ago experimenting with developers and my technique.  I have had a problem recently with developments marks.  I have now diluted the dev and although it takes longer I am not getting the marks.  Its been a fun day in The Engine Room – next task – some contact prints.

A busy November

Its been about six weeks since I posted, shocking!  There has a lot been going on in November, including a visit to the studio of Mark Vose in Halifax.  As well as having an impressive studio space and being a talented photographer, he also builds great plate cameras.

John Brewer also opened a new exhibition, 'The Cabinet of Curiosities’.  I went to the opening of this with Eleanor Kalaher who has just taken her first steps into the land of wet plate.  Not only did he exhibit his latest plates, on trophy plate, but also some of the props and subjects.

I bought a box full of broken wooden cameras off ebay.  When it came there was a whole plate and two half plate cameras, assorted plate holders, two roller blind shutters and five lenses.  It took me less than a day to fix the whole plate and I have been using it ever since.  The 10x12 is packed away and I have a new favorite format.  I have just about finished one of the half plates, the other will be more of a project.  The purchase was worth it for the lenses alone.  I have cleaned them up and am using three.  I may see if Mina wants one of the others for her half plate, or maybe Eleanor will get bitten by the collodion bug.

I have had three students over to work with me and introduced them to wet plate.  I have had a huge problem with comets, especially when there were three of us working together.  It turned out to be plaster dust still coming up from the floorboards.  Hardly surprising after all the sanding that’s gone on, but I thought after killing two vacuum cleaners and several mops I would have got rid of it by now.  To cure it I have sealed the floor, and the problem seems to have gone away.

I managed to get a four tube proofing light and have hung it from the ceiling above my desk and printer.  I should have listened to the advice of not to hang it on my own!  I got one end hung then got stuck with the other.  I had visions of me standing there shouting for help.  I managed it in the end.

I finally got around to making the curtains so the rails were moved back and I now have curtains that fit the windows.  This means that the plasma screen is usable for slide shows, digital presentations (and watching Breaking Bad!).

All of the spot lights are up and working so I have hung an edited version of the Forest Nation exhibition from May.

I dragged an old filing cabinet up the stairs – literally at times – so this has gone where the table I used for cleaning plates was.  The table has now been painted and is next to the plan chest, which is where I cut the glass.

The wet darkroom is tidied and homes found for every thing.  I have extended the bench in the dry darkroom so that it is full length.  I bought a DeVere 504 bench top chassis to repair my 507 drop table.  In the end I just swapped the carriages and now have a 507 bench enlarger.  This sits next to a 5x7 Chromega and a 35mm DeVere.  There are two 5x4 Chromegas in bits under the bench along with the drop table DeVere chassis.  Been a busy few weeks.

I had a visit last weekend from the very talented Eleanor Kahaler, photographer, artist, musician and one of the funniest people I know.  She as returned to shooting on film so came to try out the darkroom, I had forgotten how much I love working under red light.

Price List

I have finally got around to writing a price list, just got to turn it into a leaflet and finish making the website!

Film Processing

Includes processing, sleeving and a contact print. 

Black and white

35mm (up to 36 exp)          £2.75

120                                   £2.75

5x4                                   £1.20

5x7/half plate                    £1.75

Whole plate                       £2.25

10x8                                 £2.75

Push or pull processing +50%

Giclee / Inkjet printing.

All prints are made using archival pigment inks on the paper of your choice.  Test strips can be produced by prior arrangement for a small charge.  The price include limited calibration and colour checking.

Gloss – A bright white base with a high gloss finish gives a vibrant, lively image.  Printed on 260 gsm paper.

Satin – The Satin Matte papers are a 100% cotton rag substrate media and features a rich, satin matte surface that unlike some matte surface papers, is not a "dead" or "flat" matte.  300 gsm

Matt – A white 100 % cotton paper with a smooth surface texture - guarantees archival standards. With its premium matte inkjet coating photo rag meets the highest industry standards regarding density colour gamut colour graduation and image sharpness while preserving the special touch and feel of genuine art paper.  308 gsm paper

Size	Gloss	Satin	Matt
A3 / 16x12 / 12x12	£5.00	£8.00	£19.00
A2 / 20x16 / 16x16	£9.00	£13.00	£26.00
A1 / 24x36 / 24/24	£11.00	£18.00	£35.00

Black and White Darkroom Hire

Includes basic chemistry, use of enlarger with suitable lenses, contact and processing equipment.  Photographic paper and specialist chemistry can be supplied at cost price by prior arrangement.

£10 for the first hour

£5 for each subsequent hour (20 mins plus will be counted as a full hour).

Specialist and Historical Processes.

Prices are for use of hire of the facilities, with limited technical support, and do not include instruction.

Cyanotype, Van Dyke Brown, Salt Prints, Albumin Prints and Gum Bichromate.

Includes chemistry, the use of coating and exposure equipment and use of the darkroom.  Mac or PC laptop with Photoshop CS6, plus suitable printers, are available for making digital negatives.  Paper and substrates are not included, but can be supplied at cost price by prior arrangement.

£10 for the first hour

£5 for each subsequent hour (20 mins plus will be counted as a full hour).

Wet Collodion

This is not a workshop or a course but we do provide facilities for you to produce your images.  To use the facilities you should be a current practitioner with wet plate, or have attended a suitable workshop, such as with John Brewer (http://www.johnbrewerphotography.com/).  The price includes the use of the studio with CFT lighting, chemistry for cleaning, coating, sensitizing and processing plates.  Paint and varnish if needed.  The use of the darkroom and limited technical support.  Glass and trophy plate can be supplied at cost price by prior arrangement.  Cameras, lenses and plate holders can be supplied for use during the session.

£20 for the first hour

£5 for each subsequent hour (20 mins plus will be counted as a full hour).

Wet Collodion Camera Hire

£10 per session

Choice of 10x12, 10x8, whole plate, half plate, 5x7, 5x4 or quarter plate.