Category: coursenotes

from lectures and presentations I’ve taught

Easy Amidol

Posted on Posted in coursenotes, Getting Stuff, labnotes

Amidol is the developer of kings, or so it would seem reading the stained pages of olden lore. It was the developer used by Edward Weston. It is the chemical that stains the fingernails of its users, like nicotine stains the fingers of that machinist you watched grind your flat head 8. [ stained finger  http://wp.me/p6UdTM-4n ]

Amidol is also toxic. Use gloves when working with it. Use dust mask when mixing it.

Again: Amidol is toxic and expensive —  in working solution the life is only hours…it stains quickly. Stains need hydrochloric acid for cleanup.

Advice: this isn’t for the casual worker. unless you’ve a reason for amidol developer, stick to dektol, or if you need exotics to brag about on the barstool, use ansco 130..

Why – your reward is a print that has neutral silvery blacks. You can also lower contrast of fixed grade papers radically. You can achieve more than 2 grades of paper change with chloride papers. [ chloride papers http://wp.me/p6UdTM-1MR ] 

My preferred contact paper is Adox “Lupex.” I use the spoon formula from the attached sheet of formulas.

For those interested, Lupex, Azo, and Lodima are all virtually identical.– ron, [PE] 2016

Buy the kit — Photographers Formulary sells 3 different kits measured and ready for mixing. (price as of: August 2017)

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  • Weston’s Amidol / $24.95
  • Formulary Amidol paper developer / $24.95 NB: see Ansco 113 above
  • Lodima Formula / $16.95

Each of the above is for 1 liter. To mix you will need a 1 liter brown bottle (glass). Additionally, you need a 10 ml and a 100 ml graduate (cylinder).

Mixing

Mix the stock solution without the amidol. This stock stores well. The lodima version stores several months without the amidol.

Just prior to use, add the amidol. It will go into the stock solution at room temperature. Formulary kits contain pre-measure packets of each of the ingredients, even the amidol. Each of the kits has different packets. The single liter kit has 2 packets, each to be mixed into a portion of the stock solution.

Using

Development time can range from 1 to 10 minutes in dilutions from full working to 1:10 dilutions. Lodima developer with lodima paper is noticeably warm when exposed enough to develop completely in 1 minute. Formulary Amidol (ansco 113 above) develops fully in 3 minutes.

Controls

Potassium bromide can decrease paper speed and increase contrast. To find the point of sufficient restrainer begin with 5ml of 10% solution per liter of tray(working) solution. Using a 5 min dev time, if no fog is visible, use that value. Increase the restrainer amount in these small increments until no sign of fog at 5 min dev time for an unexposed swatch of paper.

Soft contrast results will be achieved with higher dilutions of stock to water.

My own process finds me frequently having 2 trays mixed to different dilutions.

If your development time is longer than 4 minutes, begin development without safelights. After about 2 1/2 minutes in the developer, turn on the safelight. The lodima paper has a higher chance of fog than does the Lupex. I work under red lights only.

Reference Formulas (above table)

  • Weston’s Amidol
  • Peckham Amidol
  • Lootens
  • Fein’s Amidol
  • Agfa/Ansco 113
  • Michael A. Smith’s Amidol
  • Dassonville D-2
  • Defender 61-D
  • Kodak D-51
  • Ilford ID-22
  • Amidol Teaspoon Formula

Making The Print

Posted on Posted in art school, babl, coursenotes, da net

Making The Print

Finding your way, in the absence of a guide, means asking along that way from some who may be as lost as you.

the learner learns from those around them. the first steps toward the print are hesitant – building that vocabulary will be the most important part of your first few years. The bigger the range of options you have, the wider your creative possibility

sadly, in the online world Ansel Adam’s “The Print” serves as dictionary and thesaurus. The landscape print, as realized by Adams, and maybe Minor White is the entirety of the image bank. So, when encountering work by other imagists, objections to the limited, or excessive tones used forms the measure, the twain of acceptance and comprehension of the image.

The limitations of the weekenders are their lack of interest, not their lack of knowledge. They limit themselves, reducing their range of creative movement

Timid Search

most amateurs and workshop wanderers are timid, and constrained in their visual range. by taking on distinctive, different approaches to the print, they will encounter more permission in making their own work

by permission I mean allowance – greater range of acceptance, or at least understanding by looking; Increase your visual dexterity.

bw prints

Two Alternate Vantages

Henry Wessel (b:1942 – ), and Ralph Gibson(b:1939 – ) Henry moved from the East to West; Ralph moved from the West to the East.

Ralph Gibson learned photography in the Navy, then spent 2 years at SFAI before assisting, first , Dorthea Lange (1961-62), then Robert Frank (1967-68). Dorthea Lange provided Gibson with a mantra encouragement to find his “departure point.”

Henry Wessel taught at SFAI, having gotten his MFA from VSW in 72. He’d been in California (71) where the light had become his banner. About his arrival from a cold Rochester January (’71) he says:

I was like a starving man at a banquet. It was the first time I’d been and I was struck by the light, the variety of the landscapes, and the urban centers. It’s the place I keep coming back to, the closest thing I have to a concept.

giving yourself permission to work outside the lines

Both photographers have mastery, but each makes different prints; prints that diverge from the Medium Grey Full Scale standard which many workshops advance as the ultimate print. Full Scale negative onto a Full Scale print- this is an easy way of discriminating good from bad work. Of course, that approach isn’t what either of these masters holds themself to. Neither is a sloppy printer. Their works are distinctive, repeatable and each remarkable for attending to different visual intents. Both printers hold out masterly approaches.

Together they assist finding a path between counterpoints. not opposite poles, but matched endpoints such as Gibson’s strong toned prints, and Wessel’s broad middles. One offers Bang, the other Wiff.