Category: overnight notes

Amateur Quest.ions

Posted on Posted in babl, da net, overnight notes, the LabTagged ,

The outpost of the bachelor herd. Those old timers who didn’t do the stuff they will be asked about; they’ve become the experts.

  • they ask shopping questions. They use the forum as if it were a sales counter on Saturday, the day the weekend warriors get to pretend they do THIS for real.
  • the same group rejects, out of ignorance and arrogance, the question of a newcomer. New in the process, not in imagination– at least imagination prompted by broader reference imagery than the Snobby Hobby.

Stages of the meaning of amateur: what do they provide us? How can the task of understanding be accelerated? Follow a thread, re-constructed for revelation of the question-response cycle of early participants in an online community of practice.

One person. the OP, is a professional lab printer with many years of experience. As he ventures further away from the longtime standard darkroom print, he seeks out answers from the unknown members of a forum. [this took place in 2016 (over 2 days) ] The general topic filters doesn’t seem to be retained; it becomes a topic in which expertise dissolves — it doesn’t stay with the group, no matter how many times it is repeated — the group mind has no memory. They don’t learn.

Oddly, the professional lacks the knowledge, therefore, must ask a group of unknowns. He, likely, assumes they have more experience than they do– he is, even more likely, hoping they have more experience than he does.

Why would he assume that they know how to make studio photographs with filters that will be solarized? None of them exhibits solarized work. Few of them show anything other than landscapes; typical outdoor scenics of the great west.

Effect of filter. Effect of solarization.

Effect of lacking foundation skills to be a professional: will rely upon those of lesser skills. Probably meaning you haven’t become an independent, valuable provider to those with ability to pay well. Your chances of survival go down if the skill in your market rises. As widespread darkroom skill declines, you get to survive. Luckily, that is the course of the century. The lights are being turned off.

// success is timed. Multiply your costs factor. A well defined question provides pathway to correct, useable answer. They are right about one thing: a book is better than them.

Wratten 12 (Y)
Wratten 11
Wratten 44 (cyan)
Wratten 25 (red)
contrast with BW film is relative to other colors.

Light source matters, as does color sensitivity of the BW film.

along similar lines, at least in the same quadrant of that (above) 2 year old note: we get another request for information from the same professional.

an adage pops up: you can lead a horse to water…

The person who can’t find information on their own, isn’t the person who will use the information well. Locating a vendor is an elementary part of running a business. Asking the hobby world makes you a hobbyist — and a foolish one, in this case.

Reliance upon a small group makes you either on the advance or the decline. The hobby forums are not the leading edge of chemical photography.

The conversation is complete. My observation: the newcomer should leave, so should the old timers.

Advise, constant, recurring: don’t ask the forums. In old ‘cology it was said: “don’t give away your eyes.”

You will learn more about your work by doing it. Don’t ask them, they really never did succeed. The Fromm’s and Friends are only noticed because they hang out in a space someone else provided. The tour bus drops you off where they can park, not where you need be.

Making up HC-110

Posted on Posted in labnotes, overnight notes, the fora

was it a key. who knows who knows what they know.

HC-110 entered the stream as an addition to dye transfer printing. My view. It appeared in literature distributed to the avid darkroom “enthusiast.” — what we called the Dentist Darkroom. Over time, Kodak taught the duo Super-XX and HC-110 to the weekenders and small, part-time printers. The reputation grew thru repetition. This century, with a sense of failing industry, HC-110 held onto its claim of mystic value by being difficult to make, hence, it would be a catastrophe for it to disappear. The value of association plays background to this.

Dye transfer, large shops, had multiple lines. The small ones could use HC-110; however, the large, deep lines would never be taken over by HC-110, so, DK-50 remained.

Enter the gossip track…

IN A SLIP OF THE LIE, HE TOLD THE TRUTH.

Back to HC-110 original style. MSDS sheets aren’t required to list every ingredient, just hazardous ones, and with trace or trade secret ingredients exempt from being listed. I know someone who didn’t formulate a personal batch; but he had access to a major research lab, and the right background to do it. It was tricky. Certain ingredients aren’t ordinarily available.]] photrio. He probably meant to say he knows someone who DID make it. The reason he makes the claim is to bolster his standing among those of little standing.

final state of ausi — info being sent to chemists.

Of course, all this work was for the Old HC, the syrup, not the current HC-110.

The patents tell more. The 1959 patent is about concentrated developers. The motive is for reduced storage space, faster mixing as well as modifying gammas of film without resorting to multiple developers. The 1964 patent provides information about dilution effects. Dilution reaches a limit, which is why Kodak listed the few dilutions they did. Patents do tell a story to those familiar with reading them.

agitation changes shape of curve. Same film, & developer(DK50 1:1) difference is agitation scheme.

I used HC-110 after using DK-50. I began making masks and seps with DK-50 — after the HC syrup disappeared, I returned to DK-50. My lab films are Ilford: Delta, PanF+, FP4+, and Ortho Plus. These films provide what is needed to make masks and separations for color and BW procedures.

Avoid the forums (my recurring theme) — use manufacturers first; then check with old texts. Use google books. Most important: try things, keep notes. Be certain to follow the information of those who have done more than repeat overheard counter-talk.

Once the syrup hit the water, its main purpose is lost. Once the syrup left the manufacturing, the major value of those researchers was lost.

for the Syrup, (kodak Honey) version. HC-110 thick is gone, only thin remains

Characterizing film+developer combination isn’t as time consuming as re-formulating a compounded chemical like HC-110. Falling back to DK-50 from HC-110 is a few hours effort, not days, certainly not the months expended trying (and failing) to compound the Aussie HC-110.