Category: overnight notes

Darkroom Light

Posted on Posted in overnight notes, the Lab, The Other1 Comment

making a photo darkroom workable occupies many a camera crafter. An instructive case began with the notion of building a brighter safe-light using LEDs rather than 20th century filters and hot lamps.

Seems reasonable. Does it work? For BW; for Color?

He began with: “have ample and good-quality light to work with. But it’s also essential for judging print quality and properties such as hue/color balance, toning etc.” along with a picture of generic red light.

Well enough, but where do we end; what did we build? A little bit of research, datasheet reading, collecting housings, layout components, write a bit of code. Mr. Diy has a multiprogram remote control light system that sometimes fogs paper. And the inspection system: he seems pleased. So, maybe you would be too. He missed the goals, other than that it occupied time. Life creeps away in these small projects gone large.

Controlling the project is harder than controlling the lights.

fuji’s big notch between green and red

Should you want to learn more about safelights, check with Kodak: https://www.kodak.com/en/motion/page/safelight-filters

“You can use sodium-vapor lamps with a KODAK No. 8
Safelight Filter / dark yellow in safelights providing general
darkroom illumination. The filtered sodium-vapor lamp
provides the best visual efficiency with the least visual effect
on the film.
If you are using a low-wattage tungsten bulb for
task-lighting, filter it with a KODAK 8 Safelight Filter / dark
yellow. You can use amber Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs)
(590 nm peak wavelength) for minimal task or path lighting;
however, do not use them for prolonged or general darkroom
illumination.

Foma has a safelight: https://fomaobchod.cz/potrebyprofotografy/osvetlenitemnekomory/

Ilford has this: https://www.ilfordphoto.com/amfile/file/download/file/605/product/613/

Adox has this: https://www.fotoimpex.com/darkroom/adox-supersafe-220-darkroom-light.html

As for print inspection, I have two needs: the first is over the ‘wet’ tray. Mainly for judgement of density, and rough color. The other is in a dry work area where final judgements are made. In both place I use mixed lights. In no place do I use a clicker. They are switched, or foot peddle actuated. But that’s just my being lazy, too lazy to build a better time-trap.

maybe they should be voice controlled….

Writing with a Reason

Posted on Posted in overnight notes, stranger land, the fora, the meta

Do I say, or do I not?

waiting for the truth will wear-out your life. flim-flam film forumatti

Questions asked about color space, raised by users of Kodak ECN (Eastman Color Negative) materials.

Qs:

  • calibrations and color space
  • fixer types
  • color neg-pos methods, alternatives

Even asking the basics causes page upon page of opinion. Links lost. Language blurring meanings, stops musing, encourages the distance between. They make outcasts of themselves. An elite group making basic mistakes.

dev stop fix finish

There are texts with the answers: the steps, the reasons, the relationships, the anticipated results. And there are also ads, along with posted opinions. The discussions center, grow and shrink around the ads. We have two simplified groupings: the wileys and the mowreys. The wiley makes 2200 posts a year; the mowrey makes 1800 posts a year. Wiley drowns out Mowrey. Wiley is an occasional producer of anodyne atmospherics, suited for hospital lobby; yet, he never did that. Mowrey was a Kodak chemist, with key patents — attempting the impossible. Answering beginner questions, as well as trying to counteract the Wileys postings.

So, why should I try? What can I achieve?

Pipeline to Prints: Darkroom

The temptation is elementary: people want to read the technical stuff. My stats, hits, show that. Do I care? Not really. In fact, that hurts; it bores me. That knowledge, the process stuff, that isn’t the me of me.

However, there is the possible good that may come: if you stay away from the Large Format/Photrio, they will go away… That won’t happen. That’s not the way of the world; any world. They exist because they provide an easy path. They are pencil sharpeners.

I will post some labnotes items. Many are now in hidden sections of the site; used by specialist printers who I have come to respect for their honest effort.

— Another version:

writing with a reason

a. done. three topics researched, edited, drafts put into keynote, notepad, first draft onto webpage... time wasted, because I will not take them further. not my interest to build another time sink.
... see what they think. who     they support... maybe different audience. i fool myself
just salesmen, intermediates... the very position that offends them, that of the gallerist, the person between creative and collector.


— interest, growth. questions for my self, or questions myself
beyond the technical effort, certainly beyond the need to explore chemical foundations. expansive effort, expending effort. gaining process 
making process gains.

put them aside, let them reside in notepad and keynotes.

“A time sink is, essentially, an activity that takes you away from what you should be doing to achieve your goal.” making a game last longer

you have to let them go on
because they just go on and on, never getting anywhere
because they don’t have a direction; usi

playing another round of liars dice, retelling tales, answers they've all heard from someone else’s life; like magpies nesting. they didn't make any of the beads used .

waiting for the truth will wear out your life. flim-flam film forumatti


a safe place to gloat, or, perhaps, a failure zone to study so i can avoid... but i've already noted my failures
there isn't any book to keep safe.