Paper Processing
When it is time to turn out the lights, what do you do with the paper?
That Smell?
Category: The Positive
Prints and all their jazz
Pipeline to Prints: Darkroom
Don’t Let the Camera Block You
Photographic process pipeline – the way you get from camera to complete, can be simple or complex, of course, one persons complex can be another’s simple. I prefer to use the simplest approach to get somewhere. Sometimes that means letting the physical process of making a picture take me where it will. In such cases, I trust emulsions: film and paper.
Simple Approach
Reduce the number of technical choices by using one camera, one film, one developer. This is always a wise way of working. Most early practitioners don’t take this path, instead they believe that the picture they are after but aren’t getting is because they don’t have the right camera, or chemistry. They give up by adding things rather than ideas or pictures to their studio.
The simple approach means the direct approach – getting to a picture with the fewest side matters. Don’t let the Tech Blindfold you.
My approach is given in the above schematic. It depicts the camera steps – getting the negative; and the printing steps.
By way of specifying what I use for emulsion photography:
Choices in film have dwindled over my time. So has developer ranges. This doesn’t mean that we have less quality available now than when I began. In fact two of my current developers, D-76 & Rodinal were in my cupboards decades ago. When young, I stumbled about trying to achieve unknown what by switching film + chemical combinations. That was time wasted, unless learning that it was a waste of time searching for pictures in the darkroom.
The new developer, DDX, is from Ilford/Harman, and it isn’t really new. I use it with Ilford films, SFX and Delta 3200 because it provides clean grain and short developing time with very good shadow detail. (makes it seem full ‘box speed’) In the chart I have listed the films in ascending EI, as I use them – acros (100) > SFX (200) > Tri-X (400), Delta 3200 (800).
None of these films are color, although I use acros and tri-x as 2 color separation negative films.
These combinations give me a full choice of grain: grain as transformer or as transferer. Is it there, or isn’t it. Acros in D-76 at 1+1 provides me a negative with grain so fine it is difficult to see using a Peak magnifier (Koana system.)
I shoot, soup, sleeve, then store the negatives. My negatives are stored in clear sleeves and put into binders or boxes depending upon size of film. I make contact prints of all negatives. These contact prints (index) are what I use for first pass selection of what pictures I will use.
next: prints
continued…
Paper: Flash or Burn
flash and bump exposures in the darkroom
Photography is a compression algorithm; a form of making smaller, of reducing without losing meaning.
The Hard Scenes
snow, big blank grey sky, interiors with bright window – these are challenging for the tone, the detail as meaning art practiced by most photographers. Photographers pride themselves early in their efforts in bringing ‘detail’ to art- details are the truth, but a devil to manage.
Photography is always a demonstration and an example.
Pre flash’increases’ sensitivity – gets the exposure started
Post flash ‘decreases’ contrast – adds (visible) tone to the highlights. Shadows are also affected, but those at maximum black can’t get darker. The deep grey shades are darkened, but this may not be noticed, or important to the image effect.
In general viewers respond in stages to the picture. First, they see overall object, with inspection they move to detail – most people approach pictures with notions based upon their ability to produce, therefore they are naive, taking cues from their “what is it” approach from pre-school life. With maturity they can move beyond what can be done by them; beyond hand waving or finger pointing.
pre-exposure and post-exposure. We mean non-image producing exposures; those made without a negative in the light path. I was taught that they were called:
- bump: those pre-exposures which raise the sensitivity of the emulsion. overcoming the ‘inertia’ – lazy halides are awaked just before ‘dawn’
- flash: those post image exposures. lower the contrast of the emulsion. this drops the highlight down the the curve
With bump raising the shadows up the curve, and flash lowering the highlights down the curve, we get a longer straight line image; more linear. This linear image is what a digital sensor provides. Straight line, not S-curved response.
Burning in the highlights, those dark negative areas, may take many hits of the timer. They also may seem to never bring out image detail. This is the opportunity to bring out more filters with multigrade paper. It also may signal the need for “bump” and/or “flash,” exposures.
The exposure light is most often the enlarger light; just remove the negative – fiddle and go. You can also use a small penlight, or digital controlled led like those made by RH. The color of the light has some effect, but the key use of a color flash is to hit a Red safe emulsion with an OC filter safelight. This is a very effective highlight pickup. Slavich paper, and litho film, exposed for 30 seconds to an OC filter at 3 foot drops almost another grade of contrast, most visibly in the highlights – perfect way to bring in detail that is difficult to burn in without that tattle tale grey featureless tone.
I’ve tested the color of light used for multigrade and have been unable to measure significant difference to 0 or 5 filters. Some, but not enough to warrant the change. Instead I usually bump with the filter I’m going to first expose with, and flash with the filter I just exposed with.
How Much: using Ilford MG fiber paper base exposure of 8 seconds, a 3X burn-in was replaced with a 3second ‘bump’ and a 5second ‘flash’ – giving details in the highlights that the burn hadn’t given. In other words 3 burns was just a waste of non-image forming exposure. The bump and flash equal to one burn provided image definition in the highlights. This process also made the edition of prints easy, and repeatable.
A Digital Way
With a digital process, the flash/burn doesn’t happen – isn’t used, since changing numbers is done in other ways. Ways such as luminosity masks; tonal overlays; local mask with additional manipulation. Even pulling into one image elements from different exposures. This can be done using dedicated HDR tools, or blunt force select, adjust, copy, paste actions.
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