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.

Getting Here -out of Art School

Posted on Posted in A Symbol Life, about, art school, morning wood, on photographers1 Comment

There was a time, the early 70s, when a small list, your teachers and fellow students could get you to a large world of artists. Not the entire world, but certainly a grand sampling. Ask 3 people to introduce you to another few people, who introduce you, who help even more, until – BAM, a contact list. Just 3 months work… it could be done again, only the names would be different.

that group:

Bob Flick;Joel Meyerowitz; Van Deren Coke; Joe Deal;  Ron Walker;  Lee Witkin;  Al Sweetman;  Don Drowty; Ellen Brooks;  Dennis Hearne;  Elaine Mayes; Bart Parker;  Larry Sultan;  Ed West;  Arthur Siegel;Leonard Freed;  Margery Mann;  Harry Callahan; Gary Metz; Peter Gowland;  Ansel Adams;  Ed Ruscha; Grace Mayer;  Mike Mandel;  Harold Allen;  Laura Gilpin;  Hank Smith;  Anne Tucker;  Phil Perkis;  Michael Simon;  Bill Owens; Manuel Bravo;  Nathan Lyons;  Bill Arnold;  Jim Hajicek;  Les Krims;  Joyce Neimanas; Judy Dater;  Al Coleman;  Ira Nowinski; Jack Welpott; Linda Parry;  Burke Uzzle;  Jim Dow;  Dave Freund; Todd Walker;  Catherine Jansen;  Eva Rubinstein;  Eddie Sievers; Minor White; Michael Becotte;  Fred McDarrah;  Richard Link;  Betty Hahn; Nick Hlobeczy; Bob Cumming;Ken Josephson;  Naomi Savage;  John Divola; Tom Barrow; Carl Chiarenza; Bea Nettles;  Roger Mertin;  John Benson; Cal Kowal;  Aaron Siskind;  R. von Sternberg;  Paige Pinnell;  Arthur Tress;  Jacob Deschin;  Linda Connor; Don Blumbeing;  Jim Alinder;  Harold Jones;  M.J. Walker;  Bill Parker; Al Woolpert;  Duke Baltz; Gus Kayafas;Duane Michals;  Darryl Curran; Arnold Newman; Geoff Winningham; Paul Vanderbilt; Anne Noggle; Timo Pajunen;Edmund Teske; Imogen Cunningham; Andy Anderson;  Bill Larson;  Pete Bunnell; Robert Doherty;  Joe Jachna; Oscar Bailey; Jerry Uelsmann; Art Sinsabaugh;  Charles Roitz;  Doug Stewart; Chuck Swedlund;  Bill Edwards;  Bobby Heinecken;  Micha Bar-Am;  Beaumont Newhall;  Wynn Bullock; Jerry McMillan;  John Schulze; Neal Slavin; Lee Rice; Joan Lyons; Bill Jenkins; Fred Sommer;  Barbara Crane; Emmet Gowin; Barbara Morgan; Mark Power;  Cornell Capa;  Lionel Suntop; Bunny Yeager; Doug Prince;  Eileen Cowin;  Eve Sonneman; Reg Heron;  Scott Hyde;Conrad Pressma;  John Szarkowski;  Bill Eggleston;  Mike Bishop;  Bob Fichter; Liliane DeCock; Tom Porett;  Arnold Crane; Arnold Gassan;  Elliott Erwitt;  Len Gittleman;

Many are gone. Most aren’t even remembered, yet at one time they were the time.

Post, expanded —

(8/27/17) … In an online world, experts like to block, to maintain their own value, self-appraisal. I have this blog, others choose to hold forth in sponsored forums. One person asked a question of me about the above, which I thought I’d prefaced correctly with the (now bolded section). Anyway, his question:

“What is the source of your list?” (Merg Ross)

He may not be expert blocking. I don’t know. Rather than answer back on that forum, I’ll expand here just a bit.

I began photography seriously by learning dye transfer. After just a few weeks of training, I was making airbrushed separation negatives; reading every scrap of information I could. These first efforts were in technique, the same thing every learning does – get the elementary done; collect all the elements you can handle. In doing that, I noticed that the Kodak materials were not complete, even somewhat scattered, or even outright wrong. What should be done? I contacted Kodak. Made a call to the main switchboard. After a few transfers, I got hold of a woman who had written some of the dataguides. Jeanette was the first person I spoke to who knew the famous. And she was generous with introductions. Like many structural keepers, she shared easily after qualification. She told me about Henry Holmes Smith at Indiana. I visited him, but didn’t feel that school was my path…not at that stage. I was a working commercial photographer able to set my own schedule; able to make any pictures I wanted on my time.

Then (a few years on) came my draft notice. I went. I returned. My DEROS was to Oakland Terminal in the middle of the night I was ‘exited.’ With cash in hand I went into San Francisco.

The next morning, I walked to a camera store to get supplies, which they didn’t have; however, the counter clerk told me about Adolph Gasser out on Geary Boulevard. It was there that I met Gene Saunders, the salesman who sold me my enlarger. He also told me about a new gallery that was exclusively photography.

Focus Gallery on Union Street was a haven for the world of photographers. Helen Head Johnson was the keeper. I showed her some of my dye transfers. She began introducing me to people, and suggested I check out SFAI since I had the GI bill and no real job. She told me to be certain to talk to Margery Mann.

I did. I enrolled. I got an MFA. The program was small, some of my fellow students were Larry Sultan, Mike Mandel, Harry Bowers, Adal Maldonado …

Oh, one other thing: a friend from the Army days worked for the phone company at Pine/Bush with something called ESS. He had access to every phone in the US. Everyone who had a phone, he had their address. Sweet. So, for awhile, I published something called the Contact Sheet – an address book for fine artists who wanted to connect.