Developing Prints

Hi Readers! 

Today another day in Dark Room. I must admit I absolutely love this place and if I'm going  have to leave Photography for some reason I won't be happy at all. 

But anyway, lets go back to the important things I will mention today. 

I will be talking through of how to develop prints I was doing. 

Checking the paper: Ok, so the first step is to make sure we have the right paper for our neagtives or contact sheet. I was using standard printing paper ( not sure about the name though). I also check if the paper haven't got any cuts or stains that may have impact on any of my prints. 

Cutting the paper into little strips: Then I cut one paper for many little test strips. I like bold strips, so more of the image can fit onto one strip. 

Setting up the light: The timer must be on before anything is done. Then I set up my enlarger. The light must be at the lightest possible, bright light won't work. Then Set up the measure board for small photos, but I didn't use it for my contact sheet. I use this board only to mark position where the light from enlarger is. I always have to be sure that the edges of the "rectangle" light are clear enough, the reason behind is, the sharpness of the print. If the rectangle edges won't be clear enough it means the exposure won't be sharp and the print maybe ruined by this. 

Positioning test strips with film: The next step is to place the print paper where the marked lines are and on top of if put only one sleeve of the film. This is because I don't need to use whole paper print, I just need to use the test strip I made before ( this is called, saving paper and money ). I have to make sure though that the film strip and the paper strip are positioned even to each other. 

Glass black carboard cover: Then I cover the paper and the film with a piece of a rectangle glass. It can't be something else, because glass I have to see the film strip but on the other hand I have to keep the film in a stable position.  

Next step is to get preffebly piece of black paper or something thin to cover bit by bit of the film. This equipment is really important to be black , and not transparent. There can't be any light coming through this paper or carboard, otherwise this will ruin the whole process of test strips.  

Set up the time: I've been told to set the time for 2 seconds at the beginning. Once I cover few cm of the film with a black carboard I can move further till the end of the film strip. I think its important to do it from left to right, because it is just easier if you're right handed. If somebody is left handed they could try from right to left eventually. 

Trial go: The first trial test went ok, there was no issues at all. I numbered the times of each exposure, from 2 seconds to 18 seconds. And I have decided to expose my contact sheet full in 18 seconds. 

Printing negatives: So now is the step to drawn test strip  into "Devon" mix for a minute. Then "stop" for 30 seconds, then "Fixer" for a minute , and then straight to the tap cold water. For quick soaking prints I was adviced to do 30 seconds in the tap water, but Andy Sanderson told me to expose full effect of the print I have to leave my prints in the tap water for at least half an hour. As the silver toner in a paper will slowly come out after long soak in water. The last step is either to put the prints on a dryer or take it to express dryer machine. I recommend express dryer machine, because the effects are instant, and there is no need to wait so long to review our final prints. 

Exposing contact sheet: I lay down my print paper onto the measure board together with the markings I have made before. Then I set up all my negatives onto the paper, making sure they don't cover each other. Not all of them fits on one paper so I leave some negatives for next exposure. And then I set up the time for 18 seconds like I mentioned before and I cover the negatives with big enough rectangle glass to prevent them from moving at any point while exposing. And then I just press start, wait for 18 seconds and I go for "Printing negatives" step. 

Of course my very first contact sheet was looking not too well because of my luck of experience in shooting pictures with SLR cameras, but once I knew how to do it, majority of the shots went well.

Exposing test strips and full image: 

After developing my contact sheet I had to pick and choose what image I would like to expose. If I do choose one, I have to decide what is going to be size of my image on a paper. So I make a stencil out of normal paper with measurements I want. Then I go to the enlarger, and using my stencil underneath the board's ruler, I try to set them rulers even to the stencil. Once this is sorted I have to make sure the light is in the right position, and its even with the measures I set up before.

If everything above looks correct I need to insert my negative film into negative draw (Im not sure whats the proper name for it ).  I had to take it out of enlarger, open it and insert my negative. I was very careful with the negatives as I didn't want to leave any of my finger prints on it ( it could effect the quality of the print at the end). Obviously when I was doing it first time, I did it upside down, so I had to redo it again, but finally I figured out how to do it.

Checking the focus: Once my negatives were inside "the draw" and the light is at the its brightest, I was trying to focus the image with a focus lenses. I think I had good eye to focusing, because after focusing the image with my eyes I had to take focus "microscope" which works like a microscope, checking the sharpness of the image. By checking the focus of the image through the microscope there must be very small bits of "pixels" , they have to be clear, not blurred or too big. Just like in microscope I can see image in a very small details but to make a stunning clear image to print, I have to use manual focus by the enlarger. It could be difficult task to do but once its done, its easier to do the next print. 

Test strips: test strips are very easy and quick to do. The light need to be turned off (otherwise the print paper could be ruined , just like I did ), and turned to the smallest as possible. And the rest process is developed just like trial strips with contact sheet. Covering individual bits by black cardboard starting from 2 seconds exposure of course ! 

Once I have found the right exposure time and Im sure I want to print this image off, then I don't change any setting in enlarger , all I have to do is to make sure the light is off once I have exposed test strips. Then I insert printing paper (full size) and squeeze it with rulers that are on the board, so prevent it from any unnecessarily shades I don't want etc. And then the printing method is exactly the same as with a test strips, same time etc. 

And that was it for today's session in dark room. I hope I covered everything I needed to mention.