Film, Processing & Darkroom

 

The Chemicals: There are three basic chemicals in the printing process. These are Developer, Stop and  Fix. Developer brings out the latent image, the magic part of the process. Stop does what it says, stops the image from coming out any further. Fix prevents any white light from darkening, fogging, fading or otherwise affecting the finished print i.e. fixing it.

Printing Equipment and materials you’ll need

Making a Contact Print Step by Step

Processing a Print Step by Step Development

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PDF: Black  & White Photographic Printing

 

Photographic Paper

Most black and white paper is coated on a base consisting of paper fibre sealed front and back in clear plastic. Chemicals cannot sink into the base,  so that processing, washing and drying times are shortened. The plastic coated paper has a layer of silver halide emulsion and a gelatine supercoat at the top to protect the emulsion surface from normal handling damage. Plastic paper may also have an antistatic backing.  …see full text

PDF: Photographic Paper

 

Making a Black and White Print

1. Your darkroom (kitchen or bathroom) needs to be well blacked out to stop light from entering. For windows use thick card cut to shape and held in place with black canvas tape. …see full text

PDF: Making  a  Black and White  Print

 

Solving Printing Problems

Uneven, mottled, or mealy appearance, Fingerprints, Prints fade, Yellowish or brownish stains, Fogging, Entire print out of focus, negative is sharp, White specks  …see full text

PDF: Solving Printing Problems

 

Burning in and dodging

Once the overall density (the  lightness  or darkness) of a print is right, you will often find smaller areas that could be a little lighter or darker. For example, a face might be too dark or the sky too light, even though most of the scene looks good. Burning in (shown below and opposite) adds light after the basic expo­sure is made in order to darken an area. Dodging (shown on page 114) holds back light during the basic exposure to lighten an area. …see full text

PDF: Burning in and dodging

Archival Processing

Archival processing of  fibre-base paper is simply a matter of  fixing, washing and toning, to certain standards, to ensure the longevity of  the photographic material. …see full text

PDF: Archival Processing

 

Printing  Record  Sheet

PDF: Printing  Record  Sheet

 

Health and Safety in the Darkroom and Processing Room

PDF: Health and Safety in the Darkroom and Processing Room

 

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The colour processing that we shall be using is the subtractive method. Using the subtractive filters of yellow magenta and cyan. In practise you will only use two filters at any one time, as a third filter will simply reduce the effect of the other two.  In practise you will only use the filters magenta and yellow. …see full text

PDF: Colour Printing

 

Min Test Strip  Print Size

Exposure: Aperture – start at f8, First Test Strip: 5,10,20,40  sec, Adjust aperture to target 20  sec exposure… see full text

A ring-around chart for neg/pos colour printing

Filtration data shows what  to subtract from present filter settings  if a  print showing  this cast is  to revert to correct colour. centre of chart.  Extreme colour shifts of  SO a r e  included here t o  clarify differences between the six  colours …see full text

PDF: Control colour balance

 

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Types and Technical Data

It makes good sense to work with a limited range of well-chosen films. You get to know their performance  intimately – what each can contribute to your particular style of picture,  its response to different subject situations and, when  necessary, just how far you can abuse the film before results become unacceptable. …

PDF: Films – types and technical data

 

Understanding Film …The Basics

Film is, very simply, a light-sensitive emulsion on a plastic base. An easy way to think of film is to compare it with bread and butter. Think of the bread as the base, the butter as the emulsion. When you hold this combination in your hand, what you feel and see is mostly bread, the base – not butter, the emulsion. The base (bread) holds and supports the emulsion (butter), the active part of the film. …

PDF: Understanding Film

 

Film Speed and Grain

How sensitive a film is to light, that is, how much it reacts to a given quantity of light, is indicated by its film speed. The more sensitive-or faster-the  film, the higher its number in the rating system. …

PDF: Film Speed and Grain

 

Effects of Exposure

Effects of exposure and development on normal contrast, silver-image monochrome film…

PDF:  Effects of Exposure

 

B&W Negative Exposure Errors

IMAGE AREA: Thin negatives. (Snow scenes,  beach scenes,  and areas with a  lot of brightness.)

EDGE AREA: Normal

FAULT: Underexposure. Exposure meters average an exposure to a mid grey tone.

CAUSE / PREVENTION: When photographing scenes that are very bright overall give one  to two-stops more exposure than the meter recommends. …

PDF: B&W Negative Exposure Errors

 

Colour Films

Colour Negative  Film – Most choice of  film speeds  in  35mm and roll film (from  ISO  100 to  1000).

Colour Transparency Film – Colour films designed to give direct positive images are given the suffix chrome (rather than co/orused for negative film).

Instant Colour Prints/Polaroids – Wide  range of sizes from 31/4 x 3 318  in  to  10 x 8  in. …

PDF: Colour Films

 

A Word on Colour…

Most people’s  experience of colour film will be buying a colour negative daylight balanced film. This means the image goes onto the negative film and then is reversed into a positive colour image in the printing process. …

PDF: A Word on Colour…

 

Introduction to Basic Scanning

When scanning you should always ask yourself, what is the end result I am looking for? This will determine some of the setting for the scanner right at the beginning of the process. …

PDF: Introduction to Basic Scanning

 

Film  Record  Sheet

PDF: Film  Record  Sheet

 

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Processing Your First Black and White Film

1. Your darkroom (kitchen, bathroom or cupboard) needs to be completely blocked out to stop light from entering. For windows use thick card cut to shape and held in place with blade canvas tape. …see full text

PDF: Processing Your First Black and White Film

 

Processing a Film Easy

Even if you have never developed a film before, you are unlikely to find it very difficult. You do not need a specially-built darkroom, and once you have loaded the film into the developing tank, the rest of the process takes place in daylight. …see full text

PDF: Processing a Film Easy

 

Black and White Film Processing

Loading – Assemble the Developing  tank  ’set’  making sure you have all of the following: Tank, Body, Centre Column, Spiral, Lid Cap…see full text

PDF: Black and White Film Processing

 

Black&White Negative Developers

It is important that you match the correct type of developer with your particular film being used or for specific results. For example, if push processing and you would like to keep grain to a minimum, you must use a fine grain ‘speed enhancing’ developer, such as Ilford Microphen. Other developers available include ‘low  contrast’ or ‘soft working’ developers such as Kodak Technicol. Other developers are known as ‘high acutance’ developers, where acutance is a measure of the contrast at sharply delineated boundaries of light and dark tone. High acutance developers, such as Agfa Rodinal, emphasize grain structure and should usually be restricted to fine grained films. …see full text

PDF: Black&White Negative Developers

 

Special Brews

Choosing the right film developer can considerably influence the quality of your black and white phtography…see full text

PDF: Special Brews

 

Push Processing

Push processing can help you shoot in very dim light. Sometimes the light on a scene is so dim that you cannot use a fast enough shutter speed even at the widest lens aperture. Pushing the film lets you shoot at a film speed higher than the normal rating by, in effect, underexposing the film. …see full text

PDF: Push Processing

 

How Chemicals Affects Film

What  developer  does.  Even  after  film  has been  exposed  to light,  the image is latent,  not yet  visible.  Developer  chemicals  take  the  film to  its  next  step  by  converting  the  exposed crystals  of silver  halide in  the  film  emulsion  to visible metallic  silver. …see full text

PDF: How Chemicals Affects Film

 

Black and white negative errors

Your film may contain negatives that, at first sight, seem successful but reveal problems when you come to enlarge them. Check dry, processed film through a magnifier if there are signs of spots or slight variations in density. …see full text

PDF: Black and white negative errors

 

Assessing Black &White Negatives

When your length of film is dry, cut it into convenient,  easy-to-view strips of five or six negatives, and examine the results, The negatives on these pages and pp. 74-5 will help you to identify some common, but  at  first puzzling,  faults. …see full text

PDF: Assessing Black &White Negativess

 

Image Quality

‘Image quality’ is a term which is applied to the ability of a film, negative or positive, to render fine detail. It is not a term which makes a judgement about the value of a photograph in respect of  its content or ability to communicate a visual message. It is a purely technical reference. …see full text

PDF: Image Quality

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The Massive Dev Chart is the world’s largest source of processing times for developing black & white film

Website: http://www.digitaltruth.com/devchart.php

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Printing Ink Technology and Manufacture
painting_printing_inks_technology

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