MorseBlog

A private theory of mine is that the Impressionist artists got some of their ideas from the emerging technology of photography. My insight, if one could call it that, was spotting dust off of black and white negatives of my brother's to be included in a book I was making of his work. When you work that closely on an image you can see how the image is built up out of different shaped grains of silver of differing density and size. A photo that conveys a clear and focused image of a familiar object is composed of pieces that are nowhere nearly so sharp or definite when examined closely.  To me this is similar to what the impressionist did with a paint brush. Not interested in marking shapes and shades in sharp well drafted lines they are made with strokes, brushes, or points of color and shade. Anyway, that is my theory, I have no other way to defend it.  This led me to think that I could make images that were intentionally very grainy. That led me to think I should try landscap...

Out again this morning with more fog in the forecast. It was clear as we drove down it was light to non-existent. Mollie and I carried on as we love walking there especially on crisp frosty morning. We parked in our usual place but instead of heading into the forest I opted to head south and scout the southern edge of the western coverts. Often overlooked and parts of which I have never walked. I was determined not to shoot as many bad images as in the first (and perhaps the second as I don't have that film back yet) frost session. I am feeling my way into this different situation.  The sun came up as we walked down this southern edges across the open fields casting warm light across the fields and into the forest grazing the tops of the canal-side reeds. Lots of lovely views but nothing I could build an image around.  I ran into my second photographer and we acknowledged each other as I turned southward again. I rounded the first turn back into th...

I took this photo on the same day as the earlier print Rising Mist . It was a bright cold morning with mist rising from the frosty forest floor. This one was a bit more challenging to print. Again bright sunlight emanates from the top left so offers a range of light. I started with tst strips. This time I decided to divide the print in half and print soft filter intervals along the top and hard filter along ghe bottom.  f32 Test Soft filter Top Hard filter bottom Intervals on top 8-64" 1/2 stop intervals right to left I looked at the soft filter and saw it didn't look soft enough so I miss-guessed the aperture and should have opted for f45. I made a guess at f45 for the soft filter at 11 seconds which is 1/2 stop less than the lightest strip from above. I then applied a hard filter test strip acorss this guess. f45 Test strip #00 1 second base exposure Hard filter intervals 8-64" 1/2 stop intervals right to left.  Rightmost band has no hard filter applied.  .This provide...

A classic dish in the UK is fish and chips. It is traditionally served with salt and vinegar (acetic acid). This has become the title for this post, as the bleach I intend to make is one I found on the Moersch Photochemie website , as it uses vinegar and salt. The formula is listed below. Water approx. 50°C 750  ml Potassium permanganate 6  g Sodium chloride 13  g Acetic acid 98% 50  ml Water on 1000  ml The appeal for me to try this bleach is the rehalation uses chloride not bromide. This may change the toning outcome from a bromide paper.  (The term rehalation means to add a halogen ion to the silver ion. A halogen or halide is one of the group 17 in the periodic table that includes Fluorine, Chlorine, Bromine, Iodine and others. The term derives from Greek for 'salt producer' as it combines with alkali metals to form salts such as common table salt sodium chloride. Three of the halogens are the basis for silver-based film and papers, silver chloride, bro...

I recently took this photo on HP5+ 4x5 film with my Intrepid large format camera. I thought this would be a difficult negative to print given the range of light and texture. However, it was fairly straightforward. Blog Post Cover Image  Started out with a matrix test print. I seem to try different test print/strip strategies. Sometimes I run small strips for each filter (hard and soft). Sometimes the Les McClean method of soft then overlay hard test strip on a print with the best soft filter choice base. They each have their strengths and weaknesses. Matrix Test f32 (Scan7) Soft (#00) right to left 8-64" 1/2 stop intervals Hard (#5) bottom to top 8-64" 1/2 stop intervals   In this case the variation light makes this matrix print difficult to judge. For the soft filter I am looking for the right level of white tones. I can usually count on the hard filter to not impact highlights until the longest exposures.  So I know the bottom horizontal strips are mostly soft filt...

I finished a conventional version of this print and now it is time to have some more fun and explore what lith can do for the image. I like printing foggy images in lith as you can get a nice contrast increase and the rich tonality can give unexpected results. This time I have further motivation as I picked up 10 sheets each of Forte Polywarmtone and Oriental Seagull Exhibition paper in 16x20 size.  Oriental Seagull is a well-known lithable paper and I have enjoyed using it. I thought I could get more in this exhibition variety (spoiler alert: It liths very nicely). Forte Polywarmtone (PWT) is another old paper known to lith well, so I was keen to try these papers out as well. I plan to cut these all down to 8x10 sheets so I can get more mileage out of these no longer available papers.  I am back on Moersch Easy Lith as my lith developer. I used the recommended 1+25 dilution that has me add 20ml part A and 20ml part B to 1L of water.  First, I started out with my origina...