MorseBlog

I got to thinking about how to create images that incorporate this Japanese concept of 'Ma'. The idea that what isn’t visible is as important as what is. The Wikipedia entry for 'ma' gives this image by Hasegawa Tohaku as an example. It can be hard to find images that incorporate this idea so I thought how I could achieve this in the darkroom.  Pine Trees by Hasegawa Tohaku Inspiration for this process. I took a recent print... Example print of starting point. I had made and then exposed a fresh sheet of Ilford MGRC paper with this same image. I placed this exposed paper in a tray and added enough water to keep it just under the surface.  Next, I took a pipette and loaded it with about 5ml of developer (Moersch ECO 4812 1:10) and dribbled the developer over the exposed paper. In this first example I tended to focus on the first pass along the long central axis. One wants to be careful not to disturb the water bath too much as the objective is to keep the developer conce...

In this update I attempt to print a couple of the images from the composite negative I made with Gammatech. I will discuss the pitfalls and potential issues with this approach.  Eight 65:24 Images on one sheet of 4x5 film In the original post I made a composite 4x5 negative from 8 different 65:24 aspect ratio digital images from my Fuji GFXs ii camera. Each of these has the Fuji Acros film simulation applied as well as a 'strong small' grain simulation. Each image is virtually full resolution, being scaled from the native 8256 pixels width on the camera to 8192 pixels to fit two across on the film at the Gammatech full resolution (16,384 pixels). Each image is 58mm wide so could fit (just) in a 6x6 enlarger. Challenges with Multiple Images on Same Negative This many images on one negative while very efficient in terms of cost does present some challenges in the enlarger. There is not room in the 4x5 negative holder to center the desired image. This means I am printing off cente...

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...

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...