MorseBlog

As I started to write my post on Chromogenic film I realized I was digging deeper into the whole subject of printing C41 negatives and the reason why Chromogenic black and white film exists. It just so happens I had finished a couple of rolls of film in my Mamiya 645 Pro.  These rolls violated one of my rules of mixing color and black and white shooting in the same session. The great thing was I had some photos of the same subject taken back-to-back on both black and white film (Ilford HP5+) and color negative (Kodak Portra 400).  Here is the color version.  When I first got into film photography (over 10 years ago!) I preferred reversal (slide film) over color negative film. I had struggled to get good colors with scanned negative film. Eventually I learned enough to know how to get good color correction on color negative scans. After I came back to color negative f...

For the next phase I used my #5 filter test print as a jumping off point. As I said I was intrigued by the darker images represented by the 64 and 45 second exposures.  #5 test strip bottom to top, 16, 22, 32, 45, 64 seconds I started by making straight 64 and 45 second exposure prints in the #5 filter to judge the overall tonality.  #5 64 seconds #5 45 seconds These straight prints I find informative. The challenge with the #5 filter is that the transfer curve of exposure vs density is much steeper than the #00 filter. This means that on a very short range of exposures you can go from white to quite dark. In Part I the original test strip went from white to quite dark on the #5 filter in about 4 intervals (each is 1/2 stop)  or 2 stops while the #00 filter achieves the same range in 6 intervals or 3 stops.  In a low contrast negative this means it can be a challenge to see where the transitions between highlight and shadows are. In a normal or high contrast negative...

A couple of months ago I made it out on one of the last foggy days this winter. I chose Aversley Wood as it is reasonably close and I had been there only a couple of times before. It sits above Sawtry near where the monastery that gave Monk's Wood its name was located. It was a good day out. I got a couple of good images. I was out with my Mamiya 645 and shot mostly 150mm with and without 2x teleconverter and my 80mm lens. I shot Ilford FP4+ at ASA 80 developed in a HC110 dilution B at -20% of massive dev chart development time. I also shot some Fuji Pro 400H color film which is on its way to the lab. The delay was because at 15 images to a roll I didn't get through all the film rolls on that one day. I took the black and white film into the darkroom to print a couple of the better images. What did I learn?  Virtually Every Image Can be Printed in Multiple Ways This has been a recent theme ( see here... ) and has become an ingrained truth for me. This is especially true of blac...

I moved on from my previous post to try some more ideas I developed as I worked on those prints. I decided to try and make a higher contrast film and a toned film. New Film Versions Higher Contrast: Expose f8 11 seconds full development 3 mins Eco 4812 Bleach 1+10 for 5 minutes. Fix 1 minute.  Selenium toned: Expose f8 11 seconds develop 45 seconds. Selenium 1+3 tone about 1 minute for purple tone.  The trouble I soon find is that I have a lot of combinations that are possible now as I can mix and match papers and films. Below is the comparison matrix. The bottom row is the same from the previous blog post. A map is offered below to help describe what the variations are.  Summary Table Legend for Image Matrix Thoughts on the Results A couple of things come out from this. 1) The higher contrast film allows more of the underlying image tone through. 2) A toned mask tends to dominate the overall color. This is in part because the negative is high contrast and as such the ma...

Introduction I have long been a fan of split filter printing where you expose the paper with a low contrast (soft) filter and then a high contrast (hard) filter. The balance of exposure times give the degree of contrast one wants. I find it a more intuitive and easier system than hunting for the right filter value. It also allows more dodging and burning control.  Recently I have been exploring toning and there is a split idea here too. Toning with two different toners to change the warmth and character of the image.  Thirdly a few months ago I stumbled upon a technique I called Lith-Lith where I developed a Ortho Litho film with lith developer aiming to get a higher contrast image. This failed, however I did get a sepia colored transparency that I mounted in front of some aluminum foil to produce a spectacular result.  This led me to think about how to combine these techniques. I had run out of my original Orth Litho film from Photowarehouse in the US and with no prosp...