Just found your channel and i enjoy your work in the darkroom, hope for more stuff like this. Have my own darkroom but have not used it for a while, it goes up and down you know but planing to start it up again soon....cheers from Sweden. :)
Super helpful video, thank you! I'm enjoying playing around with film since I'm in a photo class now and can use my university's darkroom and this video has a lot of great info for me to help teach myself! (since it's a beginner class the teacher isn't covering things like pushing and pulling or dodging and burning)
So what I did is made a 3x3 grid overlaid on a 2x2 grid at 5x7 (or wherever print size you want) on a sheet of fixed paper. This lets me nail horizons, centering, and symmetry as well as focus accurately all at once. Highly recommend.
Hey just found your channel, love your darkroom and very jealous of your extraction, would be great to see you work your magic on explaining split grade printing, way beyond monochrome, great book but a tough read. Not a page turner but still a wonderful reference text. Thanks for taking the time to share, Jamie
Thanks a bunch... had to ad the exhaust I was getting bad headaches from some of the lith developers I use... helps a ton! I will see what I can do on the split grade printing 👍
@@Distphoto the practice seems a bit difficult, ;-) My enlarger has a light bulb with condenser, and I thought to replace the conventional opaque bulb by a daylight LED bulb that's dimmable. Now, I know it's not common that a matte LED bulb also has an even emission. Especially if you close the aperture, you focus more on the bulb's surface and see fuzzy spots. Ok, I found some LED daylight bulbs that had passed the test, but finding a daylight dimmable bulb that has an even emission is impossible without spending lots of money by testing all brands. Before I send more money down the drain, i rather will build a neutral and PWM dimmable source on my own. Sure, halogen and conventional bulbs are dimmable by default with cheap dimmers, but the more you dim, the more the color drifts to warm. IMHO, a neutral light color is better than warm tone if I use mainly multigrade paper with filters. Greetings from Germany, Matthias
Have you tried or compared a stopped down exposure (F 22) vs ND filter? I will try this but not sure if it is worth it. I like your channel and dark room tips. Keep up the good work.
yes, good concept, I think of it like chemistry, the silver halide needs x energy to react and make an image, in Y time, and at most fast exposures (1/2-1")-1/2,000th of a second; the reaction observes a distinct curve, a straight line, predictable, but longer times enter the 'tail' of this curve, where it gets funky, thats the reason for the Ta=Tm^1.303 etc. (this constant is my memory of the HP5+ number), the funky bit is why the formula exists, to give us "non-science" nurds an easy, low IQ way of making use of it, so we don't waste a $50-00 sheet of film on a guess, or just the meter +/- filter and bellows factors, which isn't the whole picture, pardon the pun there :-) the reciprocity is the reaction energy required to take a usable image at an appropriately short amount of time, so as to capture genre like action and sports, remember the wet plate, and tintypes?, they had an asa of 1-3 (the equivalent of x-ray film available today), but needed 20" to 1' to react, and you had the inconvenience of the base, having to do everything fast so the collodion didn't dry before processing was complete; today technology has moved on... but the problems those 'Alchemist's" faced are science principles which still reside with us today.
Different people might do things differently…. But or me the +4 means to burn that area with that filter for four seconds or the -5 would mean to dodge that area with that filter for 5 seconds. You have to evaluate the print. Do you want to lighten or darken something? Add or remove contrast from somewhere? From there guess a percentage darker or brighter and try it out… To save paper you can cut and tape smaller pieces to the easel for this particular areas. You can also make additional test strips with various exposures on the same area. Hope that makes sense. Will hopefully be able to get back in my darkroom soon and will try to cover different ways to approach it 👍
@@Adrian-wd4rn one stop more would be twice as much light. One stop less would be half as much light. So to give an 8 sec exposure another stop it would be 16 sec. To give it a stop less you would do 4 sec. Exact same principal as one stop more exposure when taking the picture. Also one of those things that will get easier the more you print 👍
one observation mate, that box of paper, its thick, must have cost over a grand!!, so put some of the sheets into a smaller box, so if you accidentally flick the white lights instead of the safe light, it only burns a few sheets, not the whole 50-100 sheets!!
@@andyvan5692 Good advice… I have several paper safes but in my case they are paper traps because they are loaded with “I have no idea what”. Paper is in them 😂
I'd love a darkroom setup. I develop my own film, but digitize it after. Good videos, as always!
Nice, thank you!
Just found your channel and i enjoy your work in the darkroom, hope for more stuff like this. Have my own darkroom but have not used it for a while, it goes up and down you know but planing to start it up again soon....cheers from Sweden. :)
I get that. Often It it is tought to find the time to get in the darkroom but I always enjoy it when I can! Cheers!
Super helpful video, thank you! I'm enjoying playing around with film since I'm in a photo class now and can use my university's darkroom and this video has a lot of great info for me to help teach myself! (since it's a beginner class the teacher isn't covering things like pushing and pulling or dodging and burning)
Glad you found it helpfull!
Great tip :-) I'm currently working on a thin negative and this will help me tomorrow :-) Thank you :-)
Awesome, have fun!!!
Keep these videos coming! Really well presented and explained - and your example photos are also splendid! Thanks!
Thank you! Working on some new stuff 👍
Genius!! I love your channel... I would like to learn more secrets of the dark room process
Thanks Carlos!
Thats the trick i was looking for!! Great video!
Glad you found it. Hope it helped! Not much out there for dealing with a pretty common problem in printmaking...
great video man! I'm still just trying to figure this stuff out and this is major helpful!
Sweet! Glad to hear you are getting in the dark!
Great content! I would love to see a video on how you take darkroom notes. Particularly how you use the Notebook app. Thanks again for the videos.
Thank you! I have been tryin to streamline my notes a bit so will see if I can cover it for you 👍
@@Distphoto I look forward to it. I subscribed and hit the bell. Thanks again for sharing your knowledge.
So what I did is made a 3x3 grid overlaid on a 2x2 grid at 5x7 (or wherever print size you want) on a sheet of fixed paper. This lets me nail horizons, centering, and symmetry as well as focus accurately all at once. Highly recommend.
Awesome. Never thought to do this but am sure it would be helpful. Thanks!
Solid content!
Thank you!
Hey just found your channel, love your darkroom and very jealous of your extraction, would be great to see you work your magic on explaining split grade printing, way beyond monochrome, great book but a tough read. Not a page turner but still a wonderful reference text. Thanks for taking the time to share, Jamie
Thanks a bunch... had to ad the exhaust I was getting bad headaches from some of the lith developers I use... helps a ton! I will see what I can do on the split grade printing 👍
Split grade vid is live!
Your a gentleman, very kind. It will be this evenings viewing pleasure.
@@JamieACowan I share the same exact feelings. Also thank you for sharing and taking your time. Great content and becoming rare.
So helpful .... thank you
You’re welcome!
Depending on your light source it will be an alternative to add an dimmer to regulate the strength.
That is a great idea. I am going to look into this as it would be nice to have built in increments if possible! Thanks!
@@Distphoto the practice seems a bit difficult, ;-)
My enlarger has a light bulb with condenser, and I thought to replace the conventional opaque bulb by a daylight LED bulb that's dimmable.
Now, I know it's not common that a matte LED bulb also has an even emission. Especially if you close the aperture, you focus more on the bulb's surface and see fuzzy spots.
Ok, I found some LED daylight bulbs that had passed the test, but finding a daylight dimmable bulb that has an even emission is impossible without spending lots of money by testing all brands. Before I send more money down the drain, i rather will build a neutral and PWM dimmable source on my own.
Sure, halogen and conventional bulbs are dimmable by default with cheap dimmers, but the more you dim, the more the color drifts to warm.
IMHO, a neutral light color is better than warm tone if I use mainly multigrade paper with filters.
Greetings from Germany, Matthias
Have you tried or compared a stopped down exposure (F 22) vs ND filter? I will try this but not sure if it is worth it. I like your channel and dark room tips. Keep up the good work.
I really think it depends on the quality of the lens. With a cheaper lens you will notice more of a difference.
@@Distphoto Thanks. CCAD could be "California Corrections, Alcatraz Darkroom. (haha)
@@glennhunt3725 😂
Hi, Nice videos! Love all darkroom and analogue stuff. Can I ask you if where did you learned your darkroom skills and set up? Best from Portugal
Yes, self taught.. A LOT of reading and experimentation with a huge amount of obsession 😬
yes, good concept, I think of it like chemistry, the silver halide needs x energy to react and make an image, in Y time, and at most fast exposures (1/2-1")-1/2,000th of a second; the reaction observes a distinct curve, a straight line, predictable, but longer times enter the 'tail' of this curve, where it gets funky, thats the reason for the Ta=Tm^1.303 etc. (this constant is my memory of the HP5+ number), the funky bit is why the formula exists, to give us
"non-science" nurds an easy, low IQ way of making use of it, so we don't waste a $50-00 sheet of film on a guess, or just the meter +/- filter and bellows factors, which isn't the whole picture, pardon the pun there :-) the reciprocity is the reaction energy required to take a usable image at an appropriately short amount of time, so as to capture genre like action and sports, remember the wet plate, and tintypes?, they had an asa of 1-3 (the equivalent of x-ray film available today), but needed 20" to 1' to react, and you had the inconvenience of the base, having to do everything fast so the collodion didn't dry before processing was complete; today technology has moved on... but the problems those 'Alchemist's" faced are science principles which still reside with us today.
@@andyvan5692 Much respect for anyone doing older alternative processes indeed 👍
great video, very interesting. Many greetings from Germany, Cologne. Kersten Zölfel
Thank you my friend Greetings indeed! Hope alles gut in Deutschland 🙌
@@Distphoto Hi, alles gut
Any video coming up explaining the "+4" "-5" etc on prints? How do you gauge how much time to burn something?
Different people might do things differently…. But or me the +4 means to burn that area with that filter for four seconds or the -5 would mean to dodge that area with that filter for 5 seconds.
You have to evaluate the print. Do you want to lighten or darken something? Add or remove contrast from somewhere?
From there guess a percentage darker or brighter and try it out…
To save paper you can cut and tape smaller pieces to the easel for this particular areas.
You can also make additional test strips with various exposures on the same area.
Hope that makes sense.
Will hopefully be able to get back in my darkroom soon and will try to cover different ways to approach it 👍
@@Distphoto Cool! I'll give it a shot. Yeah I've heard various things, from "+2 stops" etc, like how tf do you gauge a "stop" of light.
@@Adrian-wd4rn one stop more would be twice as much light.
One stop less would be half as much light.
So to give an 8 sec exposure another stop it would be 16 sec.
To give it a stop less you would do 4 sec.
Exact same principal as one stop more exposure when taking the picture.
Also one of those things that will get easier the more you print 👍
I have problems too to pronounce the reciprothing and say schwarzschild faktor.😉
Such strange words 😂
one observation mate, that box of paper, its thick, must have cost over a grand!!, so put some of the sheets into a smaller box, so if you accidentally flick the white lights instead of the safe light, it only burns a few sheets, not the whole 50-100 sheets!!
@@andyvan5692 Good advice… I have several paper safes but in my case they are paper traps because they are loaded with “I have no idea what”. Paper is in them 😂
Nice video. I'd like to see your split grade printing process, if you use that technique. Thanks.
You must of read my mind... I was just finishing up a vid on this.... Just Posted it!
Columbus College Art & Design
Nice. Thank you!
good video, PS: phonetically its said {RESS-SIP-ROES-CITY} if that helps.
@@andyvan5692 It does… thanks 😂