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You should really, really make sure your dRk room is well vented. It's half the reason I did mine in the bathroom. Running water and mechanical ventilation. Don't trust your eyes to detect light leaks. Make a long digital exposure of the door.
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Mar 22, 2014 11:00
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On the subject of darkrooms, my tiny apartment has one bathroom with no windows. And I think this will work for getting the film out of a canister and into a development tank. Aside from the long digital exposure to check for light leaks into the room any other things I should do to make sure I don't completely screw up my first roll of film?
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Mar 22, 2014 13:14
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You probably won't screw up your first roll of film, but if you do it will be in a way that is obvious and easy to avoid for roll #2. Shoot a test roll of stuff you don't care about for your first roll to develop. If it fails, no loss, if it works (it will) you can be pretty confident you know what you're doing and move on to roll #2. I loaded my film onto reels and into the tank in my windowless bathroom for the first dozen or so rolls, then I bought a changing bag. Much easier than worrying about light getting in under the door.
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Mar 22, 2014 17:37
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Ezekiel_980 posted:On the subject of darkrooms, my tiny apartment has one bathroom with no windows. And I think this will work for getting the film out of a canister and into a development tank. Aside from the long digital exposure to check for light leaks into the room any other things I should do to make sure I don't completely screw up my first roll of film? If you aren't printing, get a changing bag
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Mar 22, 2014 17:40
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Ezekiel_980 posted:On the subject of darkrooms, my tiny apartment has one bathroom with no windows. And I think this will work for getting the film out of a canister and into a development tank. Aside from the long digital exposure to check for light leaks into the room any other things I should do to make sure I don't completely screw up my first roll of film? Eyeballs are amazing.
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Mar 22, 2014 22:46
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What can I do to increase the dynamic range when processing film? Whenever I scan my negatives, the histogram shows a fairly narrow band of pixels, and I obviously adjust my black and white points to compensate, but I feel like I am missing a lot of possible information. Is it my film, developer, or developing process? Maybe there is nothing wrong, and its my subjects that lack dynamics, but I am wondering if there's anything in the processing steps that you can do to help. BANME.sh fucked around with this message at 06:45 on Mar 23, 2014 |
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Mar 23, 2014 06:34
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I just bought some 4x5 x-ray film. Says to rate between 50-100. Is rodinol cool to use with it? any special developing technique I should use? Any tips/tricks/things I should be wary about? Sludge Tank fucked around with this message at 09:25 on Mar 23, 2014 |
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Mar 23, 2014 09:17
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BANME.sh posted:What can I do to increase the dynamic range when processing film? Whenever I scan my negatives, the histogram shows a fairly narrow band of pixels, and I obviously adjust my black and white points to compensate, but I feel like I am missing a lot of possible information. There's two things in play here, the density range of the film, and the contrast curve of the negative. The density range is the difference between opacity of the clear film base and the opacity of the film base fully covered in developed silver. The film simply can't express anything darker or lighter than those values, you usually want an as large density range as possible. The Dmax can be lowered by wrong development, if you don't develop the film enough the maximum possible silver density might never get produced. The Dmin can be raised by pre-exposure (by light, heat or other electromagnetic radiation) before the film is shot, that can happen for old films stored poorly. The contrast curve of the negative is affected by everything: The scene photographed, the exposure used, the response of the emulsion, the developer used, the dilution of the developer, the temperature used in development, the agitation method used. Depending on the actual combination of factors, you might also be clipping the dynamic range of the scene against the film's Dmin or Dmax, or at least compressing a lot of information into narrow ranges there. When you push film (expose less and develop more) that typically compresses the contrast curve, giving less resolution in the low density areas (i.e. the blacks of the positive image), and meanwhile if you instead pull, you get opposite effects with less information compressed into high density areas and more in the lower density areas. More agitation tends to increase contrast. Something like Rodinal 1+100 stand development might give you negatives more suited for scanning. Many films, when using standard development procedures, reach Dmax a while before the prescribed end of development, and the extra time mostly affects the contrast, typically intended to make the negatives more suited for wet printing, but those negatives might not be the most suited for a scanning process. You can try shortening the development time by 20% or so.
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Mar 23, 2014 10:51
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Sludge Tank posted:I just bought some 4x5 x-ray film. Says to rate between 50-100. i shot my 8x10 xray at 64 or 80. i developed in rodinal, not stand dev but standard agitation in a tray for 7.5 minutes, i think at 1:10 dilution? you should only develop one sheet at a time, as they're coated on both sides with emulsion and can easily scratch if they're in a tray sliding around together. a big bonus to xray film is that you don't have to develop in the dark. they are not sensitive to red light, so if you have a red safelight (or can buy some red leds) you can see what you're doing. good luck!
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Mar 23, 2014 12:07
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I rated the X-ray film I've got at 125, and got some good contrast out of it. I was supposedly using half speed blue, but I've seen people rate the full speed stuff at 200-400. Check out the large format forum, there's a massive X-ray thread where they sort out all the processing details, and give heaps of useful tips.
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Mar 23, 2014 13:51
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voodoorootbeer posted:I'd love to see some discussion on this because I'm in a similar situation - I have a cellar with a small window that I'd ideally like to black out and convert to ventilation in one go. I could have sworn that there was a printing thread but I can't find it. Tinfoil works pretty well. For stuff I want to swap in and out, I bought a sheet of some magnetic material at a home improvement store and cut out strips to go around the windows/vents, and used some sturdy blackout material for the "curtains".
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Mar 23, 2014 14:23
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BANME.sh posted:What can I do to increase the dynamic range when processing film? Whenever I scan my negatives, the histogram shows a fairly narrow band of pixels, and I obviously adjust my black and white points to compensate, but I feel like I am missing a lot of possible information. Are you scanning as 16-bit positive without adjustments in the scanning program, as some of us around here advocate? If so, that relatively narrow range is normal - all of my scans only take up 1/4 to 1/2 of the histogram at first. Either way, check the stuff neilsm said, too.
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Mar 23, 2014 15:49
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Does developer/fixer/stop bath go bad? I bought one bottle of each a couple years ago for something that never panned out. I have a small apartment and I want to get rid of it, but not really sure what to do with it.
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Mar 23, 2014 18:29
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Awkward Davies posted:Does developer/fixer/stop bath go bad? I bought one bottle of each a couple years ago for something that never panned out. I have a small apartment and I want to get rid of it, but not really sure what to do with it. Did you open them? It's generally oxidation, and to some extent light, that ruins photo chemistry. Fixer concentrate should keep quite well in a sealed bottle, and also keeps okay in working solution in a filled bottle. Unused fixer is theoretically safe to pour in the drain, but it's probably not such a good idea to do. (Spent fixer, however, contains relatively much silver, which is an environmental contaminant.) Developers very widely, some of the highly concentrated ones (e.g. HC-110 and Rodinal/R09) can keep for years and years even in opened bottles while others may keep much shorter. Whole bottles of developer are probably best to turn in to a recycling station or other chemical waste disposal, small amounts are probably fine to pour into the drain. Stop bath is basically just citric and/or acetic acid, maybe with an indicator mixed in too, and is easily replaceable even if it has gone bad. If it's an indicator stop bath, the indicator will tell you if it's good. No worse than regular acetic or citric acid to pour into the drain. If they're unopened you can probably put them for sale in some classifieds site/paper.
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Mar 23, 2014 18:42
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nielsm posted:Did you open them? It's generally oxidation, and to some extent light, that ruins photo chemistry. They're all unopened, so they should be good. I guess I'll try selling them on craigslist at a severe discount. Thanks for the info.
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Mar 23, 2014 18:44
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Awkward Davies posted:Does developer/fixer/stop bath go bad? I bought one bottle of each a couple years ago for something that never panned out. I have a small apartment and I want to get rid of it, but not really sure what to do with it. In the bottle, no. As mentioned, stuff like Rodinal stays good forever if you don't mix it up. If you've mixed it into working solutions, that does have a shelf life but it can be pretty long. Moreso for developer than the stop/fixer/hypo-clear, the latter are pretty stable. The stop bath is basically just vinegar and as long as it's slightly acidic it'll work. Even water works by dilution. Fixer is essentially a "do to completion" process and you can test whether it'll work by fixing a clipping of your film leader. Time how long it takes the clipping to go clear and fix for double that time. Hypo clear is (if I remember) basically a solvent that the fixer will actually dissolve in, so again if it's not molding or something it'll probably work. And you can also just use an excessive water wash too, something like 30m in a force washer. I've used year-old mixed solutions of stop/fixer/hypo clear no problem. Don't do that with developer though, if you've mixed a working solution you should probably use it up within a couple months, or refrigerate it in a closed bottle with no headspace for air. Particularly with organic stuff like HC-110. Paul MaudDib fucked around with this message at 18:47 on Mar 23, 2014 |
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Mar 23, 2014 18:45
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If they're unopened, they might have expiration dates on them.
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Mar 23, 2014 18:47
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MrBlandAverage posted:Are you scanning as 16-bit positive without adjustments in the scanning program, as some of us around here advocate? If so, that relatively narrow range is normal - all of my scans only take up 1/4 to 1/2 of the histogram at first. Yeah I do. If it's common then I guess it's no big deal but I'll also experiment with the development time too maybe BANME.sh fucked around with this message at 19:44 on Mar 23, 2014 |
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Mar 23, 2014 19:41
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Pham Nuwen posted:I really like the flower picture too. I didn't do any post-processing on that picture, just uploaded the image as it came on the CD. When you say "recover some highlights", do you mean doing something at the time of shooting, or by applying some post-processing? With film you should be able to recover highlights in post-processing. Usually..
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Mar 23, 2014 21:20
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I don't have any Photo-Flo on hand, will I screw up my negatives with Jet-Dry?
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Mar 24, 2014 00:56
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So it turns out the Omega D2 enlarger is goddamn enormous: I got two, the other is about a foot shorter than that. One has a 150mm lens, the other has a 105. Neither included the variable condenser lenses, but you don't need the variable condenser lenses for a 150mm lens and you may be able to get away with it for the 105mm lens. Neither has a negative carrier. I've found several on Ebay for cheap... although I'm watching one right now ($10 shipped), it doesn't end for 2 days and I might just decide to spend an extra $5 and do a buy it now on a different one for $15. The bellows on the shorter enlarger have separated at the top. They were "repaired" using black electrical tape but that's failed now. Since my plan was to use one and keep the other as parts, it shouldn't be a big deal; the other set of bellows seem very sound.
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Mar 24, 2014 02:23
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try it with a lime posted:I don't have any Photo-Flo on hand, will I screw up my negatives with Jet-Dry? I used Jet-Dry a few times before I was given an old bottle of Photo-Flo. I found it hard to add just the tiny amount you need for a double-tank of 35mm negs, but other than that (too much means lots of foam, which is harmless) it was fine. The point of something like Photo-Flo is just to remove water streaks when the film is drying - really really clean water (like distilled) won't leave streaks. I know several people who swear by a dilute vinegar solution (like 1:10) for cleaning glass and not leaving streaks; considering that stop solution is essentially just dilute vinegar anyway I doubt vinegar would damage your film. If you're really worried you could put some already developed-scanned-done-with film through some water and then some Jet-Dry solution (i.e. add a drop or two to some water that the film is in), wash it like you'd just developed it, and see what happens.
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Mar 24, 2014 03:29
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I managed to slice my finger open on one of the film canisters in the dark bag without noticing and figured if the negatives were covered in blood, adding Jet-Dry wouldn't be any worse for the wear. Everything seemed to have come out alright.
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Mar 24, 2014 04:51
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I watched a tutorial on youtube and the guy said just a single drop of dishwashing detergent will do the same thing? e: sorry I quoted the wrong post. I meant re: running out of photo-flo Sludge Tank fucked around with this message at 05:50 on Mar 24, 2014 |
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Mar 24, 2014 05:07
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Sludge Tank posted:I watched a tutorial on youtube and the guy said just a single drop of dishwashing detergent will do the same thing? Only if it's unscented and doesn't contain any of the other crap. Friend tried this with normal dish-washing detergent and it ended up worse... YMMV That said photo-flo & clones are like $2.50 a bottle and mine still is more than 1/3rds full after 4 years of shooting and dev...
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Mar 24, 2014 05:38
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Also you really only need Photoflo if you are getting streaks on your negs without it. I haven't used it on years. Known hard water havers this does not apply to you.
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Mar 24, 2014 08:22
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I ran across a film vending machine this past Saturday at Kinkaku-ji in Kyoto. Horribly overpriced but not something I see often.  My camera bag was loaded with Portra and Velvia already so I didn't bite.
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Mar 25, 2014 04:58
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RustedChrome posted:I ran across a film vending machine this past Saturday at Kinkaku-ji in Kyoto. Horribly overpriced but not something I see often. I didn't grab pics of them, but I came across a few porn/sex toy vending machines on a bicycle ride last weekend. Tend to find them out in the boonies, inside corrugated metal sheds that say "BOOKS DVD VIDEO" in Japanese on the outside. I wanted to buy a penis pump for my friend as a joke, but 1) it was $30 and 2) you had to put your Japanese driver's license in a machine to verify your age, and I did *not* want to have to make that phone call if it got captured by the machine for whatever reason.
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Mar 25, 2014 12:29
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The perils of underexposing slide film
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Mar 26, 2014 02:11
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Got some weirdness with my last roll of 35: These were the 17th and 18th exposures on a 36exp roll of Arista Premium 400. Everything before 17 is fine; everything after 18 is similarly hosed. Did it in 1:100 Rodinal for 1 hr., 10 initial inversions with 5 more midway through. Two rolls in the tank: Arista on the bottom and Ilford 3200 (development looked fine) on top. This is probably my 7th roll or so in the same process but the first to screw up. This was also the first time that I did a presoak in room temp tap water for 1 or 2 minutes. Pretty sure I also forgot to do my customary bang on the bottom of the tank after the inversions, although I can't imagine why air bubbles wouldn't affect both rolls in the tank evenly. I'm guessing it's bromide drag, but I can't find any kind of consistent information about what could be causing it. Apparently developing chemistry in 2014 is still akin to alchemy because internet people like to spout any kind of arcane horseshit that they can string together to explain it.
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Mar 27, 2014 04:37
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That looks more like stress marks to me, like you yanked on that roll of film or something while it was still in the camera (hence why you have lines coming out of all the sprocket holes). This normally happens to me when I get to the end of a roll and yank on the film advance too much, not realizing it's the end of the roll. Same thing happened with this shot (although not quite as drastically). 
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Mar 27, 2014 05:26
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i got something like that with a roll i processed a month ago, though I can't say what caused it since i was trying a few new things like a different agitation, also in tandem with another roll (these were both 400tx. it's witchcraft is what it is.
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Mar 27, 2014 05:56
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Everyone knows that's the film's ribs.
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Mar 27, 2014 08:40
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Never happened, sorry. Don't put an expensive roll in next!
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Mar 27, 2014 14:22
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There's a lot of cracking around the sprocket holes so I guess stress makes sense.
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Mar 27, 2014 16:33
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voodoorootbeer posted:There's a lot of cracking around the sprocket holes so I guess stress makes sense. I'm telling you, I'm very experienced with this happening! 
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Mar 27, 2014 16:38
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Mr. Despair posted:I'm telling you, I'm very experienced with this happening! Yeah, some of my favorite photos I've ever taken have stress marks.
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Mar 27, 2014 18:21
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I just got me some IR film. I'm planning on going up to Portland to visit a friend during spring break. Is it safe to take it through the x-ray machines, or should I just keep it in my fridge here and try to buy some when I get to Portland?
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Mar 28, 2014 22:06
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dog nougat posted:I just got me some IR film. I'm planning on going up to Portland to visit a friend during spring break. Is it safe to take it through the x-ray machines, or should I just keep it in my fridge here and try to buy some when I get to Portland? Film should never go in checked luggage - the x-rays used for checked luggage are much stronger than those used for carry-ons. Unless it's HIE, which will probably be hosed at this point anyway, it'll be fine in your carry-on. If you're worried, request a hand check instead of putting it through the x-ray.
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Mar 28, 2014 22:24
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I bought some aerochrome and had it shipped from Germany. Then I proceeded to carry it in my carry-on luggage all over Asia (and only managed to shoot 2 rolls  ) and it turned out fine.
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Mar 28, 2014 22:47
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