ABSENCE/PRESENCE - DARK ROOM SKILLS

We were instructed to choose studio, tutorial, or darkroom on Friday 20th of Nov. I chose tutorial and darkroom. Bought print paper resin and fibre.

I was nervous again in dark room. I needed to develop the Ilford Pan F 50 shot during the last 2 weekends. Fortunately my colleague teamed up with me. She’s so good and well prepared with all parameter data jotted down. Developer/fixer/stopper/water/agent/dryer = 8/1/6/20/0.5/15. Successful!

Then I rushed to printing room as I really needed to get one or two proper fibre print for the project. Submission time (mid Dec) is approaching. I never printed any proper one last time though not for the project.

After examining the whole roll, I started from the one taken in Next. Tester on resin first!

3.5 contrast, 1's interval, 5.6 aperture, seemed 2's proper exposed. When blowing up this frame, I mistakenly used 11 aperture, but the resin paper print looked fine. There was a hair like blemish on the face so I dedusted the film accordingly. I did a tester on fibre and concluded 2.5's for the exposure. After exposure, developer/stopper/fixer/water/dryer 2/1.5/6/30/15, the print looked fine. (Fibre print scan.)
I then tried to print a contact. Never did right in the past! Using the same parameter, I exposed, but it was over done. Again, tester first. I found that exposure time need to be bit shorter than the blow up therefore I adjusted 1 stop aperture. By chance I adjusted the height of the light and exposed at the same condition. Failure again. Because this time light was higher, under-exposed! Anyway, eventually did it right.

I tried to find the 2nd fibre print for the project so I did a few resin printing first. I finally decide to print this one, as it seemed has similar atmosphere with the previous one. (Resin print scan.)
Using the same parameter, I exposed on a fibre. God! Wasted. It was under exposed and the shades around nose area does not come out properly. For every frame, even in the same roll, I need to do a tester! Now I understood! I then adjusted one stop aperture and printed another one. Fine this time. The dryer was broken. I had to keep it in the darkroom for drying when I left hence I couldn't scan it today.

I stayed in the printing dark room for more than 3 hours till 19:35. It was rewarding this time with a few properly printed photos, though I am still nervous. The lessons I learned:
1. Contact printing and film printing parameter are not the same. Same condition, contact need less time.
2. Fibre print need more exposure than resin one.
3. When height of light changes, tester!
4. For each frame even from same roll of film, tester!
5. Fibre and resin, of course, tester for each!

I noticed that the Ilford Pan F 50 grain is really small. When I used magnifying glass to focus, it was hard. As the photos I took are dolls made out of plastic in shopping windows, if I had printed with proper exposure, then the texture of the face would appear very obvious and spectator can tell instantly it is a dummy doll rather than a real people. I under exposed, then the face's texture is not obvious and looked reasonably real at first glance. In the future, if I would like to get the full texture, I need to proper expose or even over do a bit. Anyway, I am happy that I under exposed the photos and it gave a good black and white contrast as well, which added a little dramatic ambience to the scene.

For these two shots, the first boy doll is a little spooky maybe because of the lighting and obviously it is artificial. For the second lady doll, it looked real at first glance, then it get recognised it is artificial. I would like to produce a series that could fool spectator at first sight at least, so not quite sure of the boy doll one, though I really like it personally.

(Camera: FM3A; Lens: Nikkor 50mm 1.2)