I got a friend interested in developing!

[silverscape]

I set up a darkroom in my garage. I learned how to develop B&W film and prints around March of 2008 and I've been

having a blast with it since then. Well, I got one of my friends interested in it now! My friend Tom was over at my

house and I was planning to develop some prints that night. He's kind of up for anything, so I asked if he wanted to

help or just see how prints are developed. We weren't doing anything fancy...no dodging or burning or anything like

that (I'm not very good at that yet anyway. I'm still learning). I was just doing straight prints. But I showed Tom the

whole process...how to adjust the aperture on the enlarger, put the print in the developer and agitate it, put in in the

fixer, etc. He watched me a couple of times and then he wanted to try it. I put the negative in the carrier and

adjusted the aperture, and then I let him do the rest. The print came out pretty good. Then I said okay...now you

can do another one, but do the entire process yourself. I let him look at the negatives and choose which frame to

print. Then I just stepped back and let him do everything himself. A little while later, this dude came out with a

finished print! And it looked pretty good! I just taught someone how to develop prints :D

 

By the way, did I mention that Tom is 19? This is so awesome. I learned how to develop my own film and prints

less than 3 years ago, and now I've got about 6 binders full of negatives and prints I've developed myself...and now I

got someone else interested in this. No one taught me either. I learned everything myself, and mostly just from

reading books and asking questions here. We were talking about other stuff we could experiment with...maybe

solarization, toning, photograms, and I had this crazy idea of putting the paper in a tray of water when it's under the

enlarger, so that it would create some weird patterns on the print.

 

I really didn't think any of my friends would be interested in this. I'm surprised. I would post some of the pictures we

developed, but my scanner is kind of acting up right now. I'll try to post them tonight. This is pretty cool though. I

feel like in some tiny way, maybe I'm helping to keep traditional photography going. There's one more person who

has worked in a darkroom now. Well, 2 if you count me, since I'm still kind of new to this :D

 

I also bought a slide projector on eBay recently. I was showing some slides to Tom. You'd think that most people

would be bored with it, but he wanted to see them. My projector only holds 2 slides at a time, and he even showed

me an easier way to switch slides (don't ask me where the heck he learned how to do that!)

 

I really think more people would be interested in traditional photography once they got some real hands on

experience with it. It's more fun and more challenging. We were actually having a lot of fun when we were working in

the darkroom...asking "what if we tried this?" or "what about this?" and experimenting with different things. It's just

too bad that I ran out of paper! Oh man, if only I had more money! If I had more money for paper, I can think of a ton

of things I'd like to try.

 

And sometime soon, I want to try using infrared film.

[patrick_mont]

<p>Hi Chris! I'm happy for you. I have recently found a person that uses my set up too. Lots of fun! You said you want to try infrared....I am itching to try the Kodak color Aerochrome film which is an infrared. Color infrared is amazing.</p>

[charles_hohenstein]

<p>Bravo, Chris. We need more people like you.</p>

[eddy_d]

<p>Patrick. Can you post information about this aerochrome infrared film you speak of.. I would like to try some myself. Thank you.</p>

[patrick_mont]

<p>I'll start a thread on it becuase I don't want to hijak chris' thread :-)</p>

[asafrye]

<p>Congrats Chris! There was just film when I started into photography, but just recently I've been trying large format - specifically using a 4x5 view camera. If you haven't done this already, try it if you can get your hands on a large (or even medium) format camera. I just developed and printed only my second roll of 120 film. The difference in image quality between an image enlarged from a 35mm neg versus a 6 x 7 neg will blow you away! I haven't tried 4 x 5 sheet film yet. That's my next adventure. ; )</p>

[rustys pics]

<p>Excellent post Chris. Can't wait to see the scanned prints of what you both came up with. Hey, you're kind of a photography teacher now! It's true that anytime someone gets to work in a darkroom or develop their own film, we're all keeping analog photography alive. I'm amazed how many people get hooked when they see how simple, fun, & flexible B&W darkroom work is. Keep that paper safe stocked and keep going!<br>

If you're interested in Infrared, send me an email this summer. I may have some film for you.</p>

[jack_welsh]

<p>Chris, great work! Knowing that you shoot 120 with your Yashica TLR. I feel that when you are able to get a 4x5 graphic. Or, a view camera. Got my Cambo SCII in ex. condition from KEH for $215.00. You and your friend will have fun with that. Also, a reason why I am suggesting 4x5. Is, that the 2 of you can try the old contact printing methods. The chemicals are cheap. And, another way to "explore" developing prints the non digital way. Try Cyanotypes, Van Dyke Brown, Argyrotypes. On my Pnet "home" page. I even have a portrait using black ink. The camera used was an old 3 1/4 x 4 1/4 box camera. You could try some of the old processes with your 116 box. But, the main factor is getting more people interested in the darkroom.</p>

[silverscape]

Thanks, guys! Okay, here we go. I got a few pictures scanned. These are all from the same roll, and these pictures were taken about maybe 3 weeks ago. I took these with my Minolta SRT-101. This is actually the new Arista 100 Premium film. I've been wanting to try it for a while. A lot of people have said that it's actually re-labeled Kodak Plus-X...but I don't know. It seems to expose a little differently and seems to need more light than Plus-X.<p>

 

Yup, the kid up in the tree is Tom...and this is the print <i>he</i> developed! When I took this picture, we were kind of just goofing off and he decided to climb up in the tree. I really have to give props to him for this though. Considering he's not really into photography and this was the very FIRST time he had ever developed a darkroom print, it came out pretty good. It's kinda funny too that the first picture he developed was of himself.<p>

 

<img src="http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f86/gatewaycityca/scan0002bsmall.jpg"><p>

 

We went up to the mountains and I took this next picture. I was trying to get a picture of the forest and the clouds drifting low over the mountains. But unfortunately, it was getting too late and there just wasn't enough light. Actually, we did kind of "dodge" the print. I timed the exposure, and Tom was waving a piece of cardboard over the dark area. It helped a little bit, but not enough. The print is a little better than the scan though.<p>

 

<img src="http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f86/gatewaycityca/scan0003small.jpg"><p>

 

Ha ha...and one more of Tom. (I developed this one). <p>

 

<img src="http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f86/gatewaycityca/scan0004bsmall.jpg">

[rustys pics]

<p>Pretty good prints for a First Timer! It's amazing how cheap and simple black and white still is. Definitely the most bang for your photo buck. This past Fall Cliff Manley sent some me some stuff for an old plate camera I got from a neighbor. With those old holders you can actually use photo paper as a negative and process in trays! Then either scan it to make a positive or go back to the darkroom and contact print to make a positive. Those are really fun cameras you guys might like to play with.</p>