scott walton

Here is about the best step by step paper I have found!

http://www.bostick-sullivan.com/Technical_papers/digital%20info/dave_fokos/fokos.pdf

Renting is great practice. Most pro camera stores will also take your rental fees and put them toward the camera purchase! You should be able to go to that camera store an hour away and talk with them about renting... if they have the equipment on hand and sell it, they will usually tend to rent their demos. Prepare on spending $2000 on up for a basic outfit (usually used) and the prices will go up from there. You can go to www.ebay.com and find some good deals most of the time on a Mamiya C330 (twin lens)... just a thought.

Seamless paper from Savage is good, plexi can be used in MANY ways and raw muslin gives another nice look. You can get muslin in up to 102" widths from a good fabric store. Around here (Boston MA), the Fabric Place carries the 102" in stock. The raw muslin can easily be lit to render white and you can do some nice folding of the muslin to create alot of looks.

Count me in! I would love to have some fun when visiting my inlaws! I'm from the Boston area and go out to Agawam regularly.

If they are indeed circular, they could be air bells... air droplets that attached themselves to the film in development. This is due to not agitating or rapping the tank in the first second, or in a deep tank having the nitrogen burst in the plenum high enough. It could also be (if the lab uses dip and dunk) photoflo that when the film came out of the end run, had bubbles formed and popped in the dryer. When I worked in a lab years ago, we had this problem and a higher dilution (but finally going to Edwal's LFN) of Photoflo worked. If this is the case, rewash your film and use a very dilute photoflo or 2 drops of LFN and it will clean up your negs. If it is air bells as above stated, there is nothing you can do short of scanning the negs and cleaning them up in PS. Hope it is to much photoflo...

2 Bath developers have been around for a real long time and to this day are excellent. This fact and the "new" developers that abound are usually the reason why people don't use "..the antiquated ones because the new ones should be better..." which unless you try the different developers and experiment your losing out on some great stuff. Divided D23, Divided D76 and Diafine are excellent in their own right and should be at least tried but I know what I like and what I use and it really boils down to what a person is happy with. Divided D76 is an ultra fine grain developer whereas Difine is a high acutance developer and all are compensating so there are really no worries of over development. They all are superb with normal to high contrast situations! As for why a person wouldn't use them is beyond me! Just my opinion...

I have a listing of 8 minutes for D-76 1:1 but definitely add 2-4ml (per gallon I meant to say) of Edwal's Orthrazite to cut down the fog that you will get!

I have a listing of 8 minutes for D-76 1:1 but definitely add 2-4ml of Edwal's Orthrazite to cut down the fog that you will get!

Dump it when your done with the developing. If you want a better chemical, get some Edwal's LFN. It comes in a small dropper bottle and all you need is a drop or two. It is cleaner than Photoflo and is easier to use.

With Selenium, you will gain overall density with extremely fine grain. It is a whole lot better than using Chromium Intensifier but where there is no detail, you will get more density and no more detail.

I like Diafine also and have been using it, as well as Divided D76 for years. You do need a little agitation but I shoot my TXP at 400 and love the high acutance of Diafine! When I need any manipulations (N+/N-) I use HC110 but usual shooting is Diafine. Your film will be snappy with sharp grain and a very easily printable neg that has a great contrast range!!!

TXP and Diafine rated at 400 has a beautiful glow and high acutance.

I have the NW and was shooting in Boston with it on my Linhof Tech III today and have always loved this lens!!!

I agree! With Tetra you need to do some conversions and add more due to the added water molecules. Essentially, tetra is a watered down version giving you a lesser of what you need.

You can print any B/W negative on color paper! Go to a prolab and see if they have a clean unexposed but developer 4x5 color negative (you can use any format just as long it covers the original negative fully). When printing regular B/W negs, sandwich this mask on top (even put it on top of the negative carrier) and print away. Very easy and you can get the greys, black and clean whites but you cannot do any contrast changes. As for the CN film, yes it prints beautifully on any B/W paper.

Paul,

I have had an enhancer (dydidium) glass from Tiffen and it is really spectacular almost a bit much. It's like shooting Velvia when shooting negs. Is a bit more than shooting Agfa Ultra (120) in the fall to explode the colors, it is great!

Personal testing is pretty much manditory. Give you an example, a fellow shooter and I went out to shoot "pretty pixs" together awhile back. Shooting similiar things he went home (one town away) to process and his times vary greatly from mine using the same developer... you can do as Pete suggests and use a compensating developer like Diafine or Divided D76 and not worry about over developing at all... simple, yes! Good results, YES! If you do want to use standard developers though... testing is a must.

A word about the divided developers, they are great and the results are beautiful. I use Diafine and DD76 loving each for it's own qualities. Diafine is a high acutance developer (making the edges of the grain sharper) and DD76 is a very fine grained developer but it doesn't "look" as sharp side by side.

IR films are different to work with at best. These are, as stated by Mark are a bit over developed. You can cut the developing time by 20% but part of the "look" of IR is the washed out and dreamy look. Remembering that the highlights keep developing as the process progresses (shadows finish developing first) so if you cut your developing time down your highlights will be thinner. I have shot/developed HIE and Konica's and like the look of blown highlights better because of the "look". You can always preflash the paper to get more detail but the print takes on a whole different look. I think your pixs that you posted are dreamy but can be printed a bit darker.

I think we all know about the CFO situations!!! As Pete suggests, Camera Bellows!!!!!! I just got my Linhof III done by them and got it back this past Thursday and let me tell you, it is beautiful! It cost me about $150 USD including mounting and shipping. You will spend less if they do it due to all the time and materials you have to use to make your own.

I have an Aristo on my D2 and have had it for about 12+ years. They are great! The heater cord is to be plugged into a 110 wall outlet about 5-10 minutes before printing to warm the bulb up. With this you will have no fluctuations when printing at any speed due to the bulb. The other plug gets plugged into your timer. I find my head, without filters, prints at a grade 3. Alot of the time this is fine giving me rich prints (due to the density of my negatives ect.) As stated above, someone mentioned Selectol/Dektol, you can also use Dr. Beers 2 part developer to chemically tweak the contrast or you can use the filters. I usually develop my negs according to my system (Zone) and I print without filters but there are times when I need to filter something. If you want to do split printing, I recommend starting with the "below the lens" filters so you don't have to move anything other than a small filter holder under the lens.

You should get everything you see in the viewfinder and maybe 1/8" more, some more and some less. It isn't really that critical when it comes down to that small amount. I use the grids to straighten horizons, buildings and to make sure the product I'm shooting is squared off. I also had to do a shoot years ago and make a background (before there was such a thing as a premade background of this sort) that had converging lines to show perspective... On the chosen color background that I set up for this particular shoot, I set the camera up on the studio stand and attached a spot light to the ground glass which when projected through an open lens, gave me the perfect lines for me to tape on the back ground. You can also do the same thing to make sure your camera and copy board is straight on doing copy work.

Zero out your camera standards and start over again. What I do is to take the whole scene, pick a point 1/3 in from the camera and focus. If it is a very large scene and you want sharp focus over the entire area, tilt your front standard forward to a point where you get the front and back in focus and then stop down to your using f stop. You will have an easier time with a wide angle lens of sorts. If you are using a tele (210-250) you will have to more precise.

We have a Leaf45 at work as well as a Imacon. The Leaf is a slow (three pass/RGB) and is a large piece of equipment! You shouldn't have to many problems, we have it hooked up to a G4 but are running 9.1 which is less problematic. Make sure you can still get the bulbs and that it comes with all the holders. Other than being slow, it is a nice hi res scanner.

The SCX was my first camera and I used it mostly in the studio. I loved it and think it is a wonderful camera. The back should have a decently heavy spring back that would, on mine, hold the film back solidly! There was no play at all. I would check the springs on the back. The retention arms may need a bit tightening or new springs added.

Enjoy the camera... heavy as it is, it is a great one!

As mentioned above, the film boxes are used. Get these at your pro lab so pick them up first...(they are free for the taking) or begin creating a relationship (much needed) with your lab by bringing in the film holders directly to the lab. I have done this many times with no problems. Talk to the lab people, tell them what your doing, communicate and they will be more than happy to help... they are pros at what they do and by getting used to what they do and letting them know what you like, your pictures and you will benefit.