sangwoohan

I did a lot of scanning before I ever even owned an enlarger, and I have to say that learning to get my negatives clean enough to scan prepared me well for getting them ready to print.

 

There again, that's not to say that you can be SLOPPY in the darkroom, but at the same time a quick dust-off with a Rocket blower is usually fine for a negative that was properly washed and has been stored in a good quality sleeve. Also, scratches will light up like crazy on scans, while I find that they have to be pretty large to be visible on an enlarger.

 

Also, if you want to take up the lost art of manual retouching, the best film around these days is Kodak TXP(Tri-X Professional) 320. Unfortunately, you can only still buy it in sheet film, although 220 roll film that's not terrible old is out there. Just to be clear, too, TXP 320 is NOT the same film as Tri-X 400(TX 400), which is available in 35mm and 120.

 

To my knowledge, TXP 320 is the only film still made with a base pre-"toothed" to facilitate manual retouching. There use to be solutions around that would let you do this to any film base, but you'd probably be looking at old stock.

 

This is great information Ben. There is a photo lab near my place where I believe they still may be doing manual retouching. I can definitely get my hands on this process as well. Very fascinating.

FWIW, I find printing on an enlarger to be a LOT more tolerant of negative imperfections than scanning.

 

The scanner sees EVERY. On an enlarger, your negatives need to be reasonably clean(the ones shown in the OP probably would have given visible defects on an 8x10, but surgically clean negatives aren't a necessity) unless you're using a small aperture on your enlarger lens(something usually avoided) and printing to a large size.

 

That's an interesting point that I've never known. I haven't yet tried printing, but that's definitely going to be something I would try next.

A huge thanks to everyone! I have been working on removing dust and debris following you guys' tips, and it's been somewhat successful. To share my progress with you awesome people, here's the new batch : Sangwoo Han

The spots look like classic water and/or dust spots. If I had guess, part of the problem MIGHT be that your Photoflo is too concentrated, but I'd want to see the negatives in hand to say for sure what the problem is.

 

As for the grain-35mm has grain, and there's no getting around it. Actually, I should say that all films have grain, but it's certainly more noticeable in 35 than in larger formats. This is true even with relatively slow speed films. Also, scanning can increase the apparent size of the grain(look up grain aliasing). The grain you're seeing is not out of character for FP4+, a film that I've shot a lot in sizes up to 4x5.

 

Thanks a lot Ben!

Hi, I just got into film photography and self-processing. I developed my first batch of rolls yesterday, and there are some errors that I found on the images that I hope I can fix next time. If anybody can give me some advises on what could have gone wrong, that would be greatly helpful.

 

I took this one with my Olympus 35RD & Kodak TX400, and scanned with Plustek 7200. Used Ilford DD-X/ Kodak stop bath / Illford Rapid fixer / Kodak Photo-flo to develop. Beside my cat's hair got in during scanning, there are white spots, that I assume are from improper washing.

 

This one was taken with Leica M4 + 50mm Summicron collapsible and Ilford HP5+ 400. The haze is from the lens – I got a cheap one due to my limited budget. There is a strip of white spots running across on the upper side.

 

 

These two were taken with the M4 + Ilford FP4 125. One thing I noticed was that even with ASA(ISO) 125, I still see somewhat grainy texture on a flat surface. Like the upper side of 'Cafe Gratitude' on the first photo, and the sky on the second one. Any idea why this would happen?

 

Also I'm open to any tips, advices, feedbacks! I want to learn more. Thanks in advance!!

 

 

 

This is the only lens I have right now. I've been taking a look at the lens mount and there is an odd bump that looks like it's stopping the lens from fully rotating. I guess I have to take this to the repair shop tomorrow. Thanks Brian.

Its still the same.

Hi all, I just purchased an M4 with a collapsible 50mm Summicron. And I've been having a problem mounting the lens, wanted to see if anybody had the same problem with me.

 

Basically the lens doesn't rotate until it clicks, instead it gets stick right before it reaches the end. The Dropbox link below has photos of where it stops, and inside of the mount.

 

Dropbox - m4 - Simplify your life

 

 

 

I'm going to take it to a repair shop on Monday, but wanted to see if this is a simple problem that I can solve tonight so that I can take it out tomorrow.