Please help me in these questions

[Poptart]

It depends on where you live; are you in the US?

 

[ruben]

Hi Cralx,

Let me put some issues you asked about and some you didn't. I assume you are starting to print, and perhaps to process as well.

First, relax and take it easy, the simple way if you indeed are just starting. Don't jump right away to fibre paper nor to highly specific techniques before you master the basics. The day you'll really master the basics, then fibre paper and selective development will be learnt very easy and very fast.

What are the basics ? The mother of good printing is to have first of all a well processed negative, which before entering the developing tank was first of all reasonable exposed when shot with the camera. This paragraph is crucial.

When you reach this correlation, printing will become extremely easy. If you don't you will be exhausting your resources of time and materials.

The good news is that reasonable exposed film and accurate film processing are really tested when making the print. Well exposed film and welll processed film translate afterwards, in 90 percent of the cases, into easily printable images. If you feel that in most of the printing sessions you are fighting hard to obtain an acceptable print - most of the chances are that your problem is at the camera stage or the film processing stage, or both.

Therefore my biggest recommendation is that for the next two years you stick to a single brand film, film developer, paper and paper developer.

As for further gidance there are thousand of books that doesn't help at all and lead you to ask your twenty questions here. There are a dozen books that are worth, and there is one raising above all of them, specially written to help you and not to promote the writer at the expense of the reader: THE CRAFT OF PHOTOGRAPHY, by David Vestal. This was, in my case, the starting point. Go as far as you need to have this book.

Good luck and my kind appreciation to your enterprise at these times.
Ruben

 

[cralx2000]

Poptart, I'm in Texas.

 

[cralx2000]

ruben, Thank You so much.

" first of all reasonable exposed when shot with the camera. This paragraph is crucial. "

I know what you mean by experience. Dodge and Burn is not fanny for beginner.

Again thanks

 

[Poptart]

There are a dozen books that are worth, and there is one raising above all of them, specially written to help you and not to promote the writer at the expense of the reader: THE CRAFT OF PHOTOGRAPHY, by David Vestal. This was, in my case, the starting point. Go as far as you need to have this book.

That'sgood advice: Vestal's books are very good and nearly complete, although not as all-inclusive or technical as they could be.

 

[TPPhotog]

It sounds to me that not only is a book required but are there any basic photography courses run that include the darkroom in your area? My advice is start as simply as possible and get more technical as you gain more experience.

Start with one developer and one fixer, some 5x7 RC paper, 3 trays and lots of practice.

 

[Stephanie Brim]

I'd probably do four trays...develop, stop, fix, wash. Then again, that's just me. We all know that I'm still trying to sort out *where* to do my printing, let alone how.

 

[TPPhotog]

Good point Stephanie 🙂 I use the sink for the final running water wash before I throw the prints on the wall tiles to dry 😉

 

[Poptart]

I need darkroom space too. I have massive cool equipment that I can't use. Lately I've been doing 19th century sun prints but I still want the whole darkroom trip to fill the blanks.

 

[Roger Hicks]

The main reason for not using the same fixer for paper and film is not concentration, but silver build-up. Film can tolerate a MUCH higher silver concentration than paper, at least FB paper -- I've never thought about this question in relation to RC. This is why, if you use film-strength fixer for paper (as I and many others do) fixing is much faster but the fixer capacity (area/litre) remains the same.

I disagree STRONGLY with Ruben's 'biggest recommendation', though. At first, try as many films and devs as you can. Some have a 'magic', others don't, and what is really strange is that what works for one photographer won't for another: pure alchemy.

If you don't want to spend a fortune on devs, buy just one and try a wide range of films in it. There are however major differences between devs. This is why there is no longer a standard ISO developer: manufacturers can determine ISO with any developer, as long as they say what it is.

Some devs give a true ISO speed increase (more speed with no extra contrast): Ilford's Microphen and DDX and Paterson's FX50 are good examples, and give ISO 650 or even a fraction better with HP5 (nominal IS0 400). The penalty is bigger grain.

Others give finer grain but less speed and lower sharpness (the latter is counter-intuitive, but true), or higher sharpness but slightly coarser grain, etc. Some sell on tonality alone: many (though not I) love the tonality of Rodinal but it gives low speed and big grain with many, perhaps most, films. This is why there's a whole module on developer choice in the Photo School www.rogerandfrances.com

Even 'bulletproof' combinations like Ilford HP5 Plus in Perceptol (true ISO about 250) won't work for everyone and if you choose the wrong film/dev combination you can waste all of the two years Ruben advocates merely trying to make the chosen combination work satisfactority.

As soon as you find a combination that gives you the 'magic', yes, I'll second Ruben. But until then I think it's dangerous advice.

Cheers,

Roger

 

[Poptart]

Yeah, dangerous.

 

[zpuskas]

Re #15, you may use the same fixer for both paper and film as long as it does not have an added hardener. Kodak alows you to make a choice to add the hardener for film (though not required). If you use something like some Photographer's Formulary solutions you may use same fixer for film and paper as they have no hardener.