If you're new to this mostly photography related blog, or my other personal one, here's a quick recap to get you up to speed. I started digital photography in 2016 and quickly learned I loved doing it. My previous photography had been with inexpensive point and shoots, and early iPhones. Then I started exploring film in 2021 or so, using a Nikon borrowed from a friend. It never felt at home in my hands, but I liked working with film.
Then I picked up a Fujica GW690, a big medium format camera, and loved how it felt in my hands. Along the way there was a Canon 7 that died, and the current 35mm camera is a Canon EOS 3. It's part of the transition from film to digital. It takes EF lenses, and any Canon photographer could pick it up and be away to the races in a moment, but the sensor is film.
I was getting my film developed by a local bespoke lab, but he retired. I tentatively tried developing my own black and white film and was really pleased how that turned out. I've got the chemistry to do colour and will be trying that soon.
In the meantime, I started thinking more about the whole analog process, creating prints from negatives in a darkroom. Turns out SAIT has an amazing darkroom with an amazing teacher running it (Hi George!), so I signed up to find out if I liked it or not. I did. The only drawback is they can only do contact prints from 6x9 photos.
The class is a mix of people new to film in general, or new to darkroom, or have been back to the course several times. It's a nice community.
Then I saw a Besler 23Cii on consignment in my favourite camera store. If I was going to get an enlarger, I wanted to get one that can do the 6x9 negatives produced by the GW690, but didn't want to go to the next step of a 4x5 enlarger. Maybe I should have. But then I'd be tempted to buy a 4x5 camera.
Right now I'm printing on 8x10 Ilford RC Glossy for most photos, and on Pearl for portraits. My thinking is that I'd like to get a good grip on things on this scale, and only then think about moving to larger paper. That gets expensive quickly. I don't want to be figuring out basic things on 11 x 14 paper at $4 a sheet.
You can see a really old school timer that took me a bit to figure out. (Look at the black box just to the left of the front of the enlarger base.) When it says 0, there's still 2 seconds to go. It isn't terribly precise, and I'm thinking of getting one that is accurate to a 10th second. I'm using a white diffusion gel in the contrast tray to give me longer exposure times and a bit more control, though I'm still figuring out the finer details.
The sink is a couple steps behind me. I installed it as a utility sink, mainly for cleaning stuff related to making wine, but also laundry and general cleaning that wants a metal surface. I never dreamed I'd be doing this, and while it's a big sink, its just not quite big enough for four trays for 8x10 paper. I use a big under bed storage bin for the dev, stop, and fix trays, then turn around for the wash tray in the sink.
After picking up a few odds and ends, last night I mixed up a batch of chemistry and tried flying solo. These two are some of the very first photos taken with the GW690, on Acros II film. Something I hadn't realized till I started writing this post, is that taking photos of a glossy print is kind of tricky. Even playing with lighting, I can see a faint selfie reflection.
It took 9 tries to get this one, and it still isn't quite right. The sky has a bit of a burn, but should have a bit more.
Even with several nights at the SAIT course, it was still a bit intimidating to fly solo in my own darkroom. I'd tried to think through the workflow before starting, and mostly it worked out well. I was still trying to figure out the best place for the head and finding focus to get as much of the image as possible on the page. These are somewhat cropped, mainly side to side, since I'm working having a 1 inch margin. As I get more confidence, I'll probably try getting a full 6 x 9 inch image on the paper. Or maybe try a full bleed and let the image flow off the paper. Which I did, just now. I think I like it.
Yes, there are spots. I know. I blew off the negatives, but I'm not fussed about them at the moment. The main thing just now is looking at the images, and thinking about exposure times. Looking at digital images is very different than looking at a print, and so far, I'm really enjoying the process.
The best image so far is one from the SAIT darkroom. It's of my wife, and I sent copies to her sisters, with rave reviews. Hint, You can see the digital image here, and the print version is much better.
I'm just up from a darkroom session, working on a couple more photos. Both are a little light, I think, but then my eyes are tired, and I'm still getting used to print photos. I'll show them off in class and see what people think.
This is a somewhat irregular blog, mostly when a photography related topic comes to mind. There will probably be a bunch of darkroom related posts as I figure this out. Almost certainly after developing the first batch of colour film.
If you'd like to follow along and be notified when I post, eithe rhere or my other blog, send an email to keith@nucleus.com asking to be added to the blog notification list. Or comment here with your email, though Blogger is still cranky about mobile devices and some browsers.
