(week 5 and 6)
This class was great!
It has been well worth the wait, i finally got the opportunity to develop the roll of film i shot for this class and then process the negatives as a proof-sheet in the dark room.
I am really quite pleased with how my photographs have turned out on the proof sheet. The old PENTAX has performed well.
Turning a NEGATIVE into a POSITIVE
The process takes place in the dark-room and basically involves you positioning the negatives over a piece of light-sensitive paper and exposing it all to light. The negative image acts as a shield over the areas of the light-sensitive paper you DON'T want exposed to light - hence the the terms negative and positive image.
You must first select one or two slices of film, set them up onto of half a piece of light-sensitive paper and process a test-strip. The six images on each slice of paper allows you to give six exposures of 5 second intervals each to the entire test strip. The purpose of this is to get an idea of what sort of time you should then expose the following proof-sheet for. The key things to look for that indicate a correct exposure time is clean, crisp, white lettering just off the negative image and the film's edge near the sprocket holes should be ever so close to being unnoticeable.
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36 film negatives in plastic sleeve.
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| Test-strip of positive images. |
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| Indicator marks and shot number help to judge clarity. |
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| 36 positive images as a proof-sheet. |
Once the correct exposure time has been established, it is then time to select an image of interest and prepare it for enlarging :)
Enlarging
This is basically the same process. You are still turning a negative image into a positive image, but at the light-source itself rather than at paper-level. The following image gives a visual representation of this.
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| A simplified image of an enlarger and its elements required to produce a positive enlargment. |
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| The negative is placed inside the enlarger instead of being placed onto of the light- sensitive paper like the previous step. |
Contrast
Once the image was enlarged, it must then be decided whether or not in needs additional, or reduced contrast throughout the image to give it more punch! Here is an image i processed in class two weeks ago which displays the difference made to the same image by adding or reducing contrast in GRADE increments.
Grade increments are usually adding warmth to a black and white - you can do this yourself whilst shooting film if needed by simply placing yellow or red filters of varying intensity over the lens, if not, it can be done in the darkroom.
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| A test-strip and varying levels of contrast. |
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| Grade 0 was simply too dull and lacked contrast. |
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| Grade 1 produced a slight drop in contrast - tonally. |
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| Grade 2 produced a winning combination of contrast. |
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| Grade 3 was almost on the mark, but a bit light. |
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| Grade 4 produced a dramatic result. |
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| Grade 5 produced an even more dramatic result. |
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| test-strip |
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| 28 second exposure - Grade 2. |
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| 28 second exposure - Grade 3. Helped to richen the black areas. |
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| 16 second exposure - Grade 2. Strong contrast in the clouds and left strong silhouettes. |
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| 13 second exposure - Grade 2. Reduced contrast in the clouds and seperated the hills tonally. |
D.
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