Printing with RC paper in the RC

Printing with RC  (resin coated) papers        by Seder Burns

When focusing, use the largest aperture as it provides the brightest image.

Put a piece of paper with the backside up into the enlarger easel. Use a grain enlarger to insure critical focus. When the grain is most sharp, that is when the image is in sharpest focus.

Be sure to stop down the lens after focusing. You should fully stop down the lens and then open it up two stops. So if a lens has a minimum aperture of f22, then you should use an aperture of f11 to print. This allows for good depth of field and good lens performance. Typically, a lens doesn’t perform best at its largest and smallest apertures do to inherent difficulties of lens design and optical properties. That is why I ask that you open it up two stops from its smallest aperture.

Control density/time for the Highlights, adjust paper contrast for the shadows.

Make a test strip insuring that the areas of greatest importance are included. Control density for highlight detail. Insure that there is texture and detail in the highlights. Once the highlights look good, analyze the shadow tones. Are they too light? If so, increase contrast by dialing in magenta and yellow according to the chart on the side of the printing stalls. (or change the Variable Contrast filter). Control contrast for shadow detail.

Dodge and burn areas as desired to control local contrast. Dodging is the process of preventing light from striking select areas of the print to cause that part of the image to appear lighter. Burning is the process of allowing additional exposure time to select areas of the print to cause that part of the image to appear darker.

Contrast: the difference in tone/brightness values between light and dark parts of the same print. Start with a number 2 filter in place (or the equivalent combination listed below when using a color head enlarger). This way, if you decide to change contrast you will not have to alter your exposure much or at all.

Processing the print: Each step in the development process is timed to insure adequate time for the chemical to have its affect on the paper while trying to minimize the time it sits in the solution to prevent the paper from absorbing unnecessary chemicals which will ultimately lead to a shorter print life. This is why it is important that you don’t leave your prints sitting in any of the chemical solutions for longer than they need to be.

Developer:  1 ½  minutes with gentle agitation. If there are multiple prints in the developer tray, then shuffle the prints by taking the bottom most print and putting it on the top of the pile. Keeping doing this until the time is up. Longer development times will lead to greater print density. It is very important that you are consistent in your print processing. Drain for 5 seconds.

Stop bath: 30 seconds with gentle agitation. Drain for 5 seconds.

Fixer: 5 minutes. Drain for 5 seconds.

Final water rinse: 10 minutes.

Drying: While still wet, take the print and insert it with the image facing up into the print dryer. Do not put any prints smaller than 5x7 into the print dryer. They may jam.

Assignment #1: Now - Life in 2014

Assignment #1: Now - Life in 2014

The greatest failure is the fear to fail.                                                                                                                                                        – Duane Michals

When you paint, you begin with a white canvas and add elements to build up your image. When you take a photo, you begin with chaos and remove elements from your scene using the creative tools that the camera affords to reduce the scene to your liking. These are very different processes.

Garry Winogrand said, "I photograph to find out what something will look like photographed." 

For this first assignment, you are going to focus (pun intended) on photographic vision and how things look photographed. How do things look through the camera? Do your images match what you envisioned? What creative tools are at your disposable to manipulate the scene?

In order to facilitate that, I am setting up some parameters. For your first roll of film, I would like you to make at least a few photos that could only be taken now. This is to say, they must represent contemporary life in some manner. A guy bicycling while texting would be a good example. Zipcars, electric cars, cafes full of people on their laptops, people walking around with headphones everywhere, etc… Think about fashion, hairstyles, hobbies, drones, etc.. Really, the choices are infinite. 

The remainder of the roll can be used anyway that you want to. You may want to shoot 18 of Now and 18 images of whatever you want. Your call. This first roll of film is due by Wednesday 1/22 as you will need to process it to see how you did.

Ultimately, you will take at least 2 rolls of film for this assignment. You will make two prints gelatin silver prints. The first print will be due TBD. The final critique of the Assignment will be TBD).

Have fun, be creative, and see how far you can push your creativity. Experiment with camera angle, camera position, distance, lighting, time of day, color, lens, shutter speed, aperture, composition, mood, drama, etc. Just be sure you have enough light for proper exposures. Pay attention to the entire frame and aim to create images that are both visually interesting and communicate something about your subject. These photos may be shot indoors or outdoors, or both, but  if you shoot indoors, be sure you have enough light to shoot handheld (otherwise use a tripod or ask me about pushing film to a higher ISO). Plan to explore this theme over a period of time - do not shoot this the day before it’s due!

The trick to this assignment is to meet the requirements of the assignment while still making interesting images. Anyone can go take a photo of a fancy solar powered parking meter. How can you do it an make it interesting?

People should be able to look at your photos and tell they were taken around 2014. 

Suggestions:

• Move away from, and close to, different parts of your subject (physically or through focal length changes)
• Consider figure/ ground relationships and focus on different parts of the scene to change emphasis
• Shoot at eye level, crouch down, stand on a ladder, lie on the ground, turn and face different directions
• Vary the placement of your subject within the frame/ play with the composition in various ways
• Experiment with different aperture settings and shutter speeds (use a tripod when necessary)
• Shoot in morning, afternoon, evening & in various weather conditions for different effects
• Pay attention to the lighting and the mood it creates!  
• Use props or dress up as necessary. 
• Recruit your friends to help you.  
• Look at photos taken from earlier generations. What do you notice?  

Some additional food for thought:

• What is the significance of shooting B&W film in 2014? 
• Is it relevant that the images will be shot with film and printed in the darkroom? 
• How does a grainy B&W representation of modern life come across? Does it make it appear old?

Scanning the sprocket holes of 35mm film

If you want to include the sprocket holes when scanning 35mm film, there are a number of ways to do so. Assuming you have a medium format film holder, you can try to to use that to hold part of it. You may want two pieces of cardboard and sandwich the film between it and place that on the glass or into your medium format film holder.

I have had success making numerous custom film holders from magnetic sheets. These are commonly sold at office supply stores and are designed to be printed on and cut out to shape for custom magnets. I cut out the size needed from two of them and lay one other the other to keep the film is position. It works very well though it can be a bit fiddly to position the film.

Lomo sells an item called the DigitalIZA which is an ingenious film holder designed to facilitate the process of scanning sprocket holes. It works quite well with a clever system of loading in the film. If you want the easiest method and don't mind spending $35, then that is the way to go.
On the opposite end of the spectrum is simply taping the negative directly to the glass. That works, but you will end up cleaning the glass a lot due to the inevitable fingerprints and tape residue.

It is important that your film is very flat when attempting to scan the sprockets. Especially if you are using a DigitalIZA. I find the best way to do this is to place your film in a large book with a few books stacked on it overnight. 

NOTE: Be careful not to cover the area of the flatbed scanner that is used to calibrate itself. If you look at your film holder, there is likely a little notch with some sort of 'do not cover' indicator on it. When you use any of the methods above, just be sure that you don't cover the corresponding area on the scanner.

Secrets

This assignment always makes me think about this OMD song titled Secrets:



First, I would like to thank you for agreeing to participate in this assignment by sharing your secret. I appreciate the trust that you have given myself and your classmates.

For this assignment, you will create a series of 3-5 images in response to learning a classmate's secret through a random selection process.

Please do not try to determine whose secret you have drawn. Please respect their privacy. 

This assignment is primarily about empathy. Empathy is "the feeling that you understand and share another person's experiences and emotions." It is very easy to become consumed by our own life and issues. It is easy to be critical of others. In this assignment, you will try to relate to other people's issues rather than your own. In the process, you may discover that you have much more in common with each other than you may have realized.  

You can respond to the secret in anyway that you wish. You do not need to depict or re-enact the secret. You can interpret the secret very literally or very loosely. You might want to think of what situation led to the secret, how the secret changed their life, how they are living/dealing with the secret, what it would be like after the secret, etc. You may choose to think how you have dealt with a similar issue in your life or how you might deal with such an issue. You may think of what emotions or event may have led up to the secret.

Also, feel free to choose whatever sex you want for the characters. For example, let's say a hypothetical secret is "I am ashamed of how my girlfriend dresses." You could choose to take a series about living with a poorly dressed boyfriend.

Please take this assignment seriously with the belief that the secret you received is sincere. Please be respectful of one another. Remember, you don't know if they are sitting right next to you.

Please begin by reading this short NY Times article titled Fiction is An Exercise in Empathy. The author writes, "Reading fiction is and always was about learning to see the world through often quite alien perspectives." That is the challenge of this assignment.

What's Due:

Series of 3-5 Prints. If you feel you can tell your story in 3 images, then feel free to do so. If you need more images to do so, then make more. Let the story you want to tell dictate the number of prints to make.

These images are to form a narrative structure. The sequencing is important. Each should have some narrative threads that link it to the other images in the series. Ideally, each should work as an image unto itself. This is to say that it is a nice image even when viewed outside the context of the series.

You have full creative freedom with this assignment. You can work with black and white or color media. You can work with a process that you have already explored or try something completely new.
That being said, I suggest that you determine the process and technique after contemplating the secret for some time.

As this is your final assignment, I have very high expectations for the quality of work. The final critique for this assignment is your scheduled final exam session.

If you aren't familiar with PostSecret, you should check it out. It often comes up in the discussion of this assignment.

Below are a links to a number of former students work who completed this assignment. Please keep in mind that they completed the assignment in different courses. In particular, they were all in digital photography courses of varying levels with restricts on how they could edit the images. 

Hannah's series

Yang's series

April's series

Nick's series

Matt's series

Leila's series

Clyde's series

Emily's series

Ashley's series

Kyle's series

Alec's series

Liz's series

Victor's series

Kasia's series

Dyann's series

Rachel's series

Carly's series

Danny's series

David's series

Kelsey's series

Amelia's series

Jamie's series

Mark's series

Sara's series

Nizzi's series

Kristen's series

Eric's series










































 

Solarization - mini assignment

For this assignment, you have to make 1 solarized print that you are happy with. Not all images will work well for solarization due to the contrast of the negative or the image itself. High contrast negatives work best. You can use any negative that you want. It will likely take you at least 5 full sized prints to get a single, final print that you are happy with. It may take many more than that.
Expect to spend a three hour block of time in the darkroom to complete this assignment.
 
Your textbook has a nice write up on the process on pages 300-301. 




Here is a nice little write up on a different approach to Solarization. Another different approach write up. A very, very detailed write up on the process. Probably the best write up of Solarization can be found here. A write up on a selection of alternative printing methods. 

There is a lot of 'luck of the draw' with solarization. Things don't always come out like you expect them to. Be prepared to burn up a lot of paper in order to get prints that you like. 

PLEASE DO NOT TRASH THE LAB DOING THIS ASSIGNMENT. YOU HAVE TO TAKE A WET PRINT IN A TRAY AND SET IT ON THE BASEBOARD ON AN ENLARGER. MAKE SURE THE TRAY IS DRY BEFORE DOING SO. AFTER YOU ARE DONE, WIPE EVERYTHING DOWN. 

Below is a step by step of how I solarized a print. There are many variations on the process. 
I chose to print the image well focuses (some people will print it a little bit out of focus). 
I began by making a good print. The negative is pretty contrasty as the sole light source was a window to the side. I first printed it at grade 2, but found that I lost too much detail in the shadows, so I printed it again at a grade 1 1/2. I was happy with that. I could have printed it with less time and more contrast then burned in the highlights, but I didn't want to do any local editing for the sake of this demo. 

Normal Print

13 seconds, grade 2 filter

13 seconds, grade 1 ½ filter

 Solarization

First Exposure

10 seconds, grade 1 ½ filter

Second Exposure

test strip at 5 seconds intervals

First Exposure

10 seconds, grade 1 ½ filter

Second Exposure

5 seconds at f11

First Exposure

10 seconds, grade 3 ½ filter

Second Exposure

5 seconds at f11

First Exposure

8 seconds, 1 ½ grade filter

Second Exposure

5 seconds at f11

Black and White Contemporary Photographers

Interesting 40 year long series of self portraits by Arno Rafael Minkkinen. Note the distinct tones in the various parts of the images.

Jerry Ueslmann's combination prints. 

Be sure to keep some of your less than perfect prints for tests and hand coloring

Be sure to hang onto some of your prints that are too light or dark for use with chemical toners and hand coloring. 
Prints that are too light work well for hand coloring. Prints that are too dark work well for toning tests. These prints must be properly process and washed.
I will be giving a short demo on toning on 10/16.