Busy Busy Busy

Just returned home from Intro to Black and White Photo which finished at 9 pm! Our prof had been teaching us the techniques on how to develop photos this time. Actually i thought there is a special type of machine to put in the film and print out the photos directly, but it is actually not the case.

The photo paper is actually light sensitive as well. We have to put the film on a projector head where it shines light though, then adjust the height of the projector, adjust the focus, use a magnifying glass mirror to make sure that we can see the grains of the film to confirm it is indeed focused, adjust the easel to fit the photo paper nicely and adjust the width of the frame, set the period of time for the light to shine and set the aperture of the lens of the projector, and finally put the paper on the easel and turn on the projector.

This is just the process of transfering the image to the photo sensitive paper but no image is visible on the paper yet. After the above process, we then transfer the paper onto a tray with developer and 'agitate' it for 2 mins. Next, we transfer the photo paper to a stop bath for 30 seconds. We then transfer it again to a tray of fixer for 2-4 minutes before putting it under running water for 3 minutes.

The photo paper is actually like a bigger version of the film except that the images are inverted in colours. After squelching the photo paper and putting it through a drying machine, voila.... the photo is developed.

Actually before developing the photo that we want, we have to make contact print of the negatives so that we can properly see which photos that we want to print. 1 photo paper costs around $0.70 so we must choose a good photo properly or else our money will be going down the drain.

We cut the photo paper into 3 parts to do a test print to test the amount of time required to expose the photo paper and the aperture of the lens of the projector. We expose the photo paper in layers of increasing 5 seconds, the lighter portions being the layers exposed to light with less time while the darker portions are exposed for a longer period of time.

We then consult the professor on what timing is required for the photo to be exposed and a good gauge is to see whether the black in our photo is indeed black and not greyish tone.

Test prints

After doing the test prints, we proceeded to do the full sized contact print to choose and see all the photos that we have taken.

Contact Print

After choosing the photo that we want, we do the test print of the photo using the projector. After deciding on the timing of exposure for the photo, we then do the actual print of the photo that we have chosen.

Finished product!

While doing the final print, i accidentally exposed a photo paper with some of the projector light while i was putting the paper in. One photo paper gone to waste just because of a little mistake. I tried exposing the wasted photo paper with another film negative just to see how the photo paper will turn out to be like.

Wasted photo paper (notice the faint image of my dog and the gates)

During all these while, we were operating in the darkroom and the lights were all turned off except for the safe lights. It was rather dark but we can still navigate around the room with the safe light.

This elective is my most interesting, but most intensive, and most expensive module that i have ever taken. I have spent $45 on 10 rolls of film, $34 on 50 photo papers, $10 on the negative sleeves, and $28.50 on the photography textbook. We have to develop the film, develop the photo paper, and shoot photos with our SLRs in our own free time! That means about 10 hours or more devoted to this module every week!

Gotta study for my aerodynamics quiz tomorrow! I've got little time to spare.