[Leica] The Joy of the Darkroom and Thanks!

[Martin Howard <howard.390@osu.edu>]

I finally, no FINALLY, got my bathroom darkroom working last night.
Squeezed around a Valoy II enlarger I found for $30 (minus negative carrier)
I dug out some negatives from this summer's trip along the West Coast, mixed
up the developer, stop, and fixer (ahh -- I wonder if the smell will ever
get out of my shower curtain ;) and set to work.

First off, this is the first darkroom I've owned.  I've worked in darkrooms
before, but not much.  I used to belong to a university photo club in
Sweden, but for various reasons (mostly to do with lack of photography) I
never really made much use of their Focomat V35-equipped darkroom.

Until two days ago, I never understood the basics of how to make a print --
which is odd, because I must have read a dozen books on the subject.  Sure,
I know all about masking, dodging, burning, etc., but the basics of how to
get a good straight print eluded me.  That is, until I reaffirmed my
subscription to Darkroom Techniques and they sent me a little complementary
issue entitled "Mastering the Fine Art Print", or something to that effect.
In it, Howard Bond, whose esoteric articles I usually can't follow, wrote
something that made everything absolutely perfectly clear.  Expose the paper
for a textured highlight.  Control the placement of shadows by contrast
(paper grade).  He then went on to divulge a quick and easy technique for
making a first test strip -- to zero in on that textured highlight.

I owe Tom A a lot -- more than I'll ever be able to pay back -- in terms of
time and knowledge he has so graciously shared, but also in terms of
equipment which he has been so generous to lend or give to me.  I'm
borrowing my enlarger lens, a 50mm Ross, from him, and judging by the
results, I don't think he's going to be getting it back any time soon! ;)

Another piece is an Ilford darkroom exposure meter.  On one of my trips to
Vancouver, I spent an afternoon trying to figure out how you'd use it.
Ilford's instructions (find a mid-level grey tone) seemed pretty silly, but
together we figured out that using it to meter for a textured highlight at a
known time would be much better.  And it sure is.  Having got a good first
print, I measured the textured highlight and recorded the setting on the
EM-10 at the exposure time of 10s.  Now, I just pop another negative under
the enlarger on a textured highlight, set the EM-10 under it at the
calibrated setting, twiddle the aperture until the little green light comes
on, and I know that if I expose at that setting with that filter for 10s,
I'll get my highlights placed exactly where I want them.  It's increadible.

Anyway, the hours flew past, and at about 1am, delirious and exhausted from
running back and forth between closet (expose), bathroom (dev, stop, fix,
pre-wash) and kicthen (final wash) I went to bed with a smile on my face.

I know that many of you on this list have been so very generous with your
knowledge over the years.  As a small token, I offer you a scan of my first
print.  In many ways, you're all its fathers and mothers.  I was but the
midwife ;)

        http://www.ida.liu.se/~marho/photo/other/sfchess.html

Technical data: Leica M2, 35mm f/2 Summicron (pre-asph), Fuji Neopan 100
developed for 15min @ 72F in Rodinal 1:100, nameless variable contrast RC
paper with perl surface (I suspect it's MG III), 2 min in Multigrade paper
dev.

M.

- -- 
Martin Howard                    |
Visiting Scholar, CSEL, OSU      |         53 kB/s and nothing on.
email: howard.390@osu.edu        |
www: http://mvhoward.i.am/       +----------------------------------------