Reflection on darkroom practice - Colour Printing

Today I successfully completed my colour printing induction. I was a bit nervous and apprehensive about it beforehand because I thought it would be really difficult due to the darkness. However, when in there it's different.

As I did in the black and white printing induction I made some mistakes in this one during printing. I opened my lens to see my projection through the enlarger and to focus my negative but then when I came to do a test strip I ruined two by forgetting to close the lens down to f32 so the strips came out black. I also struggled to cut nicely sized test strips in the darkroom as a couple of times they felt big enough before I cut the paper but then turned out too thin.

After I'd got this out of the way I successfully made 5 test strips; adjusting my magenta and yellow levels along the way by using the filter kit to help me decide how and in what amount. I found this helpful to have at hand.

When I got to my 5th test strip I decided this was the one to go with but when I did a print it came out with the colour of my previous strip despite having changed nothing. This was strange, but I changed my numbers again and got my desired colour. The negative I was working with was taken with hard side lighting so it was a difficult one to work with but I got there in the end.

I ended up making 3 whole prints after my test strips because of the strange colour alteration that occurred and they all came out of the machine wonky because the slots in my easel I lined my paper up to were loose and moved around when I tried to line it up. This was annoying because there was no way I could fix it and couldn't see which position on the easel was right in the darkroom.

However, I am happy with the colour of my final print.

Details:
0    - cyan
49  - magenta
62  - yellow
f 32
8 seconds

Reflection on Processing - B&W and colour

Before learning how to print, I was shown how to process my negatives (of which I have learnt how to do 35mm, medium format and large format now).

I was given a proper induction on the medium format which seems to be the hardest of the three. This was the first format of film I processed. I had someone in the darkroom to help me and they were definitely needed. I took the sticker off my roll of film before I entered the dark room and I was glad I did this because it wasn't an easy job. When I got into the room it was hard to place myself. I was confused where I was facing and when it came to finding the bin I struggled and then thought it was the paper I was holding while looking for it but I had the film in my hand.

I hole punched the end of the film easily enough and putting the feeder on the end was easy but it was a bit of a struggle to take the tape off the end of the roll because I was trying to be careful. Putting the film in the machine was also simple enough when I knew where it had to go and to put the rest of the roll on the velvet patch while it was waiting to be pulled in.

My negatives came out great. The exposure looked good on all of them excluding one which was quite bright and each was in focus. Despite having some trouble in the darkroom because it was my first time I think I can do it again next time with some confidence.

Since then I have developed my own rolls of 35mm film (colour) which I find a little tricky and have had help with but hope next time I can do it on my own. Most recently I have processed large format film which I find is the easiest and fastest.

Reflection on darkroom practice - B&W Printing

Last week (Thursday the 6th) I had my black and white printing induction. I found I was given all of the information sufficient for doing my first print in the talk we had. It helped slightly that I had previously seen printing done before but I was a bit apprehensive having never done it myself.

We each made a contact sheet of our negatives. Well I had mine done for me for the example but I'm confident I can do it myself next time. Then I chose the best photo from the 12 I took in the studio. All I was really looking for was good lighting and as few dust spots as I could see because the composition of all of the images was exactly the same which is something I wished I'd done differently - moved my subject around during the shoot to make it more interesting for printing and choosing negatives to print. I'd managed to take all of my photos in focus so I didn't have to worry about that aspect while choosing: only while in the darkroom.

I made some big errors during the printing which I have definitely learnt from:

• The first thing I did was print my first print upside down because my neg was in the clamp the wrong way round so I took it out and spun it for my next print. I wasn't aware I'd done it wrong because I didn't think how you put the neg in affected the print specifically.
• I fogged some of my paper with test strips of the same paper while it was in my box and had big black squares appear on my test prints. This taught me to be more careful with my paper and not have even one sheet out of the black packet while in the box.
• I also exposed my paper to the focus light while trying to do my test prints. It seems an obvious thing to get wrong after being told about exposing our paper to light but it didn't register it was wrong because it looks like a different kind of light and still in the darkroom. This is definitely a mistake I won't make again and feel silly for having done.

I'm glad these things happened in a way because now I'll remember every time I come to print again and be extra careful in these areas.

At the end of it, my print of my studio shot was approved and I thought it was a brilliant first attempt at printing for me. I then successfully made another test strip and print by myself to prove I could make a print on my own.

I ended up with the following prints (excluding test strips):

• first print: 10 second exposure on gradient 2 (upside down and slightly wonky

• second print: 10 second exposure on gradient 2; 5 second exposure on gradient 5 on top (better; more contrast)

• third print: 10 second exposure on gradient 2; 5 second exposure on gradient 5 on top; covered kettle with my hand during another 5 second exposure on gradient 5 on top of that. (fingers visible)

• fourth print: 10 second exposure on gradient 2; 5 second exposure on gradient 5 on top; covered kettle with my hand during another 5 second exposure on gradient 5 on top of that. (same contrast in shadows as third print but more detail and less blacks on subject - desired effect)

I was proud of my finished print and I learned a lot from the induction having made all the mistakes which I have now got out the way. I think next time will be a more enjoyable experience because I now know what I am doing in the darkroom.