25 years since last time.

steelneck · Nov 18, 2009

I just got an urge to share.. It was 25 years ago since i made my last enlargement in the darkroom, but now i have found my way home again. I recently bought a Durst 805 Color with a 50mm componon-s and a Nikkor 75mm, plus a lot of other things including 15 to 20 year old papers and some just as old bottles of unopened Rodinal.

Just made my first print with the old stuff, just to try. Mixed up some old Rodinal 1:20 and a bit of fixer, to try if this old stuff and the Ilfospeed RC papers still worked. First i did two test strips and then a full 9x6" print. It came out quite alright, not completely happy but darn good to be the first time on 25 years, especially when using chems like that with only a small clue about dilution and dev. time. And now i can say for sure when digitizing, i get less grain, more detail and sharpness scanning a print like that at 600ppi than scanning the negative at 3200 ppi with my old Epson 3170.

Help me to refresh my memmory. How would i go to get the highlights just a bit darker, the midtones a bit lighter and the shadows about the same?

Mike Té · Nov 18, 2009

Surely you didn't use your 25-year-old bottle of Rodinal?!

Welcome back.

steelneck · Nov 18, 2009

Yes i did, but the Rodinal is not 25 years old, it is made about 15 years ago. But i have not done darkroom work on 25 years.

The old professional i bought the enlarger of has even more oldies in his garage, like a whole box of X-cube flashes (about 100 of them), and more bottles of Rodinal. I also got some jugs with a noname fine grain developer and fix, but i suspect those chemicals have gone bad since they are not concentrated like the Rodinal. The old man once had a shop selling photo gear in the town where i live.

Mike1234 · Nov 18, 2009

Holy shite... me too.

Valerie · Nov 18, 2009

Did you use the Rodinal to develop prints? I've never used it, but am sure it is a film developer.

Welcome back to the dark side!!

steelneck · Nov 18, 2009

Valerie said:
Did you use the Rodinal to develop prints? I've never used it, but am sure it is a film developer.

Yes Rodinal was meant for film, but it works for prints too, i learned that here on APUG a couple of days ago. But recommendations on dilution varies, i tried 1:20. Next time i will try to dilute it a bit more, the picture came out worrying fast, it started to appear already after 10 seconds. I lifted the paper out of the tray after about 30 sec.

Mike1234 · Nov 18, 2009

I used Rodinal 1:50 and 1:100 with 4x5 Agfapan 25 and 100. I LOVED the acutance.

juan · Nov 18, 2009

Welcome back. There are a lot of us here who were "away" for awhile.
I've used Rodinal 1:20 for prints. It does come up fast, but I developed for a full two minutes. I never did enough to work out a workflow, though.
juan

steelneck · Nov 18, 2009

But what about my question. Will i get closer to what i want by using a bit of Y-filter and increase exposure time. I had 8s and no filtration at all. Maybe 2s more and 30Y? This is a part of the art i do not remember.

(edit) How does yellow filtering affect shadows vs highlights, i know that i get less contrast, but does it affect shadow as much as highligts?

bdial · Nov 18, 2009

Maybe 2s more and 30Y? This is a part of the art i do not remember.

That might do it, the idea is to determine exposure looking at the highlights, and adjust contrast to get the shadows.
Using that model, to keep the shadows as they are you'll likely need to reduce contrast, to compensate for increasing the time to darken the highlights. Adding some yellow filtration should do that. Not sure where the mid tones would go though, probably darker. Split filtering might work well for this, do a base exposure the same as what you've used, with no filters, then add some time using strong yellow filtration to select the highlights.

There are information sheets on Ilford's web site with the filter recommendations for their current VC papers. I don't know if your old Ilfospeed would match the current specifications though.

Jeff Kubach · Nov 19, 2009

Some of my stuff is old also, but not that old! Glad it's still works. I bet it feels good to print again!

Jeff

steelneck · Nov 19, 2009

bdial said:
That might do it, the idea is to determine exposure looking at the highlights, and adjust contrast to get the shadows.

Thanks, it was that simple line i had forgot. Expose for highlights and adjust contrast for the shadows.

Not sure where the mid tones would go though, probably darker.

Probably darker, yes you are probably right.. i do not want that. Well, this scene do have more range than the paper can handle, even more than the film can handle. So on this paper and a little shaky unsure developing.. I will not pursue this too far, i see this old stuff as training material just to refresh my thinking.

How does developing influence contrast? Is it the same as with film, longer time equals more contrast and more grain in the paper?

@Jeff: Yes it does.

bdial · Nov 19, 2009

How does developing influence contrast? Is it the same as with film, longer time equals more contrast and more grain in the paper?

Sort of.
Unlike film, usually paper is developed to completion, so if the exposure is right, there is little to be gained by extending the developing time.
A good test to determine what that "right" time should be is to do a minimum time to maximum black test using a processed piece of clear film.

polyglot · Nov 19, 2009

Check out this Dead Link Removed. It shows you how you expose the paper separately for the highlights and the shadows.

BobNewYork · Nov 19, 2009

When I saw the title to this thread I thought it was my sex life you were discussing

Welcome back to the "real" world. there really is nothing like it. I still remember the thrill of opening my fist box of paper - there was a sense of possibilities. Even after 30 odd years I still get that same feeling when I open a new box of paper. Maybe I should just grow up - but then Peter Pan's still my hero

In using Ilfospeed, the image coming up in 10 seconds is fine - it does that.

Bob H

jvo · Nov 22, 2009

only bw filters

i've never you a color head for bw printing but i have seen filtration instructions of the papers instruction sheets - best place to start.

good luck...

MartinP · Nov 24, 2009

I was under the impression that Ilfospeed was the fixed-grade paper from Ilford, with Multigrade being the variable-grade. (Goes to check).

. . .

Just checked on the Ilford site and indeed, the Ilfospeed is fixed grade so filtering it with yellow or magenta won't make any significant contrast difference.

Have lots of fun with the 'return' though !

steelneck · Nov 24, 2009

MartinP said:
Just checked on the Ilford site and indeed, the Ilfospeed is fixed grade so filtering it with yellow or magenta won't make any significant contrast difference.

Have lots of fun with the 'return' though !

Ahh, yes. You are right, sitting here with the info-sheet from the box. Though i have had lots of photo-unrelated work, so i have not had any time for the darkroom. I think you just saved some of that old paper, thanks. Can see my self.. why do i not see any change??? But on the other hand, i see all those old papers i got with the enlarger as learning and experimenting paper.

25 years since last time.

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