Dancing with the Devil! Flirting with the Dark side! Have I gone too far for BOKEH???

jimgalli · Jan 22, 2006

Just finished a page with 12 8X10 images I completed today testing an Ancient Burke and James AJAX Petzval lens on the Century 9A studio camera.

How is that flirting with the Devil you ask??

I used Kodak Polycontrast paper as my in camera light sensitive material. I developed normally in my old favorite, Ansco 135.

But then I scanned the 8X10 paper negs into the computer and inverted them to positives in Photo Shop.

I'm so ashamed! There, it's out. I feel a little better.

Kidding aside, I wrote up a page for anyone with no life and nothing better to do than read my trivia. About 5 minutes. You know the drill. It's Dead Link Removed

It won't do any good to report this post. I'm the moderator.

david b · Jan 22, 2006

So does the gundlach radar work?

Eric Rose · Jan 22, 2006

Ok now I know what you meant when you said unconventional. Outstanding results. personally I have no problem with using PS to invert the prints.

Dave Wooten · Jan 22, 2006

So these were made with paper negs and not film! This is quite amazing actually....

1. Jim how do you compute the exposure for the paper?
2. How to these contact print?

thanks
Dave

jimgalli · Jan 22, 2006

david b said:
So does the gundlach radar work?

OH YEAH! I'm gonna love that old lens. What a nice smooth look it's got. I dis-assembled it, soaked all the glass for several hours in detergent, repaired the shutter, and it's nearly like new now.

David A. Goldfarb · Jan 22, 2006

The highlights off the Goerz camera look great.

david b · Jan 22, 2006

Glad to hear it is working well for you. That makes me very happy. That lens nearly got tossed in the garbage.

jimgalli · Jan 22, 2006

Dave Wooten said:
So these were made with paper negs and not film! This is quite amazing actually....

1. Jim how do you compute the exposure for the paper?

thanks
Dave

Rated the paper at ASA 1. SWAG from there. I had to make some adjustments to my times because obviously paper doesn't act like film as far as reciprocity for the long exposure times. But don't forget, paper's cheap, and you can run downstairs to the soup and find out your answer in a minute longer than a polaroid takes. Just throw it in the soup.

Dave Wooten said:
2. How do these contact print?

thanks
Dave

I didn't. That's why it's unconventional for APUG. I scanned the paper negs and inverted them in photo shop to get what I'm showing you. I suppose you could contact print them through the paper, and I may give that a try sometime, but for my purposes, I was after quick and dirty results so the scans work fine for this. Luckily Tonopah is too far for Ape Huggers to drive to stone me.

Dave Wooten · Jan 22, 2006

I like it,

I am having some 7 x 17 negs scanned, I might try this and scan some paper etc....good idea....on my monitor every photo is really nice...good tonality et al.
thanks

MattCarey · Jan 22, 2006

jimgalli said:
Luckily Tonopah is too far for Ape Huggers to drive to stone me.

Let's see, I could drive over...stop for some fly fishing on the Tuolomne...stone Jim Galli...load my trunk with toys...drive back...stop for some more fishing...

When does the pass clear of snow?

Matt

Dave Wooten · Jan 22, 2006

that fly fishing part sounds pretty good!

jimgalli · Jan 22, 2006

MattCarey said:
Let's see, I could drive over...stop for some fly fishing on the Tuolomne...stone Jim Galli...load my trunk with toys...drive back...stop for some more fishing...

When does the pass clear of snow?

Matt

All roads to Tonopah have avalanche warnings. Impassable. IMPASSABLE! We're snow locked.

Aggie · Jan 22, 2006

jimgalli said:
All roads to Tonopah have avalanche warnings. Impassable. IMPASSABLE! We're snow locked.

Not from my direction!

df cardwell · Jan 22, 2006

But you know that can't exhibit the picture at the Conference.
.

Dave Wooten · Jan 22, 2006

JIm you are more than welcome to hide out down here....in my root cellar

Ray Heath · Jan 22, 2006

g'ay Jim
great results and beautifully scanned
amazing how clear and sharp paper negs can be
i've been working with paper negs in a home made 8x10 camera, i actually want a less than perfect image quality, something different from the modern over sharp, high contrast image
i've been called a ludditte more than once
i use cheap magnifying glasses or close up filters as len elements and contact print the FB negs so as to get the paper grain

MattCarey · Jan 22, 2006

Dave Wooten said:
that fly fishing part sounds pretty good!

Besides being very photogenic, the Tuolomne river is filled with small, hungry fish. Lots of rainbows, brownies and brookies.

Not the fight of your life, but you can stop for a couple of hours and catch and release 5-10 fish on a decent day.

Of course, this time of year, no way in or out of that pass. I'll have to wait for the thaw to do the fishing/stoning trip.

Matt

jimgalli · Jan 22, 2006

MattCarey said:
I'll have to wait for the thaw to do the fishing/stoning trip.

Matt

I'll be long dead by then. Aggie says she can get here.

Ray Heath said:
...great results and beautifully scanned
amazing how clear and sharp paper negs can be
i've been working with paper negs in a home made 8x10 camera, i actually want a less than perfect image quality, something different from the modern over sharp, high contrast image
i've been called a ludditte more than once
i use cheap magnifying glasses or close up filters as len elements and contact print the FB negs so as to get the paper grain

Very nice Ray. I'm more interested in the antique glass, but I did take a 13" Beck symmetrical (RR), removed the front group, and replaced with a #3 close up lens one time. Ended up with a VERY nice 7 " lens with excellent bokeh.

MattCarey · Jan 22, 2006

jimgalli said:
I'll be long dead by then. Aggie says she can get here.

No, Officer, Aggie was with me the whole time. She couldn't have been there. We were discussing my new 11x14 camera and fine, old lenses at the time!

Matt

hortense · Jan 22, 2006

Aaaamaaazingggg.

Michel Hardy-Vallée · Jan 22, 2006

Jim that's awesome, the picture of the Compur-mounted lens is my favorite. Do you have any idea what kind of light wavelength response the paper may have in your shooting circumstances? I'm tempted to say that it feels like an ortho film, but it's definitively distinct from a panchromatic emulsion, and I think that's what is so good about it, because it works great with the bokeh.

MattCarey · Jan 22, 2006

Jim,

the picture of the toy-train has some cool bokeh. If it weren't for the image you posted around Christmas, it would be awesome. There was something about that one that really suggested motion to me.

Matt

jimgalli · Jan 22, 2006

mhv said:
Jim that's awesome, the picture of the Compur-mounted lens is my favorite. Do you have any idea what kind of light wavelength response the paper may have in your shooting circumstances? I'm tempted to say that it feels like an ortho film, but it's definitively distinct from a panchromatic emulsion, and I think that's what is so good about it, because it works great with the bokeh.

Ploycontrast paper is sensitive to blue and green. The yellow filter I used was -blue to soften up the contrast I was getting a bit. It doesn't see red at all. Very similar to old time ortho films in it's response. You could use that to advantage. I thought of using a red backdrop since it would appear as black, but I didn't. One of the items I grabbed to photograph was an antique Kodak Kerosene darkroom light. It's the same color as an OY filter, sort of a drabbish redbrown. Then it occured to me that I could expose that thing all day and photo paper would never see it.

jimgalli · Jan 22, 2006

MattCarey said:
Jim,

the picture of the toy-train has some cool bokeh. If it weren't for the image you posted around Christmas, it would be awesome. There was something about that one that really suggested motion to me.

Matt

I agree, the other one is better, and it's on film and prints very pretty at 11X14.

MattCarey · Jan 22, 2006

jimgalli said:
I agree, the other one is better, and it's on film and prints very pretty at 11X14.

You know, if you have an extra work print of that one...well....

Matt

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