DVD of making and coating

[Photo Engineer]

I bought the camcorder today and am in contact with two experts who will help me produce the DVD for the Emulsion and Making video.

I've also contacted Sean to see if there is some way to upload snipetts of these to APUG for demo purposes.

Just an update for all interested.

PE

 

[DBP]

Cool. Are you filming in IR or doing an ortho emulsion?

 

[Photo Engineer]

Geez, I have not even started reading the DVD manual, but I doubt if it can do IR. I'm going to probably film in light and waste an emulsion.

PE

 

[DBP]

You could try a night vision scope with a t-mount or c-mount adapter and an illuminator.

 

[Photo Engineer]

It will be easier and less costly to waste 5 grams of silver nitrate than do all of the above. Give me a break though. The batteries are not even charged.

Is there anxiety out there or what?

PE

 

[bdial]

Is there anxiety out there or what?

Absolutely!

I guess that means you aren't ready to take pre-orders yet.

 

[DBP]

Hmmm, apparently it is even harder for people to tell when I am pulling their legs on line than it is in person.

I am looking forward to the DVD, however.

 

[ben-s]

Excellent news, PE.
Good luck with the process of making your video.

Potentially a useless offer, as you say you've got video gurus on board, but if there's anything I can do to help on the video front, I'd be more than happy to.

 

[Photo Engineer]

I have just finished coating 36 good sheets of Azo type paper for two venerable APUG Azoites! As soon as I test the paper, it goes off to them.

As soon as the darkroom is clean again, as coating makes quite a mess - I will try some taping, but I have to wait until APUG is able to accept video. Sean has been gracious enough to me to allow all of this blather about emulsions. I want to do it on his timeline so it will be done here and done right and any errors will be mine, not Sean's or APUG's. I don't want to push his schedule as he is busy enough, as am I.

I wish you all the best. I still can't figure this thing out. I took some shots, but cannot play them back yet. Oh well! I'll get there.

PE

 

[Removed Account]

Thanks alot Ron, this is super exciting! I'm definitely on the list for a copy!

- Justin

 

[jgjbowen]

What PE, you aren't going to shoot this on Super 8? I'm really disappointed in you ;-)

I can't wait for the finished product. Good luck!

 

[Photo Engineer]

I would love to do it on Super 8, but for 2 problems. One is that the batteries in my super 8 went bad and corroded the battery chamber, and the second is that I can't film in HD.

PE

 

[boyooso]

I would love to do it on Super 8, but for 2 problems. One is that the batteries in my super 8 went bad and corroded the battery chamber, and the second is that I can't film in HD.

PE

you're a SELL OUT! ;-)

 

[Photo Engineer]

We are 3 hours into the taping of material for the DVD. We have 30 minutes of tape for that 3 hours of work and most of it will end up on the cutting room floor (as one person told me). Today we continue for about 4 more hours, then take a break for a few weeks to look it over and reshoot some scenes.

The tests using IR look good so you will actually see an emulsion being made by hand with no machinery. We already have taped practice runs of coatings with the blades and tinted gelatin. I'm not happy with them, because the distraction of the taping operation and the fact that I had to stand at an unnatural position (for me) to get a good camera angle made the coating have a small defect at the lower left corner. Oh well, maybe we will shoot it again.

Scenes include:

1. Safety, 2. Making up melted gelatin, 3. Calibrating a coating blade, 4. Coating paper. Ancillary scenes show the rows of bottles and equipment I use and their classes or types such as hardeners, surfactants, antifoggants and etc. I then show the use of a brush or small tray to coat paper. Today we will make the Azo emulsion and coat a test of that emulsion. If we have time, I may tape either the making of an ammonia complex of silver, or ISO washing of an emulsion.

Our workflow is to do 2 - 3 rehearsals or walk throughs of a scene, then tape. After, we view and either reshoot or not. Some scenes we shoot then do a closeup of just my hands. We have a script and storyboard layout of still photos on the dry side of the darkroom to check as we go.

So, progress progresses.

PE

 

[jgjbowen]

PE

Great news!!

 

[Photo Engineer]

Well, we did some catchup scenes today and then made a 600 gram batch of the Azo emulsion under infra red light while taping. Then I made the test coatings which are now drying. The can of emulsion is in the fridge right now. The infra red pix came out astoundingly well. You can actually see the Silver Chloride precipitating.

So, I have another 30 minutes of tape for about 3 hours of work. That seems to be our average.

If I can learn to make stills of this stuff, I will post some if no one objects to digital pix of analog materials being made. . Right now, I follow the program (Sony) instructions to make still prints or still captures from the digital tape stream, and it tells me that tape images cannot be printed or captured. This message is up while I'm reading the help message explaining how to do it. So something is wrong so far. Either the help file is wrong or the program is not working right.

It says to view the image until the frame is located that you wish to copy, save or print. You select this frame and then go to the menu bar and click on print etc.... Thats when I get the message that tells me that video images cannot be printed. Aren't computers wonderful?

PE

 

[rmazzullo]

PE,

This is great news, and very encouraging. It looks like a lot of fantastic information is coming our way very soon.

Have you ever considered writing a textbook? Can you imagine the 'end of the chapter' questions and assignments?

Bob M.

 

[Photo Engineer]

PE,

This is great news, and very encouraging. It looks like a lot of fantastic information is coming our way very soon.

Have you ever considered writing a textbook? Can you imagine the 'end of the chapter' questions and assignments?

Bob M.

Bob;

RE: Book!

Look in your notes or past posts by me.

PE

 

[rmazzullo]

Bob;

RE: Book!

Look in your notes or past posts by me.

PE

PE,

I have plenty of notes and and have copied all of the information from these threads (as well as some from photo net), but I can only guess at what other practical information remains to be discussed. Perhaps when it is all assembled, I will have that textbook.

Still, the 'questions' at the end of the 'chapters' are what I would be most interested in.

Bob

 

[ben-s]

Great news, PE
30 mins of reasonable material for 3 hours work is pretty good.
Glad to hear the IR is working too.

If I can learn to make stills of this stuff, I will post some if no one objects to digital pix of analog materials being made. . Right now, I follow the program (Sony) instructions to make still prints or still captures from the digital tape stream, and it tells me that tape images cannot be printed or captured. This message is up while I'm reading the help message explaining how to do it. So something is wrong so far. Either the help file is wrong or the program is not working right.

It says to view the image until the frame is located that you wish to copy, save or print. You select this frame and then go to the menu bar and click on print etc.... Thats when I get the message that tells me that video images cannot be printed. Aren't computers wonderful?

PE

Are you copying the material to your computer via firewire?
If so, you can take the stills from the video file:
Download a copy of VLC media player (http://www.videolan.org/vlc/) and install it.
Open your video file in VLC
Play to the bit you're interested in and pause VLC
Go to the Video menu, and click Snapshot.
The program will put a .png file with the name vlcsnap_[serial no].png in your "My Documents" folder

If you're not capturing the video, you can use VLC to grab from the DV stream instead.
Plug in the camera, Load VLC, and go file-->open capture device.
select your camera from the drop down box, and click ok.
Then go to video-->snapshot as before.

Hope this makes sense and helps.

 

[Photo Engineer]

Thanks Ben. I'll give it a try.

PE

 

[Photo Engineer]

Making an Azo type emulsion - still from DVD

With my thanks to Ben, here are two stills from the DVD in progress.

These pictures were taken with a red flashlight safelight and my normal yellow safelights. The camera was in IR mode, so the emulsion is hopefully not fogged.

The first picture shows the syringe posed over the beaker before precipitation starts and the second shows the precipitation in progress. Hopefully you will see the white cloud of emulsion being formed in the beaker.

This was a 600 gram make of the emulsion which should make about 100 8x10 prints and should keep for 6 months. I made 2 coatings which are waiting to be tested.

PE

 

[rwyoung]

Frickin-neat!

 

[Kirk Keyes]

That's great! I love the mad scientist side lighting!

 

[Photo Engineer]

Kirk;

Thanks.

That is the same red filtered flashlight you held for me during the workshop and I'm making the same formula as I did then. Only here, I have it balanced on another object. You were not around to help me.

PE