Unlike others here, seeing a print appear in the developer holds no magic for me. But having a GOOD print hanging on the wall, ah, that's a different story. It's a lot harder than one would think, so when it happens it's something special.
For me the magic that happens in the darkroom is in the whole process before the paper is submerged in the developer. Cropping, the amount of contrast, dodging and burning to reveal and obscure, invisibly molding the image to my own personal vision. It only becomes apparent when the white light is turned on.
Well put!
Turning on the room light often slaps me in the face.
Fine with me. I'm in a minority of many things. I not only collect wrist watches (not expensive ones, the most expensive ones I own were a few hundred dollars and some down to <$50, I collect what I like and will wear) and wear one almost everywhere. Yeah, sure, I have a phone in my pocket. But taking out my phone to see the time ends up taking ten minutes by the time I check messages "as long as I have it out.." not to mention that even if I resist that a glance at my wrist is still much quicker and easier and much less obtrusive. I own two cars, and both have manual transmissions. I own a nice turntable and still buy vinyl records. I love my home theater set up but, while I do have the usual streaming services, I'm a big advocate of physical media for movies (and some favorite TV shows where I own the series) and have about 450 movies, and growing weekly, on Blu-ray and 4K UHD. Even in film photography I don't shoot much 35mm anymore, mostly medium and large (4x5) format. I've been into ham radio since 1977 and I still am, another one where people ask, if they even know what it is, if it still exists. I'm sure I could go on and think of more.Nothing wrong with shooting wet plates, but most people moved onto dry plates and then film. If a fully analogue way floats your boat, that's great. There's nothing wrong with that. it's laudable even. But you're now in a minority even in the hobby of film shooting.
You can save a lot of money if you ditch the regular RF cable and just get the Internet service.Well, the cable company's charge for cable usually includes a connection to the internet. My Comcast charge which includes a 200MB bandwidth, TV stations, and landline ISOP telephone runs around $225 a month about $75 more than they charged two years ago. The problem is there is no competition for us. We're stuck with Comcast if we want cable. Then you add Netflix, Amazon Prime, and other services, communication services really starts to add up. Oh, then cell phone service, XM Serius for two cars, etc. I guess it's better than trying to get rid of the snow on TV's from rabbit ears antennas.
Ha! It's fun looking at those old Kodak Dye Transfer technique ads and brochures, stating how simple the process was for amateur home users. Well, it was, at least compared to Carbro color. It's all relative. Some people probably complain how inconvenient it is to flip a light switch. Where there's a will, there's a way.
The biggest problem in this area, which is arguably the richest per capita in the world, even given those many of us like me who are not in fact rich, is the sheer expense of real estate itself. "Low income" and perhaps even homelessness, is legally defined as anyone making under $160 per yr in certain cities. And a techie couple making over 300K between them might not even be able to furnish a house they recently purcased. I bought my own property here over 45 years ago, which was a different story. So even though I encounter quite a few young techies who would sincerely like to have a home darkroom, even at their seemingly high incomes they might not be able to afford that kind of remodel, at least as any kind of realistic priority. Some of them have to turn their digs into a flop house filled with all their friends sharing expenses, just to make ends meet. Welcome to the new Industrial Revolution sweatshop reality. If Steinbeck were still around, he'd write a novel about it called the Chips of Wrath.
You can save a lot of money if you ditch the regular RF cable and just get the Internet service.
Where I live I could also get AT&T fiber, up to 1 Gbps if I wanted to pay for it (something that, as a single guy never streaming more than one stream and not gaming I have absolutely zero use for) or could get similar speeds to my Comcast for less money. But a work colleague has AT&T fiber and hates it, unreliable here still, though in his case he has it as a backup to his Comcast so he has both. Plus I'm lazy. My Comcast connection works, it ain't broke, don't fix it. I don't even KNOW what I pay for the streaming services I have, but I'd bet it's less than $80 a month. That doesn't include Prime, which I'd have even without the streaming because I buy so much from Amazon.
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All this "magic" talk is hype. A photochemical process is science, not magic. Magic? With the press of a button, my inkjet printers convert digits into the best looking prints attainable. ...
...All this "magic" talk is hype. A photochemical process is science, not magic. Magic? With the press of a button, my inkjet printers convert digits into the best looking prints attainable......
I don't know- I remember the excitement of seeing a print come up under safelight (even though you got even a bigger kick when you turned the white light on)...
...I never really felt that with digital printing because I already saw the final result on screen before I printed it.
Polaroid's been there, done that. A screaming failure. Polarchrome, Polapan and Polagraf 35mm instant films. Very delicate emulsions, the black & white positive film had an interesting look.
We had bathrooms before we had the Ilford pop up tent. Do young people not have bathrooms? And what about the changing bag and kitchen counter for developing film.
Of course being able to quickly develop your own film eliminates the exquisite sense of anticipation of waiting four or five days to get your film back from the film processor, which young people cite as one of the main reasons they shoot film.
Next time do some research before posting a supposed joke.Next time I post a humor tag.
I don't see the pictures appear in the developer - I keep the safelight so low, it would be pointless. I develop by strict timing, anyway. I used to do a lot of Panalure (panchromatic paper) - pure darkness, so I am used to not looking. Of course, I remember "The Magic" from the early days, and am not in any way disparaging it!
I'd say that if you make less than $160 a year you really ARE low income!(I know you meant 160k.)
Does it not occur to them to move away?
There are numerous non-magical things that can cause excitement which aren't "magic." For example, science.
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Hi Roger. "Tech" is a very complex thing. Not everything can be done remotely. Consumer electronics is just the tip of the iceberg. In this area, you've got an intense demographic tangle of computer and software development, military and space applications with actual manufacture, big battery and transportation innovations (like Tesla), and quite a few giant pharmaceutical and biotech industries requiring a tremendous amount of in-house R&D and facilities operations. So things are in flux at the moment, with only certain mainly keyboard kinds of tasks now feasible from a home office, and many other tasks still requiring either grueling long daily commutes from inland burbs, or else struggling with the extremely high real estate and rental prices closer in.
An innovative option is how some big tech films offer amenities like their own gyms and showers and cafeterias. Then young workers will park a motorhome or camper on some allowable nearby street and bicycle to work. Not exactly "homeless" style - some of those tricked out fancy campers cost over 300K. But by doing that for eight or ten years, they'll walk away multi-millionaires instead of being ridiculously in debt to a local mortgage. But many tech jobs involve temporary contracts, with some benefits, but no guarantee of permanent employment. The landscape keeps shifting, and some people roll the dice with start-ups, working endless hours for potentially a giant gold strike down the line, or potentially a huge disappointment.
Internet service here by itself without TV cable and land line phone is around $83 a month for 400MBS. My wife insists we must keep landline phone service so with the Internet but no TV cable it;s $125 month. So currently I'm paying another $90 a month for approxmately 200 channels on three TV's with remotes. Comcast got you coming and going.
A reminder to those who haven't read my posts before: I've been photographing and working in my own darkroom since the 1960s, have and use film cameras from 35mm through 11x14 and also employ electronic equipment for capturing images as well as to print those and files from scanned film.
All this "magic" talk is hype. A photochemical process is science, not magic. Magic? With the press of a button, my inkjet printers convert digits into the best looking prints attainable. Unlike gelatin silver papers available today, Hahnemuhle FineArt Baryta Satin prints made on my Canon PRO-100 have a surface that's of perfect reflectance. Shiny enough to support incredibly rich blacks, but not so shiny that they demand rigidly controlled lighting to view without being obscured by the veiling glare of reflections. A perfect color match for Rising mat board. No optical brightening agents to induce garish whites. And those prints "magically" spit out of a machine on my desk.
The only shortcoming of magical inkjet prints is that they have lower life expectancy than legacy gelatin silver prints. Note that we've no reliable data concerning the longevity of today's darkroom papers. For almost everyone here, that's of no consequence. Look at the Is there a really strong interest in film photography thread for some reality about how estate executors and legatees send almost all personal photos directly to landfills. That's been my experience with the three estates for which I was executor. In the case of exceptional people whose work might be of some value to the world at large, whether because they're famous and it's so-called "art" or they are doing HABS/HAER/HALS projects, shooting on polyester-base film and printing whichever way desired solves the image life expectancy problem for at least 500 years.
Bottom line: film is not dead -- yet. When the fad young people are driving of 35mm color to be posted on "social" media fades away (pun intended), the second great industry contraction will occur. That will result in prices which make what today's PHOTRIO posters moan about seem like the good old days. If an extremely small manufacturing base can still be supported by a market with extremely high levels of disposable income, some film will survive. We'll see.
Actually, some of you will see. I don't expect that point to be reached within my actuarially probable remaining lifetime. It's like when someone hysterically scared about a non-critical medical issue ask their doctor "am I going to die?" and gets the answer "yes, but not today."
Moving my enlarger around on a cart is not practical because of its size and weight. Also a cart would not dampen vibrations enough.
The homeless are here because of the warmer weather. They left places in the midwest and rust belt because of the cold. Others came here to get health care at the Veterans' Hospital. They thought they had the money to rent an apartment only to discover that apartments here cost several times what they cost at there hometowns. They have no where else but the streets. Only recently the VA moved them to a tent city on the VA property so they have bathroom facilities and around the clock protection. Life's problems are not solved with cookie cutter answers and glib political pronouncements.
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