Greetings from the UK

[GuyBoden]

Hi,

I'm Guy and I live in London, England.

I used to be very active in film and darkroom from an early age, we even had a make-shift darkroom (in the TV room) at primary school! However I got a job from school in a pro photo lab working on 60"x40" colour and mono prints and bleach etches (anyone remember those? I'm giving my age away ) and several years of doing other peoples prints for 10+ hours a day kicked out most of the interest I had in photography and darkroom as a hobby.

I got back into photography a few years back and got a digtial camera but have been slowly moving into film and analog photography again and now have a few old film cameras, a few toy cameras and am a proud owner of a Mamiya RB67 which I just love! I now shoot mainly MF.

I process my black and white film at home and attend a communal darkroom weekly. I'm interest in alternative processes too and will be trying out my first lith session next week!

Phew! Bit of a long introduction, congratulations for those who got this far!

Hope I can further my knoweledge here

cheers,

Guy

 

[Ian Grant]

Welcome from a surprisingly warm West Midlands

Ian

 

[Kevin Caulfield]

Welcome home to the analog world, Guy. You have found the right place.

 

[Jeff Kubach]

Hello Guy and welcome to APUG. I'm also a proud owner of a RB67.

Jeff

 

[snallan]

Hi Guy, welcome to APUG.

 

[Mats_A]

Welcome from one who does not own a RB67 ........... yet.

r

Mats

 

[Chazzy]

Welcome, Guy. I'm very interested in the RB67 and RZ67.

 

[papagene]

Howdy Guy and welcome to APUG from western New England.

 

[Christopher Walrath]

Welcoem to APUG, Guy.

 

[fotch]

Hi Guy, welcome to APUG. I have been around for awhile but don't recall anything in reference to "bleach etches".

 

[mpirie]

Welcome to the forum from a beautiful crisp Oslo, from the former owner of an RB67.

Mike

 

[GuyBoden]

Many thanks for the warm welcome

Fotch, bleach etches were used mainly for exhibtion panels for trade shows, before the days of computer run outs. We were supplied line artwork which we'd shoot to lith neg, then contact to positive and print a negative print. Once developed the exposed background was bleached away leaving white emlusion text/images on a resin based background. The white emulsion would then accept water-based coloured dyes leaving the background clean.

Nightmare!

 

[Ian Grant]

Many thanks for the warm welcome

Fotch, bleach etches were used mainly for exhibtion panels for trade shows, before the days of computer run outs. We were supplied line artwork which we'd shoot to lith neg, then contact to positive and print a negative print. Once developed the exposed background was bleached away leaving white emlusion text/images on a resin based background. The white emulsion would then accept water-based coloured dyes leaving the background clean.

Nightmare!

The etch bleach process is great, really easy, I used it a lot in the 70's & 80's after RC papers were introduced both commercially and for special effects. Ilford, Kentmere & Kodak all published formulae for the process.

There are some interesting artistic effects where a continuous tone image is used and re-developed after the process.

Ian

 

[GuyBoden]

Hi Ian,

My lasting memory of it is spening hour and hours processing hundreds of these, rolling 6 foot sheets through troughs of chemistry, cleaning up little flecks with amonia, which would always somehow find it's way into the spent bleach giving off the most noxious fumes! *Shudder* My darkroom time is spent in a much more realxing way now