Hello from Seoul

Focus

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New to this board, new to film photography, new to darkroom development, new to Seoul, and new to 26. (Birthday today)

Hey, I'm Brian.

Just got into Film photography last summer. Began shooting on my dads old and cheap sears model...something or other....Upgraded to a Minolta srt-201. Then bought a Nikon FM2 when I arrived in Korea.

About a month back I bought a complete darkroom set.

I have zero experience in darkrooms and it was an impulse buy because...I need a new hobby.

Anyway, I've shot 4 rolls of B&W...and have developed one. (that development was really possible because of trolling I did on this board...and a youtube series made by one of your members, in which he recommends this site)

Anyway....looking to make some prints this weekend. Anyone have any helpful threads, links, or words of advice.

I have a general idea of what I will need to do. Expose a piece of development paper to light from enlarger for an unknown amount of time, place in developer for unknown amount of time, fixer unknown amount of time, then bath....unknown amount of time.

quite a few unknowns there, eh. help?!

and Hi
 
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MattKing

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Focus

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when spooling a roll of 36 onto a reel....(steel) is the reel being completely filled an indicator that I spooled it correctly, or can I be a few circles short and still have properly spooled film...I'm a few short.

i spent a lot of time on these shots...want to make sure...before I develop.

::spooled, spool, spooling...great word::
 

Chazzy

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Happy birthday, Brian, and welcome to APUG. Go with the links Matt gave you. Trying to glean advice from multiple people with different ideas is an exercise in frustration. I think that you are going to have some fun. There's nothing like seeing a print come up in the developer.
 

ntenny

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Welcome aboard, and welcome to Seoul too---I've spent a bit of time there over the years, and IMHO it's a really likable city that's often underrated. Great city for street shooting, of course; I've always enjoyed getting out on the side streets with a camera in the early morning to catch the place waking up.

Printing is easy; printing *well* is hard! Do some experimenting, and enjoy that magical experience of watching the image appear.

About the 35mm reel, in my experience the reel should end up almost completely full, certainly with no more than one empty "groove" on the outside. I find it helps to feel the film on the reel as you go (on the non-emulsion side) to verify that it's going in smoothly---you can feel the kink in the film if it's not following the spiral properly.

-NT
 
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papagene

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Hello - welcome - and Happy Birthday!!!
 

mooseontheloose

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Welcome to APUG Brian, and happy birthday!

As for film...yes, it should fill the spool...if you have several spiral grooves left over something is not right.
As for printing...there's nothing wrong with putting the paper under the enlarger, #2 filter, open up two stops (depending on lens, probably around 4/5.6 or 8) and do test strips across the paper at 5/10/15/20/etc seconds. After you develop the paper you should get a better starting point for times.
As for developing paper (assuming RC paper), the way I was taught in darkroom courses was 2 min developer (1+9), 1 min stop, 2 min fix (1+9). Of course, it's better to follow the times on the chemistry you are using, but it's a good starting point.

Good luck.
 
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Focus

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Thanks for the heads up on the reel...I re-spooled and saved what certainly would have been lost exposures.
 

Christopher Walrath

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Happy Birthday. That weirdo with the videos, more than likely, was Jason. And welcome to APUG.
 
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Focus

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woo!

made a print...along with 3 mistakes...

then my safe light burned out....shit.

whoever said making prints is easy, but making good prints is hard...

right on.
 

apkujeong

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Hello, which part of Seoul? (I live near Ewha, despite my username...)
 
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Focus

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no part. I live about one hour outside of Seoul. Yangpyeong 양평.

I'm in Seoul most weekends. Usually around Hongdae.

한국어?
 

apkujeong

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한국어 많이 배웠지만 아직도 잘 할수 없어요.

Where did you buy your gear, Chungmuro? I was looking for a large format enlarger but more or less gave up after I put together a home made enlarger (a light source added to a plate camera, it works well enough for the time being).

I live really close to Hongdae but avoid it, that place makes me feel too old!
 

ntenny

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apkujeong said:
I was looking for a large format enlarger but more or less gave up after I put together a home made enlarger (a light source added to a plate camera, it works well enough for the time being).
Click to expand...

Bit of a non sequitur wrt the thread, but how did you do this? I thought about it but decided that the problem of attaching the light source and mounting the camera stably was kind of daunting, and I eventually got distracted by a shiny object and stopped working on it.

-NT
 
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Focus

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yup, I caught opsoiyo...that was about it.

I bought my gear from a dude on craiglist, selling a complete set. Just set it up and made prints last night. Going to Chungmuro Saturday to buy a replacement bulb for my safe light, and maybe some other gadgets...last time I was there, I saw multiple enlargers...

Yup...I know a gal at Hongik university which is what brings me there....but yeah, Friday and Saturday nights will make you feel old in a hurry.

::ran your korean through a translator:: nah-doh...except...without the learning part.::
 

apkujeong

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Craigslist is probably a good idea, but I never check it! I don't generally find the sellers in Chungmuro so helpful, although I do like Saeki P&C. There is another shop with a reasonably helpful owner, but I don't know the name. There's also the Mozart cafe which is a shop / camera museum of sorts / nude photography mini gallery. You have to order a coffee (invariably terrible) if you go in and want to look around. It's worth it if you like old camera gear.

I did see 35mm and 6x7 enlargers for sale in Chungmuro, but I shoot 9x12, 10x15 and recently added 13x18. I have a feeling that if I found a large format enlarger here it'd cost quite a bit.

I studied Korean at Sogang university for 9 months which helped a lot, but even after that my language skills are depressingly basic...

NT, about my light source...it's quite a simple affair, a bunch of fluorescent light tubes grouped as closely as possible in a box with a couple of layers of perspex (one white, the other transparent and scuffed with sandpaper) for diffusion. Getting the diffusion to work well enough took some trial and error, I tested it as well as I could with a spotmeter. I use a film pack adaptor as a negative carrier, the film pack adaptor is attached to the light box and it at least clicks into place in the camera (Zeiss Ikon Ideal 225) minimising alignment problems in that area. Sometimes I mount the whole thing on a tripod, but aligning it completely accurately feels nigh on impossible (I don't let such trifles get in the way, I have bigger problems with my prints!). I could rig a way of aligning it better with a wooden box or something but haven't got around to it, it's the sort of thing that's evolved slowly. I don't recommend this sort of thing in place of a regular enlarger altogether, but it allows me to make decent enough prints while away from home.
 

Black Dog

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Happy birthday and welcome to APUG!
 
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