You can take an 14 x18 glass plate negative put it in a window using a frame and use large mirror plastic film to coat 3 plywood 5x5 boards boards and have you kids hold the boards to reflect the sun on to the large glass plate negative the reflectors must be 8 feet from the window which is located on the eest side of the house. As the sun passes noon it will clear the house and hit the windows.and cover your glass plate perfect. It will be so bright as when I go inside the house I have homemade lens board and bellows holding my Russian 450 mm lens that projects the image onto my home made positive emulsion I have on stretched canvas 7 feet from lens. Exposure is in seconds. I didn't want to expose this secret but I'm 80 now handicaped save this info and give it to others freely. You must be able to fabricate or know a couple of woodworkers. juanfarrias7@gmail.com 432-290-3476
During the 1956 Olympics held in Melbourne, my Grandfather worked at the Olympic stadium every day, except for the opening and closing ceremony days.
He saved his pennies and had a roll of film for each day, before or after his shift he was allowed to roam the stadium in the standing area only. This he did, exposing a roll of film each day.
Each evening he and I went to the bathroom, I sat in the bath at the plug and tap end, he sat on the bath at the other end. As the film was the cheaper orthochromatic film (money was exceedingly tight) he used a small kerosene hurricane lamp sitting on a stool in the corner. The kero lamp had a big square glass bottle with the ends cut off over it, this bottle had some red cellophane paper from Christmas wrapping stock wrapped around it, this was his one and only safelight.
We developed the film in a seesaw fashion with both of us holding one end of the film; this is the bit where I came in handy. As my eyes were very good, I could tell him when the film had pictures on it, which decided the time was right to end development.
For picture making he had a small 6x9 wooden contact frame (which I now have). Paper was in 6x9 cut sheets so one loaded the negative, then the paper, then closed the double-sided spring backed backside. My job then was to walk to the clothesline and back with the holder on top of my head if it was a sunny day, if it was cloudy, I walked to the back fence and back. We then processed the paper in cut down kerosene tins, using the same safelight used for film developing.
I now realise that I didnt have to hold the contact holder on the top of my head, but as a young fella it gave me a sense of importance, which is obviously why my grandfather instructed me very seriously, of the importance of being able to hold the contraption dead straight and not to run or deviate from the decided upon route in the backyard.
Our bathroom was out the back of the house at one end of the back verandah, there was no electricity there; we used a kero lamp for light. The hot water system was part of the kitchen stove, which was a solid fuel, or wood burner type. Effectively this was a self sufficient or independent way of photography, compared to today that is.
As a matter of interest we used an egg timer in the house for most things, including a shower. My grandfather, father and myself had to have our shower all over from start top finish before the egg timer was through. We did this by quickly rotating as one hopped in, got wet, hopped out then lathered up, then hopped back in to rinse off. Any longer than an egg timer under the shower, the hot water ran out.
Mick.
The UK Johnson's of Hendonwhich was a company in North London now long since gone out of business In the early 1960's used to make a daylight enlarger which consisted of a rectangular box which was about3.5 x 5.5 x 15" (approx) inches tall. It was a daylight enlarger!!!
A 35mm negative was slid into a holder at the top and a piece of paper 3.5" x 5.5" was placed into a light tight slot at the bottom. Somewhere in the middle of this tall box was a simple meniscus lens that focussed the image from the negative on the paper holder at the base. It was probably about F16-F22 fixed aperture.
The exposure was hit or miss affair because that was made by taking the device outside then removing a sliding baffle over the negative for a number of seconds then closing it again followed up by developing it for 2 minutes and then fixing it. I don't know how they gauged/adjusted any exposure for flat or contrasty negatives with graded paper.
There was a guide to decide as to how many seconds the exposure should be in the manner of a chart where you gave the month of the year, time of day, if it was bright sun, bright cloudy or dull cloudy and your latitude, then cross referencing these points it was supposed to be close enough to give an image at least better than the rather poor commercial processing at the time.
It was intended to bring home processing to the masses. Did it catch on? I have no idea, I was too intent on getting a proper darkroom to mess around with these.
You can take an 14 x18 glass plate negative put it in a window using a frame and use large mirror plastic film to coat 3 plywood 5x5 boards boards and have you kids hold the boards to reflect the sun on to the large glass plate negative the reflectors must be 8 feet from the window which is located on the eest side of the house. As the sun passes noon it will clear the house and hit the windows.and cover your glass plate perfect. It will be so bright as when I go inside the house I have homemade lens board and bellows holding my Russian 450 mm lens that projects the image onto my home made positive emulsion I have on stretched canvas 7 feet from lens. Exposure is in seconds. I didn't want to expose this secret but I'm 80 now handicaped save this info and give it to others freely. You must be able to fabricate or know a couple of woodworkers. juanfarrias7@gmail.com 432-290-3476
The glass version of these safe lights actually does have the little tin bottle base to hold kerosene and a wick and whilst I do have oil lamps and spare wicks about the place, I just slide a glass panel up and sit a tealight candle on top. It's a useful way to keep track of how long I've been in the darkroom when it goes out.... I was using my two tealight candle powered safelights at the time - so, entirely portable, wireless and could well be used with sunlight....
I ment to saw on the west side of the house which would be in shade till the sun coming from the east clears the house then hits the mirrors
I especially like having the kids hold the mirrors
Did you see Mick's post from 2009? His grandfather made him walk the length of the backyard, wearing the contact print frame as though he was a young lady balancing a book on her head learning deportment in some ritzy finishing school.
I've been carrying that scene around in my mind for years. It may well have been one of the first things I ever read here on APUG/Photrio. It's the little things!
Does anyone else have "back in the day" stories or have adapted earlier practices for off-grid, portable use?
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