Anyway, I thought I'd join APUG to have somewhere I could turn to for help/advice. I mostly want to learn this myself (rather than taking a course), as I have for all my photographic knowledge.
And yes, I already have a few questions (is this the wrong forum to ask?). I found an
online guide, but I'm not sure how necessarily good it is.
I've also created a "shopping list", yet I'm not sure if I'm missing something or I chose something that's incompatible or I'm just making a stupid mistake:
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I've already got protective sleeves for storage, and I didn't include anything I might need for printing because I'm not sure if I want to take that road yet—for now scans are perfectly alright.
Hi, and welcome.
I would look for a good basic text, like "Photography" by London and Upton (or Upton and Upton in some editions). I would not rule out classes, however. See if you can get advanced placement into a community college photo program, so you can get some college units out of the way. If you decide to major in photography some day, it will really stink to have to take the basic class after having been doing it for so long already. You will learn quite a bit that you would not learn alone as well.
Now, on to your shopping list. There are some notes I'll make:
1. I suggest that you get your stuff from Freestyle instead of Adorama. This is a business that specializes in analog and alternative photography, and works with many artists and educators in the community to promote these things.
2. Instead of 35mm Tri-X, get Arista Premium 400. It is the same film, but half the price...and by "the same," I mean
the same.
3. Good-ol' D-76 is a great developer, but you may find HC-110 easier to work with (it is a liquid instead of a powder that must be mixed at temperture, like D-76, X-Tol, etc.), more consistent with age, and that you always get near 100% use out of your bottle of concentrate, which is a little harder to do with the U-mix powdered developers. With HC-110, read the instructions carefully. It is very easy to use if you simply follow the instructions, but there is no end to the number of first timers who DON'T READ THE LABEL and mess it up, thus severely over or underdeveloping their first films. If you read and follow the developer's instructions, you will not mess up your film.
4. Modern films (i.e. everything but Efke and Adox) do not need to be hardened, and this actually makes washing more difficult (i.e. harder to do right, and more wasteful of water). You don't have to mix in the hardener if you get that fixer. I would skip it.
5. Also, that fixer is powdered. Personally, I find this to be a PITA, especially for a beginner. I suggest purchasing a liquid concentrate non-hardening fixer such as Ilford Rapid Fixer or Hypam (same as Rapid Fixer, but cheaper, and allows you to add a hardener if you need one for certain applications). Kodak makes a liquid concentrate rapid fixer as well, called Kodafix Solution, but it contains a hardener. The Ilford fixer is rather expensive, however, when you compare it to Kodak's Flexicolor color fixer (non hardening), which in my short experience with it is a brilliant solution to fixing both films and papers. It costs under $8 for a
whole gallon of the concentrate, which is then diluted to one-tenth strength to fix papers, or one-quarter strength to fix films. It is cheap, non hardening, and goes a long way. The fact that it is actually a color fixer does not matter. It does the job perfectly. Another gem picked up here on A.P.U.G. (from
fschifano, with technical information provided by
Photo Engineer).
6. The Photo-Flo 200 is good. A syringe will help you measure out the concentrate. You need one that will measure up to at least 5 mL, so you can easily make up a liter or working solution (the "200" means that it is mixed 1:200 from the concentrate, so to make a liter of working solution, you need 5 mL of concentrate).
7. You skipped stop bath in your list. It is good to use, as it treats your fixer better, and makes it last longer. I use Kodak Indicator Stop Bath, as it tells you when it is kaput by changing color, and a little goes a very, very, very long way. A small, sub-$10 bottle will likely last you years. A medicine cup (like the plastic ones that come with a bottle of Ny-Quil) are perfect for measuring out stop the stop bath concentrate, as they are marked with 7.5 mL, 15 mL, 30 mL, etc. (It is actually 16 mL per liter, but 15 is fine for such a non critical chemical.)
8. You should invest in some Hypo Clearing Agent. It will save water and help your films and papers wash more thoroughly. Generic versions ("Legacy Pro") are cheap at Freestyle.
9. About your sleeves. I highly recommend against using page-type negative files to stow your film. They get very scratched, let a lot of gunk in, and rub together when being carried, and can damage your negs. I suggest starting your high-quality archiving NOW, before it gets too hard to do later, when you have piles and piles of negative stuffed into every nook and cranny of your house. I use plastines, with my cut strips in a stack inside each sleeve. However, I am thinking about switching over to the lab-style clear sleeves in archival envelopes, to keep each strip separated. (I have heard horror stories about negs sticking together over time when they are stacked.) This way really protects your negatives much better than the binder-type sleeves. Super speedy proofing becomes more difficult, however. Low price to pay for keeping your film in good shape, however.
10. For the beakers, try local classifieds and E-Bay. They will be rather pricey new. Maybe just get a one liter one to get you started.
11. Storage bottles are very important. You need bottles that are the right size for common photo chemical volumes, and that keep air out. You need a variety of sizes, so you can decant chemicals to keep the air in the bottle to a minimum as you use your chemicals up. I'd start out by getting several plastic bottles full of drinking water. Get some that are one liter, some that are 500 mL, and some that are 250 mL (teeny). Other helpful sizes are 2 L and 5 L.
12. I'd get a used Nikkor developing tank and reels here on A.P.U.G., on E-Bay, or in local classifieds before buying them new. They are dirt cheap used, compared to their off-the-shelf prices.
One more suggestion: Do yourself a big favor, and use the metric system when performing your acts of analog photography. (My only exception is when using HC-110, as it is a bit easier to measure out the 1:31, 1:15, etc. dilutions. It was, after all, designed using quarts, ounces, and other such silly things.) The metric system is way quicker, easier, less confusing, less error prone, and more worldly universal. Head math doesn't get much easier than when using powers of ten. The only thing you have to know to use the metric system with fluids is how many zeros each common prefix corresponds to. With standard photographic chemical volumes, all you really need to know is what "milli" means: x10⁻³. In other words, move your decimal three places to the left and fill any gaps with zeroes. 1/1000, in even other words. The liter is your basic measure of volume that you work with. You attach prefixes to liters to show either how many multiple liters or how many parts of a liter there are. Milliliters are each a 1/1000th part of a liter (and can also be expressed as cubic centimeters, or grams of water).
Good luck! Have fun! Watch your light! (It is, after all, everything in photography.)
...can't think of what I might be missing. I've got all my printouts and things organized in a binder, so I should be all set? Very excited...I'm still looking for a good dark place, but I have another place in mind I need to check.
Good luck to you too—I think we're hopping onto a boundless journey to which we pave our own road!
