Practical progress

Good Morning,

The story so far

The roll of 42" wide Foma paper is almost here - Almost as I live in the Southern Forest Region of Western Australia and getting couriers to deliver here became difficult after the film "Deliverance" and I will have to drive to Bunbry to collect it

Stage two was to design and order the new roll processing troughs - The design is based on memories of the ones at the WA Museum's darkrooms and discussions with Chris at BlankoNegroSupplies, the seller of Foma products in Australia - The modification I have incorporated is one deeper tank with syphon system for a print washing tank

As well as work from 10x8" negatives I will try a test print from an aerial perfomance I documented with Kodah High Speed Infra Red in 2005, view images on this group to see what I mean

Using infra red means the image will dissolve into grain at close viewing distances, which could be fun - I still have 6 rolls of KHSIR in my freezer

48 inch long roll-processing troughs are now made and ready to use with big prints from 10x8" negs - However, I will make smallish ones to start with to help avoid wasting paper and chemicals

24th November 2011

Darkroom has been given a cleaning and reshaping to handle cutting of roll of paper - The dry bench is now down to 3 enlargers, a couple of Leitz, 1c and 2c, and the DeVere 10x8 inch

However, Spring has suddenly become very hot, so no printing until Sunday - Global warming means we switch from boring flat cloud to boring clear blue skies with the hammer light of summer, no more spring or autumn light to caress the land - This is a serious annoyance

Today’s success is the first test print with the 42 inch wide roll of Foma silver gelatin paper. I felt some trepidation as I opened the box and unrolled the black plastic wrapping, but it went as easilly as a big rolls of Ilford and Agfa have in the past. Also this time I have prepared the darkroom specifically for big print production

The first test is of a 5x4 inch negative of Xanthorrhoea enlarged to 32x40 inches, but only 10x8 inch bits of paper processed in normal dishes. These results are good for the process and show the big DeVere 5108 has enough light for an exposure of 24 seconds at f11 with a 150mm Rodagon

What it confirms is that 5x4 inch film does not go this big with normal use lenses, which is sort of good as I would feel an idiot having spent lots of money on a pair of 10x8" camera outfits

Next test will be use of the roll processing troughs and 10x8 inch negatives

Big Work

Not making prints, but ripping the front wall off the shed that holds the darkroom and replacing it with recycled timber - If I don't do this I won't have a shed or darkroom

Trying to load images, but only offered the URL option, I will try later

Next phase

We have been busy here doing non-photographic things, with a bushfire adding to the load - That is now over, so back to work

Everything is ready apart from water in and water out via a siphon in the big wash tank, that plumbing is now urgent

Today sent off a quote for big prints to a private buyer - When this goes ahead we will see if my pricing is correct

How are other membes bigger than 20x24" print plans going?

Building, which means getting someone in who can repair the ends of the shed my darkroom is installed in - Not cheap, but it has to be done properly

Real news when the building work has been done

John

Well is it done! Need help with large print making