Small prints - 1930s style

I just discovered that Silverprint has deckled-edged scissors (code number 49 325, £4.95) "for that authentic 1930’s look".

Some rotary trimmers include a wheel to do a deckle edge.

Jim Noel said:

In the 30's we mostly used orthochromatic film and silver chloride contact printing paper,...........

Making contact prints from panchromatic film on enlarging paper containing bromide will not give you the 30's look even with all of the bleaching, insufficient fixing and other manipulations mentioned in this string.

Click to expand...

Curiously, if one flips through the old magazines from the middle 1930s, there would be found a lot of advertisements for panchromatic film. Virtually all of the 35mm film from Dupont, Agfa-Ansco, Gevaert, and Kodak were panchromatic. The word "pan" was also found in the technical information which the published photographs were often found with. There were also a lot of filters mentioned in both the technical credits. Often the filters orange and green, as well as red, were mentioned.

Ortho film, as Gerald said, is sensitive up the green part of the spectrum. Its effect could be duplicated on pan film by using green, rather than blue filters.
A strong blue filter will likely mimick the grey rendering of blue-sensitive emulsions which were from an earlier era. DW Griffith, Mack Sennet and Charles Chaplin had their actors made up ghastly white as a necessity, because ruddy complexions would register dark and look unwashed when shot with blue sensitve film.

I believe it's still the lens/camera combination which counts more in the first step of making "old" pictures. I've loaded Tmax 100 and even TCN in old Ansco Cadet B2 box cameras, Zeiss Ikon folders, and old rangefinders with uncoated Tessar-type lenses and there is always a subtle element of "old" in them, even if the subjects shown are relatively modern.

ZorkiKat said:

Curiously, if one flips through the old magazines from the middle 1930s, there would be found a lot of advertisements for panchromatic film. ...

Click to expand...

If one filp through a new magazine today, there will be found lots of advertisments for high-end digital cameras. That doesn't necessarily mean that those are used by most photographers.

Roger Hicks said:

You are not the only person to be fascinated with this look. I love it myself though I often prefer a 5x enlargement off 35mm -- the biggest most people would have gone in the 30s, whole-plate (6.5 x 8.5 inch) paper with a nice big border around the image.

The best films I have found for a 'generic' 1930s tonality are Forte, preferably overexposed by a stop or so (which also makes for bigger grain and lower sharpness). Fomapan 200 in FX39 comes close to the late 30s/early 40s Kodak tonality. I wouldn't agree with Firecracker because Kodak's films have been updated too often.

True sulphide toning gives the best browns, NOT thiourea/thiocarbanide. It stinks, but toxicity isn't a significamt issue with even an iota of common sense. Consider how few photographers it killed in the 1930s when it was commonplace.

Then you need to look for a deckle-edge trimmer to give the raggedy edge on your prints...

Cheers,

Roger (www.rogerandfrances.com)

Click to expand...

Plus-X exposed in contrasty lighting conditions (ideally using arc or spot lamps) developed in Diafine and printed on ADOX fineprint developed in Eukobrom with a brief selenium tone gives a very nice 'vintage' look to your prints. Like Roger I like 5x enlargements off 35mm film - IMHO a 5x7.5 print on 8x10 paper in an 11x14 mount is near perfect. BTW Fortepan/classicpan 400 seems to have extended red sensitivity which suggests it is optimised for shooting under tungsten hot lamps

Hope this helps,

Lachlan

c6h6o3 said:

Sorry to have appeared obnoxious. Such was not my intent.

I'm not sure how much the film has to do with the look. I think I come closer to it with TMax and Harvey's developer than I do with Efke.

Click to expand...

I was going to suggest 777 as step one in the process. I like it on J&C 200 as well as tri-x. I wouldn't use it on Efke25, not because it won't give you the look you are looking for, but there are so many better developers for that film these days, Pyrocat and W2D2+.

Printing wise, I would get a very black developer then selenium tone it. That should give you a look you want.

tim in san jose

Thanks everyone for the wealth of information, I have already made up some prints, it is not quite so authentic but it is a start, think No if I can emulate the picture taking technique of that time....

Maybe a box camera is the way to go.