stoked!

[rphenning]

Just made my first little print in the darkroom Ive made for myself at my house. It's going to be a while until I can crack open the 11x14 and 16x20 paper because I need a few more things to get my procedure running smoother but right now I am happy! Love it!

this definitely deserved it's own thread. ha.

 

[Wade D]

Be careful. It's very addictive! Congrats on the start of a long journey.

 

[perkeleellinen]

Congratulations! You'll never forget that first time, like magic seeing the image emerge. The two strongest photo memories I have are watching my first print develop and watching a Polaroid develop for the first time. Magic!

 

[rphenning]

I used to do a bunch of darkroom stuff at my old high school down the street but got tired of not having my own, everyday.

 

[markbarendt]

Truly is a joy!

 

[stillsilver]

Congratulations, now you will want to start adding to the dr. Then you’ll outgrow that dr and need a bigger one. The gear gods are laughing. Ha Ha Ha .

Mike

 

[fotch]

Congrats.

 

[moki]

Great, now you don't only have camera GAS but also darkroom GAS... welcome to the dark side

 

[rphenning]

haha what is darkroom gas? im actually pretty good on cameras. one lens for my nikon and one lens for my mamiya. no lust really.

Anyways, gonna make a little proof sheet tonight. I used a good portion of the bottle of my developer to fill my tray (I was dumb and got 16x20 trays instead of 8x10 and 16x20) and am looking at this Moersch eco 4812 stuff. It claims to have an amazing shelf life. Anyone have experience? Im using liquidol at the moment.

 

[Rick A]

Yahoo! Now the fun begins. DR gas--I now own 6 enlargers, and all the accessories for each, each is a dedicated machine from 35mm up to 4x5, and one for color.

 

[rphenning]

that is insane. haha.

 

[Jeff Kubach]

I love doing darkroom stuff!

Jeff

 

[Rick A]

haha what is darkroom gas? im actually pretty good on cameras. one lens for my nikon and one lens for my mamiya. no lust really.

Anyways, gonna make a little proof sheet tonight. I used a good portion of the bottle of my developer to fill my tray (I was dumb and got 16x20 trays instead of 8x10 and 16x20) and am looking at this Moersch eco 4812 stuff. It claims to have an amazing shelf life. Anyone have experience? Im using liquidol at the moment.

No experience with the brand, but pour it back into a bottle and stopper tightly, you should be able to get some mileage from it before it goes bad.

 

[rphenning]

one problem i am having is my inconsistency in getting black, blacks even with fresh developer at the proper temp and extraordinarily long times for the head height and aperture of the lens. odd. part of the fun is fixing shit like this though! ha.

 

[moki]

I don't know about Liquidol and Moersch eco... I'm currently using Calbe N113 (very nice paper developer) and had some problems with the black too, until I realized, I had to develop over 1 minute, not only until the picture looks alright in darkroom light. You can get a decent print with 20 seconds development time, but the darkest black (what you're after) will only appear after about 80-90 seconds. See the instructions for your particular developer for more info.

Also, very dark (overexposed/developed) negatives can make enlarging even harder. It's no problem to get a picture, but getting all the tones right becomes almost impossible (for me at least)

 

[Rick A]

No matter the brand of paper developer, you should follow the manufacturers recommended times for development. Every developer I've ever used has a recommended time of not less than 60 seconds, and most dont give good blacks until closer to 90 seconds. The paper has a lot to do with this as well. FB papers tend to take double the time of RC paper, and need at least two or more minutes in the soup to really start to blossom, some I use are in the four to five minute range to fully develope. I prefer the longer developing times for better control of tonal range in the print. After all, why rush a good thing.

 

[R gould]

Well done, but be carefull that you don't sniff the fixer, it can become addivtive,asw can spending time under the little orange light.Richard

 

[jreitsma]

Congratulations!!! I've been doing black and white since I was 12 (I',m now 52) and I always think there's something magical about working in the darkroom.....

Later-Joe