Today is the day

ajuk · Apr 22, 2007

Everybody is out, for the day, I have some synthetic leather that I got for £5 and some smart price parcel tape, I know this combination works.

Today I will attempt to print for the first time.

Can anybody give me any starters as to what exposure time I need for a well exposed XP2 neg onto Ilford MG at F11?

I'm using 7x5" paper, I guess I will need to print a few times before I get a good print this being my first time after all, how many prints will the chems last for, oh and how much chem should I mix up for each tray?

I have no safe light, well I do but its green and it suuuuuuucks!!!!! will an LED tail light from my bike do?

Gary Holliday · Apr 22, 2007

You have a lot to read before you start!

I don't have any lecture notes on this PC so just a few quick pointers to get you started..I've some developing to do now!

What equipment do you have?
Wha size are your dev trays?
if 10x8 approx. Use 1000ml of solution. 1+9 ratio = 10ml of dev 900ml of water.

You need to do a test strip to decide the correct exposure. This is the awkward part to explain without notes or pictures!

Get a red or light brown darkroom safelight, you'll not see very much otherwise!

later

Nick Zentena · Apr 22, 2007

Nobody knows how powerful or not your enlarger is . Even if we did you need to learn how to do a test strip So we wouldn't tell you

On the chemical question it depends on what chemicals. I'm assuming Ilfords but don't they make various developers etc still? Each can have different capacities and required times. Before you go into the dark time to surf over to the Ilford website and download the docs. You didn't even tell us how big the trays are.

ajuk · Apr 22, 2007

Oh I know about test strips, I was just looking for a starting point.

Neal · Apr 22, 2007

Dear ajuk,

Try 5 second strips at f16 (this will change dramatically in the future, but it should get you on the paper today).

Neal Wydra

bdial · Apr 22, 2007

As Nick said, it depends hugely on your enlarger, but try 20 sec to start and uncover more of the test sheet each 5 seconds 3 times. Stop the lens down by 2 or 3 stops from wide open. Your test will be 20 seconds, 15, 10 and 5.
If things are way off, try halving or doubling the start time and do another. Keep in mind that 1/2 or double the time is the same as changing the lens by 1 f stop.

glbeas · Apr 22, 2007

BTW the led tail lamp should do. Eventually you may want to test it with your brand of paper for fogging, theres threads in the forums describing the process quite nicely.

ajuk · Apr 22, 2007

What do you think

27 sec at f11 on Ilford MG, not sure what grade I used but the magenta filter says 80 and the yellow says 30!
Did anybody doubt me?

bdial · Apr 22, 2007

Quite nice, good job! I didn't doubt you.
BTW, did you try the tail light?

ajuk · Apr 22, 2007

yeah Cateye LD600

bdial · Apr 22, 2007

Thanks, apparently it worked for you. I have a smaller Cateye than yours, and your inquiry got me thinking it might be more useful in the darkroom than on the bike.

glbeas · Apr 22, 2007

Great shot. My monitor shows blocked shadows and no highlight detail but that may be what this image needs to sing. Personally I like a little texture in highlights, especially in faces but the shadows look good going to black in cases like this.

Bob F. · Apr 22, 2007

Looks good. The fairly high contrast suits the image.

If you look at the info sheet that was inside the paper box (or you can download it from the Ilfordphoto.com site if you've lost it) it gives the different combined yellow & magenta values for each grade for most enlargers. 30Y/80M looks to be about Grade 3 - 3.5 from the data sheet depending on the enlarger. I wrote a small table of the recommended filter values from the Ilford data sheet and taped it to the enlarger (although I usually use the split-grade method these days).

I'd suggest not using the green safelight without doing a test first as it may likely not be safe for MGIV, but the red LED bike lamp will be fine; keep it no closer than about a metre and I'd be amazed if it caused any problems. I use a similar one as a torch to supplement my normal safelight (an orange high power LED).

Have fun, Bob.

ajuk · Apr 22, 2007

The green safelight is pointless anyway, its too dim.

Blighty · Apr 22, 2007

Ajuk, it's a good print and at the very least you can get in your darkroom! We're doing the decorating and I can't get into mine because it's become a bleedin' storeroom Jealous, jealous.........

ajuk · Apr 22, 2007

Link
I scanned the print Took a look at the histogram, No blown out highlights (unlike this scan shows) but shadows wern't so good, maybe I should have done 23 or 24 seconds.

User Removed · Apr 22, 2007

...figured this thread would have something to do with Ruth Bernhard!

Today is the day!

ben-s · Apr 23, 2007

Congratulations, Ajuk.
There's nothing quite like seeing your first print emerge from the dev is there?
A real feeling of I made that

Andy K · Apr 23, 2007

Gary Holliday said:
You have a lot to read before you start!

I don't have any lecture notes on this PC so just a few quick pointers to get you started..I've some developing to do now!

What equipment do you have?
Wha size are your dev trays?
if 10x8 approx. Use 1000ml of solution. 1+9 ratio = 10ml of dev 900ml of water.

You need to do a test strip to decide the correct exposure. This is the awkward part to explain without notes or pictures!

Get a red or light brown darkroom safelight, you'll not see very much otherwise!

later

Gary, probably a typo but shouldn't that be 1+9 = 100ml of dev to 900ml water?

ajuk · Apr 23, 2007

Well I will be doing it again, I have just spent £14 on a Nikkor EL 50mm 2.8 Enlarger lens, because my Meopta F4.5 lens is a bit Rubbish.

ben-s · Apr 23, 2007

ajuk said:
Well I will be doing it again, I have just spent £14 on a Nikkor EL 50mm 2.8 Enlarger lens, because my Meopta F4.5 lens is a bit Rubbish.

Do you have the Meopta Axomat 5?

ajuk · Apr 23, 2007

ben-s said:
Do you have the Meopta Axomat 5?

Yes

Removed Account · Apr 23, 2007

When I did my first prints a few years ago (5x7s) they were going black and I couldn't figure it out... then I realized that I had the lens wide open at f/2.8...:rolleyes: You seem to be doing just fine!

ajuk · Apr 23, 2007

cafeharrar said:
When I did my first prints a few years ago (5x7s) they were going black and I couldn't figure it out... then I realized that I had the lens wide open at f/2.8...:rolleyes: You seem to be doing just fine!

I did that only once, the first time, and I bit later on by mistake.

ajuk · Apr 23, 2007

Can effects be added, like deliberately Fiddling with the focus halfway through exposure to create a soft focus effect, or tilting the enlarger slightly so that only part of the image is in focus?

Today is the day

Privacy & Transparency

Privacy & Transparency