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Thread: Getting started in 11x14"

  1. #51
    bob carnie's Avatar
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    Re: Getting started in 11x14"

    Quote Originally Posted by Robert Brazile View Post
    I second Bob's suggestion; I've been working with gelatin dry plates for a couple years now, and recently took a run at 11x14. As mentioned, it's quite freeing to be able to make any size and configuration plate you want, provided you have a way of procuring holders. I've managed to find 4x5, 5x7, 8x10, 10x12, 11x14 and whole plate (in varying condition; some repair required), but I've been thinking about making my own for odd sizes and shapes; at that point I'm just limited by my ability to cut glass...

    Robert
    One day I plan to meet with Denise, and see her work and ideas, I have met with Ron Morey who showed me his silver gelatin coatings , It was quite reassuring to me to know that if the manufactures go bat shit crazy and either price their coatings out of range, or even drop them altogether there are people like Denise and Ron who are indeed passing down the knowledge on how to make incredible emulsions for paper and glass.

    I would be interested in making glass plate negatives , as then I can enlarge, scan, or contact to my hearts content.. I need to get out of Toronto's small business rat race, by winning the lottery and dedicate serious time to this method of making negatives.


    Robert -Cutting Glass is the least of your worries I would think, any frame shop in the world cuts glass with precision every day..

  2. #52

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    Re: Getting started in 11x14"

    Quote Originally Posted by bob carnie View Post
    One day I plan to meet with Denise, and see her work and ideas, I have met with Ron Morey who showed me his silver gelatin coatings , It was quite reassuring to me to know that if the manufactures go bat shit crazy and either price their coatings out of range, or even drop them altogether there are people like Denise and Ron who are indeed passing down the knowledge on how to make incredible emulsions for paper and glass.
    Yes, I took the two courses at Eastman from Mark Osterman and Nick Brandreth, and met and chatted with Ron Mowrey there. Learned a great deal from all of them. Also got the opportunity to look at examples from the archives there and have also enjoyed buying antique dry plates for comparison with my own. Still learning, a long way to go, but lots of fun.

    Quote Originally Posted by bob carnie View Post
    I would be interested in making glass plate negatives , as then I can enlarge, scan, or contact to my hearts content.. I need to get out of Toronto's small business rat race, by winning the lottery and dedicate serious time to this method of making negatives.
    It's really not difficult to do the basics, all I can say is: jump in! I put it off longer than I should have, worrying about all the things that could go wrong. When I finally tried it, a few things did go wrong and it still came out usable. So my advice is to either take a course, or buy Denise's book (or both!) and jump right in.

    Quote Originally Posted by bob carnie View Post
    Robert -Cutting Glass is the least of your worries I would think, any frame shop in the world cuts glass with precision every day..
    Ha ha -- thanks, but I realized after writing that that it would be ambiguous. I have no trouble cutting glass at all: in straight lines. That parenthetical comment was in reference to my potential desire to shoot on "odd shapes".

    Robert

  3. #53

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    Re: Getting started in 11x14"

    Quote Originally Posted by paulbarden View Post
    I'm seriously considering venturing into 11X14 wet plate work. I seem to be competent with 8X10 so the idea of 11X14 plates is very enticing. The idea of freeing myself from dependence on film manufacturers is also very appealing.

    A collodion-on-glass test from earlier this week.
    I've never seen dynamic range like that with wetplate, great job. What collodion formula did you use? Is this a print from a glass negative?

  4. #54

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    Re: Getting started in 11x14"

    Quote Originally Posted by Hugo Zhang View Post
    Oren,

    We are currently making a few ultra-light weight horizontal only 11x14 cameras much in the tradition of Philips Explorer. It will have a weight of 6kg and it is designed with landscape photographers in mind. I use my Chamonix 1114 camera with reversible back this morning in Mono lake area and made four exposures. All of them were horizontal format. It would be nice if I used a lighter camera because it was quite a walk from the parking lot to the shore of the lake.

    Hugo
    Will these ever be manufactured again?

  5. #55
    bob carnie's Avatar
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    Re: Getting started in 11x14"

    I posted a couple of years ago on this thread, I still have not made a full image print on my 11 x 14 enlarger.. since that last post I have moved to my second last work space , this one I believe I will operate for 10 -15 years then I plan to move to a small Ontario village and make my last stand (darkroom) . These images were taken over the weekend I am finding a huge resurgence in silver gelatin from enlarged negative and IMHO will be the reason silver paper will be made commercially in 6 years. By mixing digital skills and outputting to silver or inkjet negatives one can really manage the paper costs effectively. Click image for larger version. 

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    But now that I am doing this I still have not answered the question for myself which is IS A 24 X 30 IMAGE BETTER, SHARPER, TONAL SCALE SUPERIOR FROM AN ENLARGER OR FROM A DIGITAL CAPTURE.. today I have clients capturing on 150 mb Phase One systems and 50 mb Hasselblad systems... but I do not have a 11 x 14 camera and humbly I feel I am not capable of providing the best exposure and scene to compare against.. so I am on the lookout.. good lens , good body all that I can handle and a subject that I am interested in , It would have to be part of my ongoing Consumption Series me thinks, but not necessarily. FP4 film exposed properly , processed Jobo PMK and then put in my enlarger to make 2 x magnification prints, and then have one of my friends beside me capturing the same scene with the same lighting setup and make the same size print...... personally I do not know which one will be better but one day I will do this test and forever put this nagging question behind me.

  6. #56
    Tin Can's Avatar
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    Re: Getting started in 11x14"

    Bob, I admire your honesty and goals

    A small town is desirable going forward

    I have no regrets leaving a big city

    Quote Originally Posted by bob carnie View Post
    I posted a couple of years ago on this thread, I still have not made a full image print on my 11 x 14 enlarger.. since that last post I have moved to my second last work space , this one I believe I will operate for 10 -15 years then I plan to move to a small Ontario village and make my last stand (darkroom) . These images were taken over the weekend I am finding a huge resurgence in silver gelatin from enlarged negative and IMHO will be the reason silver paper will be made commercially in 6 years. By mixing digital skills and outputting to silver or inkjet negatives one can really manage the paper costs effectively. Click image for larger version. 

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    But now that I am doing this I still have not answered the question for myself which is IS A 24 X 30 IMAGE BETTER, SHARPER, TONAL SCALE SUPERIOR FROM AN ENLARGER OR FROM A DIGITAL CAPTURE.. today I have clients capturing on 150 mb Phase One systems and 50 mb Hasselblad systems... but I do not have a 11 x 14 camera and humbly I feel I am not capable of providing the best exposure and scene to compare against.. so I am on the lookout.. good lens , good body all that I can handle and a subject that I am interested in , It would have to be part of my ongoing Consumption Series me thinks, but not necessarily. FP4 film exposed properly , processed Jobo PMK and then put in my enlarger to make 2 x magnification prints, and then have one of my friends beside me capturing the same scene with the same lighting setup and make the same size print...... personally I do not know which one will be better but one day I will do this test and forever put this nagging question behind me.
    Tin Can

  7. #57
    bob carnie's Avatar
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    Re: Getting started in 11x14"

    Thanks Randy... I have always pinned for a small town, I grew up in Woodstock Ontario and then moved to Toronto for the greater part of my adult life... Toronto is great make no bones about it, the city is full of people that have come from small communities all over the world. but there is something about a small town, rural setting that has always been my dream.. being a commercial printer for others is a Urban Job, at least for the first 30 years., now I could move out of town and still clients would follow me.

  8. #58
    Drew Wiley
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    Re: Getting started in 11x14"

    I sold my house outside of a very very small town, a long ways away from any actual city - much nicer than my house here. It had a fantastic view, a view which is now largely carbonized by the most dramatic fire in State history. The property itself is just below the destruction zone. It's own immediately surrounding brush and forest already burned in catastrophic fires decades ago, and it's been largely cattle grazing land ever since. Those kinds of rural mountain properties are a LOT of work, especially with respect to mandatory fire prevention tasks; so I decided to sell that property slightly prior to my retirement years. My wife is quite a bit younger, and is still mid-career; so we're staying here on the coast and not planning to move anywhere else yet.
    As far as capture modes, Bob, wouldn't that be awfully contingent on the very different manners of depth of field management in composition, and even portability logistics, between a ULF camera and something smaller subsequently enlarged? Materials cost like film itself would also be a factor; time involved, etc. Very different paths. If I were younger, and hadn't have had so very many overriding responsibilities when in fact young enough, making and using a really big camera would have appealed to me. But 8x10 proved to be the more realistic sweet spot. Now I'm acclimating to MF gear just in case the time ever arrives I can't handle the big stuff. I use it all parallel in the meantime, based on what's best suited for each particular project or weather circumstance.
    Hopefully your lab business will smoothly transition over to the next generation, and you can oversee it a bit more remotely, leaving more time for your own long awaited personal work. There is a sliding scale of how much energy one has left too, in that particular hourglass. As a co-worker once told me slightly before he passed, "You not only grow older, but grow older faster." So use the opportunities while you still have the time and necessary energy.

  9. #59

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    Re: Getting started in 11x14"

    ...amen to that!

  10. #60
    Vaughn's Avatar
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    Re: Getting started in 11x14"

    I live in a small town (1350) sufficiently away from a larger small town (14,000) that has a university, hospital, groceries, hardware stores, and all that stuff five to 11 miles away, depending on my needs and mode of transportation (lately an electric cargo bike w/ pedal assist). Good place to be retired...not necessarily to be a commercial printer.

    Still trying to figure a way to get the 11x14 on the bicycle with damaging it...the bike and the camera cost the same, funny enough...different types of transport! The 5x7, no problem.

    Back to my fence work...good fences make good neighbors, interesting fences get you wondered about...
    My front gate and part of front fence...I have added bocce balls to selected post tops recently.
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails FrontGateHandle.jpg   FF2.jpg  
    "Landscapes exist in the material world yet soar in the realms of the spirit..." Tsung Ping, 5th Century China

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