Azo problem

[Pete Watkins]

I've finally decided to try some Azo that I've had for about 8 or 9 years.
I've hit a problem! Michael A. Smith states in his writings that he exposes his Azo using a 300 watt light bulb and gives the paper between 10 & 20 seconds exposure. I've had a try this afternoon using a 75 watt enlarger bulb about 2 feet above the paper, with no other diffusion, and I'm getting an exposure time of 6 seconds. This is just too fast for me, I need time to decide about dodging and burning.
I've mixed a paper developer that was recommended for contact printing papers. The formula for 1 litre is :-
2.2 grams of Metol
50 grames of Sodium Sulfite
11 grams of Hydroquinone
78 grams of Sodium Carbonate
5.5 grams of Potassium Bromide
Is my problem the developer or should I just wire in a dimmer switch and live with that. I have Amidol but did not have time to devote a whole day to contact printing.Any advice would be appreciated.
Pete.

[sanking]

I've finally decided to try some Azo that I've had for about 8 or 9 years.
I've hit a problem! Michael A. Smith states in his writings that he exposes his Azo using a 300 watt light bulb and gives the paper between 10 & 20 seconds exposure. I've had a try this afternoon using a 75 watt enlarger bulb about 2 feet above the paper, with no other diffusion, and I'm getting an exposure time of 6 seconds. This is just too fast for me, I need time to decide about dodging and burning.
I've mixed a paper developer that was recommended for contact printing papers. The formula for 1 litre is :-
2.2 grams of Metol
50 grames of Sodium Sulfite
11 grams of Hydroquinone
78 grams of Sodium Carbonate
5.5 grams of Potassium Bromide
Is my problem the developer or should I just wire in a dimmer switch and live with that. I have Amidol but did not have time to devote a whole day to contact printing.Any advice would be appreciated.
Pete.

Pete,

Get a 10-15 watt bulb.

Michael Smith's recommendation to use a 300 watt bulb is based on the fact that his standard negative, on the old Kodak Super-XX, has a very, very high Base+Fog. This is due primarily to age of the film, over two decades old at this time.

In my own limited work with AZO using "standard" type negatives, i.e. those with shadow density of 0.20 or less, I found that a 10-15 watt bulb at about four feet from the paper gives good results with exposure times of about 30-60 seconds.

Sandy

[Pete Watkins]

Thanks so much Sandy. I'm off to a local specialist electrical shop in the morning. I've got 15 watt bulbs but they have printing in the centre of the glass.
Thanks again.
Pete.

[Pawlowski6132]

Thanks so much Sandy. I'm off to a local specialist electrical shop in the morning. I've got 15 watt bulbs but they have printing in the centre of the glass.
Thanks again.
Pete.

It doesn't matter. The light is diffuse enough by the time it reaches your print.

[John Berry]

If you are going to use a reflector bulb, probably not for 15 watt, make sure it has even light over you intended exposure area. Check it with you exposure meter. Look at the bulbs and you will notice that the frosted surface has quite a variation in thickness. The main problem is the element needs to be centered. Most of the time it ain't. Providing you with a hot or dark spot. I bought six bulbs before I got one that worked. You may think the light is even, you meter will let you know that you were wrong. This is, by the way, with the bulb at 5' from exposure surface. 1/4 stop drop off at 8x10 size is not going to be noticed visually by most. CHECK IT WITH A METER. Azo is to spendy to waste.

[Daniel Stone]

OR....

you can build a box(hell, it can be a cardboard box, probably around 8" or so from light source to diffusion material, even wax paper will work, or better yet, parchment paper).

It will give a diffused(slightly) light source, and will act similarly to a softbox, or lightpanel with lighting product, etc...

some people say it lowers contrast, I haven't had a problem, and I can use clear 65w lightbulbs if I want too . I bought em 2/$1 at the 99c store locally, stocked up on a whole case(24).

just an idea...not a pretty looking one, but its worked fine for me, and I get EVEN lighting.

I'm not doing 18x22" contact prints though, 8x10 is my biggest.

-Dan

[Asher Kelman]

I've finally decided to try some Azo that I've had for about 8 or 9 years.
I've hit a problem! Michael A. Smith states in his writings that he exposes his Azo using a 300 watt light bulb and gives the paper between 10 & 20 seconds exposure. I've had a try this afternoon using a 75 watt enlarger bulb about 2 feet above the paper, with no other diffusion, and I'm getting an exposure time of 6 seconds. This is just too fast for me, I need time to decide about dodging and burning.

Pete,

I have to admit I've never done any Azo, but I do know about light sources. It's best to have a bunch of lights larger than your area to be illuminated, so there's no rapid fall of at the edges and if there's space, to have the lights far away as possible and using as many smaller lights, 2, 4 of even 6, as you can obtain of lower wattage. If that's done, then it will reduce hot spots and then adding diffusion, as suggested, will given even illumination to the edges. Of course, you can also do it with just one light and diffusion.

Then simply adjust the final height of your light so the time is 30 seconds.

Asher

[Pete Watkins]

Again,
Thanks to everybody for their help.
Pete.

[Jim Noel]

Edward Weston used a single light bulb mounted on a rod which ran through a hole in a piece of wood with a thumb screw to hold it in position. He also used one or more layers of toilet tissue to attenuate the light and get the printing time he desired.

You can not get any simpler.

[Herb Cunningham]

I took a workshop with Michael and Paula a few years ago, he had his bulb hung from monofilament, and knotted for different formats. That said, indeed his negs are a lot more dense than those with current films.
I use a 75watt bulb about 4 feet above my 11x14 negatives and get times on Lodima of about 15 sec.
If you can rig a string to raise and lower the light, you can have whatever times you want.