I'm interested in trying paper negatives in my studio 8x10 to do portraits. Does 8x10 paper need to be cut down to fit the holders? Is any particular paper more suited to portraits than others? I'm planning on using my Speedotron gear for lighting. I'd like a more continuous tone result than, say, a wet plate look. My plan is to use some older uncoated lenses to help with the high contrast. Any advice welcome!
“You often feel tired, not because you've done too much, but because you've done too little of what sparks a light in you.”
― Alexander Den Heijer, Nothing You Don't Already Know
Hi Peter .. yes the paper has to have about 1/32 of an inch trimmed off of it or maybe it is 1/16th of an inch. you'll have to do a few tests to determine your ISO, sometimes it's 24 other times its 6, it all depends on the blue-ness of the light. you can adjust the contrast with darkroom filters or flashing your paper if you find it to be too contrasty. don't make the mistake of pulling your print before it develops completely, a lot of paper negative users do that and they stunt their negative. im not sure what developer you use but I used to love using 2 baths, 1 that was fresh until the image appears, then one that is more exhausted to help with the mid tones .. sounds like a fun project! good luck John
Thanks, John!
“You often feel tired, not because you've done too much, but because you've done too little of what sparks a light in you.”
― Alexander Den Heijer, Nothing You Don't Already Know
can't wait to see what you do with itOriginally Posted by Peter De Smidt
!
Hi jnantz, would you be good enough to elaborate on your comment about the ISO changing based on the blueness of the light? Would a higher Kelvin lengthen the exposure or shorten it, etc? Thanks!
Hi Motdarnoc:
I am not expertly versed in sensitometry you'll have to excuse my lay-person-speak ...
Yup, the more blue ( like tungsten/higher the K ) the shorter your exposure time --but it really depends on the emulsion used to find your sweet spot. Home made simple, modern new VC, or expired vc / graded, or bottled et al all like something different. it will be easy to experiment to figure this out in your controlled environment. you can save yourself some scratch if you have a 35mm camera and a tripod. just cut rectangles of paper, manually put one at a time on the film gate of your 35mm and experiment. your paper doesn't care what you are exposing it in. if you are making exposures outdoors you can do the same thing, and use a flash-fill, xenon isn't specific to blue, it emits panchromatic "everything" light ... take notes and pay attention to your location, the time of the day, open closed shade, bright light &c.
regarding sliding / variable iso ... it's hard to put into words but you will see this with your controlled-experiments. what seems like the same light isn't at least to the paper ... if you blast light on the opposite side of your color temperature scale (yellow?) your meter reads "f11 for 1 second" ( which is probably the exposure for panchromatic film ). your paper is very picky. it's like cooking for a 5 year old. it might not like that light at all ( depending on the emulsion ) and your exposures will be long. same blast of light using opposite side of the color temp > blue, still says "f11 1 second" but your paper likes it and exposure is much faster ... maybe variable / sliding iso isn't the best terminology but it seems to explain things for me at least
if you are capable with a scanner. there is also the riddle about what might seem like a thin poorly exposed paper negative to someone making contact prints might be optimal for your needs...
there's a lot of variables using paper instead of film ... but like everything, its not words typed out by some anonymous guy on the internet but personal experience that matters.
hope what I said made sense, I only had 1 cup of coffee this morning,
good luck with your photo-ing !
John
Last edited by jnantz; 9-Aug-2024 at 06:33.
Thank you John. A lot to ponder in that post! I shoot mostly in a studio so the tests you’re mentioning are fairly easy to do. I also shoot only paper negatives and really like pinhole- a double whammy when it comes to exposure times. High Kelvin light is something I will definitely test. I posted in another thread a question about switching to LEDs from incandescent. I’ll definitely go that route- higher lumens and bluer light. Thanks! Ps, developers will be on the next page
motdarnoc
how are you planning on printing the negatives? ( or will the negatives be the final thing ?)
Hi John, I’ve pretty much followed Michael Lambrect's (sp?) book. Shoot with a yellow filter and develop in Dectol 9:1. The positives are made by contact printing with the usual dodging and burning.
I’ve been thinking more about the color of light and now I’m wondering if I shoot blue light will I need more filtration to ease the contrast, thus more exposure. Or yellower light, less filtration, and longer exposure time. Endless testing!!!
Ps, I just moved and am finishing up a renovation so I’ve been doing a lot of thinking and no shooting- can’t wait to reverse that
Tom
Hi Tom
Mixing the light yourself u won’t need the filter (electric light makes things ezier since you are adding the yellow to the blue at the light's source you won't need a yellow filter ). I think people use yellow filters outdoors with mixed light in bright contrasty situations .. since you are in-studio(?) you won't have to deal with mixed light
Do u mean Ralph Lambrect the guy who wrote way beyond monochrome? 1;9.. that’s a long date.. I've found using 1 session used dektol ( 1:2 ) and fresh dektol (better yet ansco 130 or 125 which has glycin in it and will last longer ) ( 1:2 ) to work really well. start it off in the fresh developer until you see the image appearing through the veil of the paper, and then go into the expired/used developer so the mid tones appear and back and forth until you like the print. 1:9 (to me at least ) sounds like there isn't enough elon and hq in there to give you any contrast. the same routine between the developers works well with caffenol as the 2nd bath. both 2nd baths are active enough to give glowing mid tones, not inactive enough to give a flat grey print. if you have a copy of the caffenol cookbook that's how I made those submissions ..
Good luck figuring it all out, paper instead of film is not easy, lots of variables but it's a lot of fun !
John
Last edited by jnantz; 11-Aug-2024 at 05:17.
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