With Summer now coming to an end, I'll be looking at spending
some time back in the darkroom again. (yes, the smell of
stop-bath! Don't get that with Epson printers)
A couple things I'm going to be doing different this year.
First of all, I'm thinking about a switch from Ilford paper to
Kodak paper OR a switch in chemistry. The problem I'm having
with the Ilford multicontrast RC paper is that the deep blacks
don't get coal-tar black like I've seen with Kodak
paper/chemistry. It's not exposure related as I can blast a
sheet of paper till the cows come home and it still remains
slight gray tinged. I'm using the Ilford chemistry. Does
anybody have any thoughts?
Secondly, I'm going to experiment with my drum roller for B&W
print making. Instead of filling entire trays with chemistry I
can use a lot less in the drum that I had gotten for color work.
Thirdly, I'm going to bug my father to let me use his film
developer stuff (canisters, spools, beakers, changing bag, etc)
so I can process my own B&W. I'm going to land back in the
world of either Ilford Pan-F or Kodak Plus-X. My primary desire
is to get as grainless and high resolving of a film as possible.
I know I can get that with both of these films. What are the
"soup" recommendations that you have for either (or both) of
these films. Along with that, I will also need a current "soup"
recommendation for Tri-X.
I will also be doing some experiementation with my enlarger by
switching to a CF tube instead of the regular enlarger bulb.
I'm trying to "convert" my enlarger from a condensor to a
diffusion type without losing tons of stops. I won't toss out
the regular bulb or condensors, but I'm hoping that I can do
something to "brighten" and create a difuse source of light.
I'm on a tight budget, so getting a different enlarger or head
is out of the question.
In other words, come the end of October, I may be putting aside
the Velvia for quite a while.
OM content: All 35mm shots taken with Olympus.
Ken N.
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