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Art Design Graphics for Print and Web |
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black & white photography |  |
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| Developing
and printing
Printing the negatives Photographic paper is much less sensitive to light than film, so all work is carried out under the amber safelight. It is critical that you don't allow developer/ stopbath/ fixer solutions to be transferred to your photo paper, so try not to touch the chemicals; keep a towel handy to dry your fingers, and especially, don't let the developer become contaminated by the tongs in the other dishes!! The best idea is to keep the developer tongs well-marked and separate so they never touch any other chemical than developer. A very good developer is Ilford Bromophen, made up from powder to 'stock' solution that you dilute 1 + 3 for a working solution. Follow the powder mixing instructions carefully. Reuse the working solution until you detect a distinct straw-yellow tint. To test your developer, hold a scrap of paper to the roomlight and turn it on for a few seconds. This should over-expose the paper, in which case it will go jet black in the developer. If it is a dark grey, your developer is exhausted. Temperature is not quite so critical, although for best results, the developer should be kept at 20°C and no cooler than 18°C. Stop and Fixer, and wash water can be room temperature. Like film, paper is affected by the amount of light it receives (aperture, or the size of the opening in the lens) and the duration of the exposure (time spent under the light). As long as you keep the other variables relatively constant (especially the time the paper stays in the developer, and the developer temperature), then you should achieve consistent results, with judicious use of test-strips. Set your enlarging lens aperture to f8 or f11, and make adjustments by altering the time you expose the negative onto the paper. You only really need to change this aperture setting when doing a large size print (enlarger head needs to be higher above the paper so less intense light falls on the paper), or when negatives are dense, or too 'thin'. Note that if you can achieve negatives of consistent density through correct exposure in the camera, then printing the film can be quick, easy and intuitive. Always make a test-strip before printing, as this saves lots of wasted paper. When developing the print, the first tones to come out are the darkest, and areas of most contrast. Finer greys, and delicate tones take much longer. So always leave the developing print in the developer for at least two minutes or even more. The print always looks much darker under the safelight, and if the print develops out too dark, then expose another print, using less exposure time. Or better still, do another small test-strip to ascertain the correct exposure time. Make sure you wash your prints thoroughly, agitating them and not leaving them in water unattended, as they will de-laminate if left in water too long, and traces of fixer left on them will eventually stain.
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