rebirth

J

jimedge

Suspended / Banned
Messages
11
Name
Jim
Edit My Images
No
Hi everyone, I have a problem which is causing me some embarrassment and makes me feel like a complete beginner. I have been a photographer since the age of 17 and cut my teeth on Mamiya's, Hasselblads and Sinar and Linhof monorails. That was during the late 60's as a graphic design student - In the 70's I studied photography under some pretty big names and went on to spend large portions of my working life as a pro photographer/sometime lecturer and winner of the occasional Arts Council commission. I completely abandoned (have I spelt that right?) film in favour of digital in about 2000 and have until now been using Nikon DSLR's. Now 63 years old I have decided to move back into film and have bought myself a Mamiya 645 and a few bits and pieces - I still have most of my old darkroom gear and my trusty Lunasix III and a spare room to convert to a home lab. All I want to do is to take leisurely mono photographs and produce gallery quality prints in my retirement; but now I am lost! I can't just stroll down to my local dealer and buy film, paper and chemicals like I once did, and the world of materials is full of unfamiliar names and processes - and I just can't believe the price of a roll of 120 film!!! - at this sort of price my work needs to be even more leisurely than intended!

Is there a seasoned B&W photographer out there who can get me back on track?

Jim
 
You can get some good descriptions of different films on the Silverprint site.

I sympathise with all the unfamilar names - I still haven't really got over losing Unitol (but I still have the calculator).

I just checked the price of 120 in 1960 and 1970 - it's actually cheaper now than it was in 1970 when you take inflation into account. But I would prefer it still to be 2/9d (about 14p in funny munny).

I'm sure that there are a lot of people who can help with different recommendations, but a good start would be Ilford FP4, which I develop in Rodinal.

Buying materials depends on where you live. There is actually a shop in Brighton (near me) that casn supply 5x4 over the counter - but don't try this in Jessops!
 
Last edited:
Hi Jim

I shall be very interested in responses to your question.

I follow a hybrid workflow, developing my own film and then scanning and using digital processing and printing.

This results in perfectly acceptable images for internet use and for A4 type size home printing.

I sometimes, but rarely, have an image I'd like to see on a gallery quality print. I'm considering a quality A3 printer but finding it hard to justify the cost.

I buy all my chemicals and most of my film from AG photographic if that helps.

If someone can recommend a company that does high quality prints from a single image, that would be great.
 
Thanks for that Stephen - FP4 and HP5 have always been my films of choice. What do you know of Ilford Multigrade paper - is it variable contrast as the name suggests - variable by filtration maybe? If so it sounds a far better solution than keeping several boxes of paper of different grades in the fridge! I have googled Ilford and have no stockists within 20 miles so it's online for me.

Take your point about relative cost - a roll of 120 fp4 used to cost me about £1.20 in 1976 when a good week's wage was not a fraction of today's wages. I am not well off by any standard, but sort of comfortable-ish! Price will help me to develop a more considered approach to my work, which is really what I want. What I originally considered was buying a used 10x8 monorail and just contact printing, but cost of sheet film almost gave me a coronary (a very real issue at my age)!

Regards

Jim
 
Take a look at some of the European sheet films. I have a box of Adox 5x4 (my main film film size) that cost less for 50 sheets than FP4 did for 25. The only thing to watch out for with the older design films is that the emulsion can be more easily scratched in processing. Yes, Multigrade papers are variable contrast, and that opens a whole new topic of potential discussion. You use filters (above ot below the lens) or a colour enlarger (may not be able to get the hardest grade that way) or a variable contrast B&W head, depending on what enlarger you have.

Don't worry about your age - you're a youngster compared to me :D
 
Hi Simon - thanks for your reply. I understand what you mean when you mention a hybrid approach. I considered buying a high end film scanner and Photoshopping everything, but at heart I am something of a purist. I have an Epson 1520 A2 plotter which cost me over £1000 a decade ago - it's dither is like a tight and fine photographic grain - but like me it is getting old! I can't see the point of processing my own film and then just digitizing everything, I want to go the whole way and make everything mine - no machine, just me and wet fingers!

Jim
 
I would be interested to learn more about Multigrade papers if there is an expert out there!
 
Jim,

If you fancy a trip from North Wales to Manchester, I have a small darkroom at home and use Ilford multigrade more than any other paper. Happy to go through things with you to get an idea of what you might need.
 
I've been using Ilford Multigrade papers (both fibre and resin based) with good results in the uni darkrooms over the past few months.

Contrast does indeed vary with filtration in the enlarger (rough guide is slight yellow filtration to get Grade 00 then white light (no filters) is roughly grade 2 and then add magenta filtration to get up to grade 5)

Hope that helps - More details here http://www.ilfordphoto.com/Webfiles/2006130201152306.pdf

I've been loving Fomapan film stock as well (available from Silverprint) - got some good results developing it in ID11
 
Hi Steve!

Thanks for the offer. I'm afraid I abandoned my car in Holland whilst I was working over there a few years ago - my fuel pump decided to die whilst I was at 80 mph in the fast lane of the motorway at rush hour - nearly got myself killed!

Havn't owned a car since and don't miss it - I now travel everywhere by bus, ,train or a brisk walk, so a trip to Manchester would be a major outing. I do appreciate the offer though!

I take it one can buy the filters for multigrade quite easily, or do I need a dichro head?
 
jimedge said:
Hi Steve!

Thanks for the offer. I'm afraid I abandoned my car in Holland whilst I was working over there a few years ago - my fuel pump decided to die whilst I was at 80 mph in the fast lane of the motorway at rush hour - nearly got myself killed!

Havn't owned a car since and don't miss it - I now travel everywhere by bus, ,train or a brisk walk, so a trip to Manchester would be a major outing. I do appreciate the offer though!

I take it one can buy the filters for multigrade quite easily, or do I need a dichro head?
Click to expand...

No problem Jim,

For multigrade paper I use mainly resin coated as much easier and cheaper than fibre based. I use pearl or satin mainly....not too keen on gloss, but its a matter of taste.

I have 2 enlargers. A Durst I use for 35mm which has a filter holder under the lens and in this I place the multigrade filters. They come in the range of 00 to 5 in 1/2 step increments. 2 is neutral and really is like having no filter in at all. 2 and 1/2 to 5 increase the contrast, with 5 almost giving a silhouette on an already contrasty negative. 00 to 1 and a 1/2 reduce contrast. I have never found the need to use these, but I do prefer a contrasty print. Again personal preference.

I use a DeVere enlarger for medium and large format. This is a colour enlarger that has yellow magenta and cyan values that get dialled in. These double up as filters and Ilford have information for all enlarger makes and what values to use to replicate the under the lens filters.

I find I use a multigrade filter for every single print I make so find the multigrade system excellent, and I would never go back to single grade paper.

Hope this helps, but any questions just ask
 
Hi David! Thanks for your response to my post.

You are right, N. Wales is a great place for a photographer to live and work. I am originally a city boy from Liverpool and moved with my family at age 11 to Wrexham, 12 miles equidistant between Chester and Llangollen. Where did you live whilst in N. Wales? I spent a number of years studying in Nottingham and Derby, and have spent much of the last 14 years living and working in Holland, Belgium and Germany.

My main area of photographic activity for probably the last 30 years has been documentary/reportage. I set up and ran a documentary workshop in Wrexham a good number of years ago and later was offered a commission by the Welsh Arts Council to run a couple of residencies in the Wrexham and Deeside areas, which went well. This was followed by a couple of years as a visiting lecturer in photography at a local college in Wrexham. I am currently looking at the possibility of setting up another workshop in my own local area with the production of perhaps a locally produced and printed publication.

I have always wanted to produce stunning mono prints full of brooding skies and rivers of twisted chiffon though......
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top