Help please with information on photography.

Searching back into the recesses of my mind, hoping something will come back from what I did at uni . . . (it was only eighteen months ago!)

This is based on 35mm black and white, by the way (we didn't have colour processing facilities). You take your film in its canister into the darkroom - you can still have the lights on because you haven't taken it out of the case yet - and you lock the door. (This was the point where you read the instructions on the wall about seven times and hope to remember them.)

You have got with you a plastic reel - a little like an empty video film reel, I suppose - a plastic tray and a plastic rod. Put the rod and the tray down - you don't need them yet. On the side of the sink is a clock (and in our case a note saying, "Don't leave the clock on the sink - it rusts). It has got vaguely glow-in-the-dark hands (but not luminous) - set it to eight and a half minutes but don't switch it on yet.

Find your "tin opener" - this is a thing like a bottle opener (not the corkscrew ones) - and you scissors. Now switch off the lights . . .

This is the fun bit. Open the end of the film canister using the tin opener - the action is much like taking a metal cap off a beer bottle etc. Holding the top end of the film, let the case fall on the floor because you don't need it and allow the film to unravel - depending on the number of pictures on the film it can be about six feet long or more. Taking your scissors, find the end of the film - snip off the plastic middle bit that the film was around and also the other end of the film - you'll know it as it tapers off.

Wind the film onto the plastic video film-type reel (it's about 10cm wide), around the edges (there are little grooves to get the film into) by turning one side of the reel forward and the other side backwards. If you're good at this, it'll take you about five minutes - if you're me it takes five minutes to get it onto the reel and staying there. (You still have to be in the dark.)

Drop your loaded reel onto the rod and put it into the developing solution - this was in a big block-like shape like a car battery, with three sunken holes in. Put the lid on the developer, set the clock going and every minute agitate the film by moving the rod up and down like a plunger. At the end of this time, take it out and open the lid on the next hole - wash the film in it by moving it up and down for a minute or so. Put the lids back on and put the film on the stick into the third hole. This is the fixing solution. Put the lid on, leave it there for ten minutes. (You may now switch the light on because the film is done when it comes out of the fixer.)

After the ten minutes is up, turn on the tap in the sink and let it run. (Ours had a hosepipe attached to it with the other end leading to a fourth deep cylinder - you need this to fill with water but let the tap keep running.) Take your film on a stick out of the fixer and put it in the cylinder of water - now let it wash in there for 10-20 minutes.

When you're done, you may leave the room. Carry your stick on the tray to the drier and turn the drier on. (It's almost like a cabinet with a heater in the base.) Unwind your wet film from the reel. Clip one end of the film to the metal clip hanging from the top of the cupboard - or, if you're me you either stand on a chair or get a tall person to help - and a second clip on the end of the film, otherwise the heat makes it curl. Wash your stick and reel and put them away.

When finished, your film will be harder and less floppy. You can now unclip it and cut it into strips of six exposures each (hold it up to the light and you will see your pictures), then put each strip into a pocket in a negative bag. (This is like an A4 plastic ring binder wallet except a bit wider and it is sealed to make about eight film-sized pockets.)

Printing coming up shortly . . .

"If we go on like this, you're going to turn into an Alsatian again."

Part two . . .

Your negatives are now quite safe from being hurt by exposure to light because they have already been exposed, so printing is next.

In our black-and-white dark room we had a red light only, which does make it hard to see but is apparently the best colour - it's bright enough but not too bright.
Taking your dried film strip out of the negative bag, you put the strip into a kind of viewer like a slide projector. Switching on the light on the projector, you will be able to see an image of the picture on the film - check that it is in focus (if not, you can correct it using the dials next to you).

If on your own you can switch on the projector light to see what you're doing at this point but otherwise keep it to a minimum as your light can affect other prints being made at the same time. At the side of the projector, we had a timer - a dial marked out in seconds (every fifth one numbered) which we turned to measure four seconds. To make a test strip, take a sheet of photographic paper (light must be off now) and place under the area where the photo will be projected onto.

Cover most of your test strip with a piece of card, then switch on the timer. It will go off after 4 seconds. Uncover a little more test strip and repeat until the whole strip has been done. We had a machine that then developed the image and dried the paper - it is a big machine like a large fax machine (but the size and width of three chest freezers). Take it out into the light and you will see your picture in "stripes" of tone - the palest has been exposed for 4 seconds, the next shade down for eight, the next for 12 etc.

In the light you can see what the best exposure time for your picture is so all you need to do now is go back in (assuming it was in focus), set the timer on the exposer to, say 15 seconds (or whatever looks best, judging by the test strip), put your photographic paper in place, press to expose your picture and after 15 seconds the light goes off, you put it in the developing machine and it's done.

"If we go on like this, you're going to turn into an Alsatian again."

I was just thinking, another option might be to seek out a person who works as a technician in a university or college. (We never did film processing or printing at college so I didn't learn how to do it myself till I got to university.)

But we did have (when you could find him!) a technician lurking in the cupboard behind the signing-in desk and he always knew what to do if your prints came out too dark or too light etc. Somebody like that would be a mine of information.

One other thing occurs to me - if there's a local camera club in your locality, I'm sure there would be a lot of club members there who would be happy to share their knowledge.


"If we go on like this, you're going to turn into an Alsatian again."

All right. Thanks to both of you for your help.



"I'm not going there to die, I'm going to find out if I'm really alive." ~Spike Spiegel

Something to add:

Without an automatic developing machine for your prints, you usually have three liquids in three different trays. First the developer (this is were the image slowly turns up), the stop bath (not a hundred percent necessary, but it keeps the next liquid working longer) and then the fixing bath (the developer develops the exposed area of the image and tiny little grains of silver create the image; the stop bath stops the chemical reaction of the developer and neutralizes it - the developer is basic (as in chemistry) and the stop bath is acidic (often some sort of vinegar) - the fixer (acidic again) washes out the undeveloped rest of the image - if you don't do that your image will get murky with time. Then you wash your image for some time to get rid of the fixer (if you don't do that, the image will slowly destroy itself, because the fixer will eat even the developed parts). This is actually the same procedure as developing the film, only while developing your prints you can have a very dim red light on, because the paper does not react to red (your film, however, does!).

Do a search on youtube if you want to see how it works (e.g. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vu0Ul_wsYO8).

Cameras used is a hard question. All sorts of cameras are used. Digital is normal for amateurs, even demanding ones, and even professionals (especially journalists). However, a lot of people are still using film.

The most widely used cameras are single-lens reflex cameras. Most famous brands are Canon and Nikon. They have a mirror inside, so you can see the picture you are taking through the lens, but that usually makes them a little bulky. That's why consumer level point and shoots don't have that mirror and are smaller.

Then there are rangefinders. Top brand is Leica, but you have to have a little bit of money to get a Leica. They are smaller and lighter, so you can carry them around more easily. Leias are very quiet and are used in street photography a lot.

Medium format cameras have a larger frame size (comparable to IMAX vs. 35mm motion picture). This obviously makes for larger cameras, but also higher image quality and less depth of field (which is used as an artistic effect).

And large format cameras have an even higher image size and quality, which is why they are used mainly for artistic purposes. You can't carry those around very easily.

Toy cameras come in all forms and shapes. They are mainly used to create strange effects and for their low image quality (e.g. vignetting). Another technique used is cross processing, which means you develop your E6 film (reversal film, or slide film) in C41 (negative film) chemistry. This will get you a very high contrast image with very strong mostly a little bit off colors.

A great resource if you want to see pictures made with different cameras, films, processes etc. is Flickr. Just search "Lomo" (a movement associated with toy cameras) or "toy cameras" or "medium format" or "large format" or "xpro" or "crossprocessed" etc. You will find a whole lot of different images. You can also make a google search (e.g. "large format" to see a large format camera). Read some Wikipedia articles or buy a book. Or find someone who's completely into photography and let him talk to you all day long. The more research you do the better, even if you don't know how to use all that stuff you've learned. You just need to know a little bit what you're talking about. Good luck.

Im Kino gewesen. Geweint. ---Franz Kafka

In this era of digital domain everything became quick
But There are still film lover(Kodak vs Fuji users),black and white lovers,dia lovers...
There are digital SLR users , Bridge users and point and shoot users
There are Nikon Vs Canon Users and viceversa
I love bridge and point and shoot...I been able to catch some amazing moments with my camera in my pocket...
There are master of Retouchings,Jpgs Haters and lovers and purist fighing with Raw Files...

I don't know more

"life is Chiaroscuro matter" Fabio