Untitled 666

Recently posted picture now revisited after darkroom. Eventhough the flash speed was wrong I like this one. Its like this black wall is eating Vika or something.

Rosedal, BsAs

Holga + Ilford HP5 + Rodinal 1/200

El rosedal de Palermo, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Great thing about BW film is that it can take amazing amounts of under & over exposure.
Like in this picture here, scenery was a delight for human eye but light conditions were terrible. Subject is in the shadows whilst the background is bathing in hard midday sun. This combined with Holga which has only 2 shutter speeds (bulb & about 1/250) would probably end up in a catastrophy without the flexibility of modern films. If relying on automatics of my film scanner the end result would be something shown on the 2 small examples, dark or washed-up.
Someone has said that all the needed information is in the negative, you just have to know how to dig it out. One could probably do this digging easier with photoshop but you wont find info about that here. Instead this is how i did it.

First of all I like to develop my films with stand developing. That means long developing time with weak dilution. This way negative comes out smooth, low contrast and with as much of information stored as possible, making it easy to manipulate in darkroom.
Recipe for stand developing i prefer is Rodinal 1 + water 200 (20°C) for about 2 hours. I've done the same with Tmax -dev, then its Tmax 1 + 32 water, but this picture here is with Rodinal.

1. Base exposure, 10 seconds with filter no. 5 to bring out the details of the under exposed main subject (Vika) and the pole Vika is leaning to.
2. 6 seconds with filter no. 3 whilts masking the main subject all the time. This brings out the leafs and the masking prevents the main subject from becoming too dark.
3. Base exposure, 2 seconds with filter no. 3. This adds to the leafs and also gives Vika's skin and the pole some tone.
4. Burning through a hole with filter no. 00 for about 2 mins. Brings out the water and palm trees.
5. Same as phase 4 but about 30 seconds burning around this area.

Masking in this picture might be bit rough but after all its Holga art so if its somewhere near its good enough.

Glass coaster self-portrait

This test stripe of a self-portrait has served as a glass coaster for the past 4? months. Never liked it so it was never finished. Tonight im wondering why.

From the darkroom: Metropol

Kiev 60 MC Volna-3 80/2.8 & Zodiak fisheye
+ Ilford HP5 & Ilford Delta 400 + + Rodinal 1/20

Långholmen, happy family portrait

Kiev 60 + MC Volna-3 80/2.8
+ Ilford Delta 400 + Rodinal 1/25

I was supposed to do a simple print of a holiday shot but again ended up touching myself in the darkroom. Flash was pointed too low in this picture so just had to fix it.
1. F16, base exposure no. 3 filter for 4 secs.
2. Second base exposure, no.5 filter for 2 secs.
3. Burning the lower part of the picture, filter no.5 for 6 secs.

From the darkroom pt 2

Another fixed print from the darkroom and here's how it goes. For comparision you can check the crappy negative scan from here.

1. Base exposure to the whole picture f22, multigrade filter 5 for 8 seconds.
2. Extra contrast for the rocks, filter 5 for 3 seconds.
3. Details for the rocks and river, filter 00 for 3 seconds.
4. Burning the foundation of the bridge through a small hole, it was allmost white. Filter 00 for 2 seconds.
5. Bringing out rest of the details of the river, filter 00 for about 3 seconds.
6. Making the sky visible, filter 00 for 11 seconds.
7. Burning the border line of forest and sky, filter 00 about 5 seconds.

Notes from the earlier print made this one rather easy so far, though im not happy with the skies yet. Filter 00 probably isnt the right choice for the clouds.

From the darkroom

Dont have any new pics for now so lets get into a print i made last night. Recently i have noticed im actually more skilled in darkroom than with photoshop and upgrading my enlarger to Durst M700 with Compulux timer/calculator has really brought working in darkroom to a new level. Lets see how this print was made.
1. First base exposure, F22, 8 seconds with multigrade filter no. 5 to bring out the building and details of the forest. This negative was rather dark, allmost under exposed couse i didnt want to burn the skies when i took it.
2. Second base exposure, 4 seconds of filter no. 00 to get the details of the river out and to make the sky visible, even though this wasnt enough but more of no. 00 to the whole picture would have made the forest completely dark.
3. There was a white spot (sun and foaming water) in the river so i masked everything else and gave this spot 15 seconds of no. 00.
4. Sky was still too white so now masking everything else but the sky and giving it 10 seconds of no. 00.

Priting this negative took me about 2 hours.