1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:04,766 Well now, it’s time to turn this negative image  into a positive one. 2 00:00:04,766 --> 00:00:06,368 It’s not not easy - 3 00:00:06,368 --> 00:00:08,607 whoops, double negative, sorry. 4 00:00:08,607 --> 00:00:10,834 It’s easy, but a little weird. 5 00:00:10,834 --> 00:00:12,911 If you’re just joining us, welcome. 6 00:00:12,911 --> 00:00:16,986 We’re talking about photography.  And this is the third video in a series. 7 00:00:16,986 --> 00:00:22,230 We first looked at the earliest days and this  lovely Daguerreotype as well as an Ambrotype, 8 00:00:22,230 --> 00:00:23,831 then we took a look at the 9 00:00:23,831 --> 00:00:24,614 “modern” 10 00:00:24,614 --> 00:00:26,737 black and white film development process. 11 00:00:26,737 --> 00:00:31,158 That second video has about 2/3rds as many  views as the first one so if you missed it, 12 00:00:31,158 --> 00:00:32,757 you might want to check it out first. 13 00:00:32,757 --> 00:00:34,935 This one is  building upon it for sure. 14 00:00:34,935 --> 00:00:37,450 For your convenience I’ve summoned a clicky thingy. 15 00:00:37,450 --> 00:00:39,760 There’s also a link to the whole playlist in the description. 16 00:00:40,560 --> 00:00:43,565 This video is about photographic printing. 17 00:00:43,565 --> 00:00:47,936 What’s exciting about this process is that we actually get to see it occur. 18 00:00:47,936 --> 00:00:52,900 Unlike photographic film which is generally sensitive to all wavelengths of visible light 19 00:00:52,900 --> 00:00:55,231 (we call that being panchromatic, by the way, 20 00:00:55,231 --> 00:00:59,104 which is why so many black and white  film stocks have "pan" somewhere in their name) 21 00:00:59,771 --> 00:01:00,777 ... 22 00:01:01,200 --> 00:01:05,040 That parenthetical went on too long for this  sentence to make sense without restarting it.   23 00:01:05,680 --> 00:01:06,790 So... 24 00:01:06,790 --> 00:01:12,081 Unlike photographic film which is generally  sensitive to all wavelengths of visible light, 25 00:01:12,081 --> 00:01:15,080 black and white photographic paper is not. 26 00:01:15,080 --> 00:01:20,212 And by photographic paper, I don’t mean that glossy paper you might buy for your printer. 27 00:01:20,212 --> 00:01:22,639 I mean this stuff. 28 00:01:22,639 --> 00:01:25,272 Actually photographic paper. 29 00:01:25,272 --> 00:01:26,835 Notice this warning; 30 00:01:26,835 --> 00:01:29,997 "Open only in photographic darkroom." 31 00:01:29,997 --> 00:01:34,626 Opening this box right now would quickly ruin all the paper inside. 32 00:01:34,626 --> 00:01:36,315 Here’s a little secret, though. 33 00:01:36,315 --> 00:01:41,660 The best part of a photographic darkroom is how not dark it is thanks to one of these: 34 00:01:41,660 --> 00:01:42,976 It’s a ♪ safelight ♪ 35 00:01:42,976 --> 00:01:45,430 And quite the ♪ safelight ♪, too. 36 00:01:45,986 --> 00:01:48,734 I promise that’s the last time I’ll do that. 37 00:01:48,734 --> 00:01:52,544 This Thomas Duplex Super Safelight is not only super, 38 00:01:52,544 --> 00:01:53,672 it’s Thomas! 39 00:01:53,672 --> 00:01:56,880 And it contains a very special kind of light bulb. 40 00:01:57,440 --> 00:02:00,000 Those of you who have been following the channel for...  41 00:02:00,480 --> 00:02:05,040 a while may remember when I did a couple  of videos on high pressure sodium lighting.   42 00:02:05,040 --> 00:02:10,000 I mentioned that in the not-too-distant future  we’d be looking at a low pressure sodium lamp.   43 00:02:10,560 --> 00:02:14,579 Well, three-and-a-half years later, this is it. 44 00:02:14,579 --> 00:02:16,850 Well, it’s inside of here. 45 00:02:17,602 --> 00:02:18,716 This is it. 46 00:02:19,120 --> 00:02:25,600 I won’t spend too much time on this tangent but  this is a now very-obsolete lighting technology   47 00:02:25,600 --> 00:02:29,772 that previously found somewhat widespread use  in roadway lighting. 48 00:02:29,772 --> 00:02:33,340 It’s technically a kind of high-intensity-discharge lamp 49 00:02:33,340 --> 00:02:38,846 but in actuality it’s much closer to a fluorescent lamp in terms of how it operates. 50 00:02:38,846 --> 00:02:44,651 It just happens to use metallic sodium  and not mercury vapor to create its discharge. 51 00:02:44,651 --> 00:02:49,080 And that’s why it’s in this special borosilicate glass  tube inside another tube. 52 00:02:49,080 --> 00:02:56,632 Metallic sodium really hates being itself and would gladly  tear other molecules apart with gusto if it had the chance. 53 00:02:56,632 --> 00:03:00,699 It requires… special containment considerations. 54 00:03:00,699 --> 00:03:06,191 For a very long time this was the most energy-efficient light source we knew of, 55 00:03:06,191 --> 00:03:08,698 hitting 200 lumens per watt, 56 00:03:08,698 --> 00:03:11,947 so it made great sense to use for public lighting. 57 00:03:11,947 --> 00:03:14,239 There’s just one small problem with it. 58 00:03:14,239 --> 00:03:16,640 It looks like this. [60 Hz humming is heard from the fixture] 59 00:03:16,640 --> 00:03:21,254 Low pressure sodium lamps are essentially  monochromatic light sources. 60 00:03:21,254 --> 00:03:24,186 They’re not quite because of the starting gas - 61 00:03:24,186 --> 00:03:29,600 the pink glow you see when the lamp is cold is a result of the so-called Penning mixture, 62 00:03:29,600 --> 00:03:36,014 a mix of usually neon and argon which allows the lamp to strike and maintain an arc as the sodium vaporizes. 63 00:03:36,014 --> 00:03:38,906 But once the sodium gets all boily and glowy, 64 00:03:38,906 --> 00:03:46,929 it very much overpowers the starting gas and all  you see is a sea of very yellow 589 nanometers. 65 00:03:46,929 --> 00:03:50,579 You cannot tell colors apart under this light source 66 00:03:50,579 --> 00:03:56,234 because everything it hits reflects the exact same wavelength back to you, just in different proportions. 67 00:03:56,234 --> 00:03:59,533 This makes everything you see under  it look as if it’s black and white 68 00:03:59,533 --> 00:04:00,966 (or, I guess, black and yellow) 69 00:04:00,966 --> 00:04:05,872 which is pretty trippy but also inconvenient for a lot of reasons. 70 00:04:05,872 --> 00:04:11,527 So we pretty much don’t use this technology  anymore except in very particular applications. 71 00:04:11,920 --> 00:04:13,325 Like this one! 72 00:04:13,325 --> 00:04:19,280 The photographic papers that we’re about to be playing around with are not sensitive to this wavelength of light. 73 00:04:19,934 --> 00:04:24,697 OK, they’re a little sensitive - with enough exposure they will be affected 74 00:04:24,697 --> 00:04:27,037 but let’s not split hairs. 75 00:04:27,037 --> 00:04:30,994 Now, you might be familiar with safelights that appear red. 76 00:04:30,994 --> 00:04:35,044 That’s an option as well, but it’s sort of old school at this point. 77 00:04:35,044 --> 00:04:39,317 Early photographic plates and films weren’t really  sensitive to red light. 78 00:04:39,317 --> 00:04:40,980 Some weren’t at all. 79 00:04:40,980 --> 00:04:47,922 As a tangent to a tangent, this means that in old  black and white photos the colors of objects could seem wildly off 80 00:04:47,922 --> 00:04:49,972 if red was a major component. 81 00:04:49,972 --> 00:04:52,937 For example, a red dress may appear black, 82 00:04:52,937 --> 00:04:58,048 and a yellow flower would seem way too dark as to  the film it might as well be green. 83 00:04:58,048 --> 00:05:01,282 These films were very sensitive to blue, however, 84 00:05:01,282 --> 00:05:04,854 so a bright blue blouse of hues might appear close to white. 85 00:05:05,360 --> 00:05:11,124 Anyway, those early plates and films could be  handled under a red safelight without affecting them, 86 00:05:11,124 --> 00:05:16,307 but since our eyes are much more sensitive  to this yellow wavelength than they are red, 87 00:05:16,307 --> 00:05:21,618 and since modern panchromatic films need  to be handled in complete darkness anyway, 88 00:05:21,618 --> 00:05:25,336 this is generally a better option for black and  white printing work. 89 00:05:25,336 --> 00:05:29,284 By the way, a couple of filters in the safelight are placed over the lamp 90 00:05:29,284 --> 00:05:32,059 to remove the purply-pink light from the penning mixture 91 00:05:32,059 --> 00:05:37,199 as well as dramatically reduce the overall  intensity to safer-for-the-paper levels. 92 00:05:37,199 --> 00:05:42,129 Oh and, by the by the way, a safelight like this is  by no means necessary - 93 00:05:42,129 --> 00:05:48,048 LEDs or even simple filtered fixtures like these are a much more readily-available option. 94 00:05:48,048 --> 00:05:52,785 I just bought one of these on eBay because it was an excuse to have an LPS lamp in my life. 95 00:05:52,785 --> 00:05:56,957 Oh, and by the by the by the way, the reason this thing is designed like this 96 00:05:56,957 --> 00:06:03,165 is that it’s meant to be hung from the ceiling and bounce its light off of both it and these moveable shutters, 97 00:06:03,165 --> 00:06:06,705 which not only serve as a light output control mechanism 98 00:06:06,705 --> 00:06:11,549 but are also fitted with filters  of their own for other darkroom applications. 99 00:06:11,920 --> 00:06:14,149 So now let’s talk about the paper. 100 00:06:14,149 --> 00:06:16,679 First, though, let’s make it safe in here. 101 00:06:17,072 --> 00:06:18,713 How very yellow! 102 00:06:19,440 --> 00:06:25,120 Just as a note, I have the camera’s exposure  cranked up just about as far as it goes   103 00:06:25,120 --> 00:06:27,666 so you can see what’s going on. 104 00:06:27,666 --> 00:06:31,289 But the safelight isn’t actually very bright at all - 105 00:06:31,289 --> 00:06:36,880 it’s just to allow you to see what you’re doing, not to  light up the room so well that you could read a book. 106 00:06:37,440 --> 00:06:40,885 To me, the room looks about like this. 107 00:06:40,885 --> 00:06:47,726 And as a warning, this video is going to be going back and forth between very dark scenes like this 108 00:06:47,726 --> 00:06:50,960 and ordinarily lit ones… a lot. 109 00:06:50,960 --> 00:06:57,760 So, I’m gonna do my best to tame that with slow fades but be  warned brightness is all over the place today. 110 00:06:58,720 --> 00:07:03,238 Anyway, with no other sources of light in this  room except for the safelight, 111 00:07:03,238 --> 00:07:08,216 it is now safe to open these boxes of paper in this room under this light. 112 00:07:08,216 --> 00:07:14,347 The paper is kept inside a black plastic bag to protect it from ordinary danger light. 113 00:07:14,347 --> 00:07:20,449 I will unfold the bag, grab exactly one sheet of paper, 114 00:07:20,449 --> 00:07:24,851 then fold it back up and put it back inside the box. 115 00:07:25,669 --> 00:07:26,706 Why? 116 00:07:26,706 --> 00:07:32,825 Well because that’s good darkroom practice and allows you to turn the lights on at any point without worrying about it 117 00:07:32,825 --> 00:07:39,254 but more importantly I want you to see what happens to the  paper when you accidentally bump the light switch. 118 00:07:39,920 --> 00:07:47,906 Turning the room lights back on reveals that the  paper isn’t white - it’s a kinda gross yellow, actually. 119 00:07:47,906 --> 00:07:52,560 And leaving the lights on causes it  to become increasingly discolored with time. 120 00:07:53,280 --> 00:07:56,381 Take a look at this sheet that’s been out all day. 121 00:07:56,381 --> 00:07:57,884 Why does this happen? 122 00:07:57,884 --> 00:08:04,414 Well, because these pieces of paper are coated with a gelatin emulsion of silver halide crystals, 123 00:08:04,414 --> 00:08:06,647 just like what’s on the film. 124 00:08:07,120 --> 00:08:11,676 That’s right, this here paper is actually a large  piece of film that, 125 00:08:11,676 --> 00:08:14,271 rather than be transparent and made of plastic, 126 00:08:14,271 --> 00:08:17,604 is white and made of (mostly) paper. 127 00:08:17,604 --> 00:08:23,132 Exposing it to light like we’ve done causes the silver halide crystals to begin reducing into silver, 128 00:08:23,132 --> 00:08:27,693 and the longer we leave it out like this the grosser a color it will become. 129 00:08:27,693 --> 00:08:31,040 Also, it’s thoroughly ruined at this point. 130 00:08:31,040 --> 00:08:33,403 I’m sure a lot of you can see where this is  going, 131 00:08:33,403 --> 00:08:36,228 but there’s a critical piece of equipment I haven’t talked about yet. 132 00:08:36,882 --> 00:08:42,699 Let’s ignore it for now and take a look at how this paper interacts with light and photography chemicals. 133 00:08:42,699 --> 00:08:44,907 All we need is uno dos trays, 134 00:08:44,907 --> 00:08:46,529 some tongs, the paper, 135 00:08:46,529 --> 00:08:49,694 and the same three chemicals we were talking about last time. 136 00:08:49,694 --> 00:08:51,920 Developer, stop bath, and fixer. 137 00:08:52,560 --> 00:08:55,154 We’ll be using a different developer than before. 138 00:08:55,154 --> 00:08:58,751 Paper developers tend to be formulated differently for various reasons, 139 00:08:58,751 --> 00:09:03,297 however the stop bath and fixer we’ll be using are also suitable for films 140 00:09:03,297 --> 00:09:07,059 and indeed are the same ones I showed you in the last video. 141 00:09:07,059 --> 00:09:13,261 When dealing with paper I do use stop bath because we can’t  easily rinse it between developer and fixer. 142 00:09:13,261 --> 00:09:18,480 The stop bath will neutralize the developer,  both stopping the development action and, importantly, 143 00:09:18,480 --> 00:09:20,406 prolonging the life of the fixer. 144 00:09:20,406 --> 00:09:23,086 So it’s neat stuff, and the yellow coloring 145 00:09:23,086 --> 00:09:25,313 (beside that this is really just vinegar) 146 00:09:25,313 --> 00:09:28,400 is a pH indicator so you know when it’s no longer acidic. 147 00:09:28,960 --> 00:09:31,729 Under the safelight the liquid appears clear, 148 00:09:31,729 --> 00:09:35,403 but the indicator will make it appear black when it’s exhausted. 149 00:09:35,403 --> 00:09:37,156 Though really it’s more like a purple. 150 00:09:37,156 --> 00:09:39,040 But you wouldn't know that under this light bulb… 151 00:09:39,840 --> 00:09:42,223 With the chemicals placed in these developing  trays, 152 00:09:42,223 --> 00:09:44,178 and the room lights turned off again, 153 00:09:44,178 --> 00:09:48,665 let’s watch what happens when we put a piece of paper fresh from the box into the developer. 154 00:09:49,745 --> 00:09:50,920 It gets wet. 155 00:09:51,443 --> 00:09:52,658 That’s all that happens. 156 00:09:52,658 --> 00:09:55,881 This paper hasn’t been exposed to light other than the safelight 157 00:09:55,881 --> 00:09:58,977 so there’s nothing for the developer to act upon. 158 00:09:58,977 --> 00:10:01,223 But now, let’s turn on the room lights. 159 00:10:01,223 --> 00:10:04,320 Almost immediately, the paper starts getting darker. 160 00:10:04,880 --> 00:10:11,284 Just like in film, the photons coming from the  lights cause reduction reactions in parts of the halide crystals, 161 00:10:11,284 --> 00:10:14,963 creating nucleation sites of pure silver within them. 162 00:10:14,963 --> 00:10:16,838 Since it’s sitting in developer, 163 00:10:16,838 --> 00:10:23,962 those seeds are immediately embiggened and the entire crystal becomes solid silver which darkens the paper. 164 00:10:23,962 --> 00:10:30,101 In this case every single crystal’s gettin’ turned to silver so this paper’s gonna be solid black. 165 00:10:30,101 --> 00:10:32,128 Why isn’t it shiny, you ask? 166 00:10:32,128 --> 00:10:33,723 Isn’t silver, like... 167 00:10:33,723 --> 00:10:35,088 silvery? 168 00:10:35,088 --> 00:10:41,196 Well, these are tiny tiny crystals of silver which  scatter and absorb incoming light. 169 00:10:41,196 --> 00:10:46,088 Essentially they keep light from hitting the bright paper base  and then reflecting back to your eyes - 170 00:10:46,088 --> 00:10:48,871 just like how it blocks light from going through film. 171 00:10:48,871 --> 00:10:50,800 So they reduce the apparent brightness. 172 00:10:51,680 --> 00:10:54,900 OK, so let’s see how we can play around with this. 173 00:10:54,900 --> 00:10:58,633 What if I took a flashlight and turned it on against the paper? 174 00:10:58,633 --> 00:11:01,468 Could we see shapes after developing it? 175 00:11:01,468 --> 00:11:03,498 Indeed we can. 176 00:11:03,498 --> 00:11:08,960 What if I put a bunch of objects on top of the paper and  then shined a flashlight at it from a distance? 177 00:11:09,680 --> 00:11:14,080 We get a sort of wacky collage where items  which shielded the paper from the light   178 00:11:14,080 --> 00:11:19,403 kept it white - or, in the case of the marbles,  focused that light into intense points.   179 00:11:20,160 --> 00:11:24,115 I wonder… what if I put my phone screen on the  paper like this? 180 00:11:24,115 --> 00:11:26,401 Could we see the image that was on the screen? 181 00:11:27,153 --> 00:11:29,227 Huh, look at that. 182 00:11:29,227 --> 00:11:30,901 We sorta can. 183 00:11:30,901 --> 00:11:32,798 Though, it’s inverted. 184 00:11:32,798 --> 00:11:34,313 The cat shouldn’t be white. 185 00:11:35,040 --> 00:11:37,161 Say, this gives me an idea. 186 00:11:37,161 --> 00:11:40,716 What if we took this piece of film and put it over the paper? 187 00:11:40,716 --> 00:11:43,411 Maybe use a piece of glass to hold it flat. 188 00:11:43,411 --> 00:11:44,326 Let’s see here. 189 00:11:44,326 --> 00:11:45,224 Flashlight. 190 00:11:45,224 --> 00:11:46,182 Developer. 191 00:11:47,040 --> 00:11:48,187 Look at that! 192 00:11:48,187 --> 00:11:52,607 The dark areas of the film blocked  light from reaching the paper which kept it white, 193 00:11:52,607 --> 00:11:56,604 but the light areas let light through and so made the paper dark. 194 00:11:56,604 --> 00:12:01,120 We got a negative image of a negative  image so now we have… a positive! 195 00:12:01,920 --> 00:12:04,999 Now, before we can turn the lights on to take a  close look, 196 00:12:04,999 --> 00:12:08,005 remember that we still need to fix this paper. 197 00:12:08,005 --> 00:12:11,589 Right now the undeveloped silver halides are still there 198 00:12:11,589 --> 00:12:17,214 and without fixing the paper it will look yellow and gross - and continue to get grosser over time. 199 00:12:17,214 --> 00:12:22,871 Fixing is a critical step both for making a pleasant image, but also for long-term image stability. 200 00:12:22,871 --> 00:12:27,449 So, after spending a brief time in the stop bath to neutralize the developer, 201 00:12:27,449 --> 00:12:30,877 we’ll put the paper in the fixer for at least a couple of minutes. 202 00:12:30,877 --> 00:12:34,404 Once it’s been in there for as long as the fixer you’re using calls for 203 00:12:34,404 --> 00:12:36,734 (and assuming it’s reasonably fresh) 204 00:12:36,734 --> 00:12:39,600 we can turn on the lights and evaluate what we just made. 205 00:12:40,240 --> 00:12:44,327 What we have created is a very sloppy contact print. 206 00:12:44,327 --> 00:12:50,211 It’s very sloppy because, well, for one thing I put the negative in upside-down so the image is backwards, 207 00:12:50,211 --> 00:12:56,414 but also the light source was a flashlight and I wasn’t keeping track of exposure time all that well. 208 00:12:56,414 --> 00:12:58,723 This would be tricky to reproduce. 209 00:12:58,723 --> 00:12:59,886 That’s no matter, though. 210 00:12:59,886 --> 00:13:06,455 We can use a light source which makes an even spread of light, and then we can use a timer to help make this reproducible. 211 00:13:06,455 --> 00:13:09,597 For a while, contact prints were quite common. 212 00:13:09,597 --> 00:13:14,005 Take a look at the box for this Spartus Full-Vue Twin Lens Reflex camera. 213 00:13:14,005 --> 00:13:20,028 (this isn’t really a TLR, by the way, it’s a fancy-looking box camera meant to mimic them in appearance only). 214 00:13:20,028 --> 00:13:24,188 It says the picture size is 2 ¼ by 2 ¼ inches. 215 00:13:24,188 --> 00:13:27,754 That’s the size of the negative it makes with 120 film, 216 00:13:27,754 --> 00:13:32,597 and back in its day you would get prints made pretty much exactly how we made this one. 217 00:13:32,597 --> 00:13:37,120 The finished print ends up  the same size as the negative taken in-camera. 218 00:13:37,920 --> 00:13:41,360 But what if we want to make a  larger print from this negative?   219 00:13:42,000 --> 00:13:45,187 Let’s consider how this negative was created  in the first place. 220 00:13:45,187 --> 00:13:53,200 A camera used a lens to collect light from a large area and concentrate it onto the film which recorded a latent image.   221 00:13:53,200 --> 00:13:57,555 Then after development we ended up with a negative like this. 222 00:13:57,555 --> 00:14:00,621 If we had a sort of backwards camera, 223 00:14:00,621 --> 00:14:04,190 we could take the film and send light through it, 224 00:14:04,190 --> 00:14:09,460 then use a lens to spread the image the film contains over a large area. 225 00:14:09,460 --> 00:14:13,598 We could then point that backwards camera at a large sheet of paper 226 00:14:13,598 --> 00:14:17,498 and end up with a bigger print from a small negative. 227 00:14:17,498 --> 00:14:18,483 Enter... 228 00:14:18,483 --> 00:14:19,643 this thing. 229 00:14:20,000 --> 00:14:24,510 This Beseler Printmaker 35 is a photographic enlarger. 230 00:14:24,510 --> 00:14:26,602 It’s a pretty basic condenser enlarger - 231 00:14:26,602 --> 00:14:30,041 don’t worry about that it just has to do with how the light source behaves - 232 00:14:30,041 --> 00:14:33,222 but the fundamentals between all enlargers are the same. 233 00:14:33,222 --> 00:14:37,112 In here is a light source - a 75 watt incandescent lamp - 234 00:14:37,112 --> 00:14:43,148 and a condensing lens spreads that light in an even column down through a film carrier. 235 00:14:43,148 --> 00:14:47,760 A second lens below the carrier  projects an image onto the baseboard below. 236 00:14:48,560 --> 00:14:52,071 The key thing is if you put a piece  of film into that carrier, 237 00:14:52,071 --> 00:14:56,317 you project an enlarged image of that very piece of film. 238 00:14:56,317 --> 00:14:59,840 And now you can make big prints from small negatives. 239 00:15:00,640 --> 00:15:02,676 Let’s do that, shall we? 240 00:15:02,676 --> 00:15:08,675 Unfortunately I don’t have the appropriate carrier or lenses to hold 120 film in this enlarger 241 00:15:08,675 --> 00:15:15,010 so we’re gonna go with some 35mm film I shot when I took a train trip over the summer. 242 00:15:15,010 --> 00:15:19,735 As a matter of fact I’m missing  several things from this second-hand enlarger. 243 00:15:19,735 --> 00:15:24,070 You may have noticed that the lens carrier is glued on. 244 00:15:24,070 --> 00:15:26,624 Yeah - I don’t think this is the right one for this enlarger 245 00:15:26,624 --> 00:15:31,876 because I couldn’t for the life of me figure out how this was supposed to attach to the enlarger head. 246 00:15:31,876 --> 00:15:35,070 So high-school me just used hot glue, 247 00:15:35,070 --> 00:15:37,928 and while it looks pretty cruddy, it’s held up all this time 248 00:15:37,928 --> 00:15:39,383 so who’s laughing now? 249 00:15:39,841 --> 00:15:43,337 Anyway, first let’s make a contact sheet! 250 00:15:43,337 --> 00:15:45,526 Just like we made that contact print, 251 00:15:45,526 --> 00:15:51,099 we can take this whole sheet of negatives and place it over a sheet of paper to make a quick reference sheet 252 00:15:51,099 --> 00:15:53,601 with positive prints of all these images. 253 00:15:53,601 --> 00:15:56,240 Then we can determine if there are any we might want to print. 254 00:15:56,800 --> 00:15:59,440 First, though, we need to  figure out an exposure time. 255 00:16:00,160 --> 00:16:03,551 To start, I’ll lift the enlarger head up nice and high 256 00:16:03,551 --> 00:16:06,700 to make a big spread of light on the baseboard. 257 00:16:06,700 --> 00:16:12,571 To figure out the exposure I should use, I’m going to take a strip of paper that I’ve cut for testing purposes 258 00:16:12,571 --> 00:16:18,469 and place it under the film - any part will do - and then both of them under a piece of glass. 259 00:16:18,469 --> 00:16:21,229 Because the film has a slight tint to it, 260 00:16:21,229 --> 00:16:25,095 it’s going to lighten the paper slightly and skew the black level. 261 00:16:25,095 --> 00:16:27,760 This test strip will allow me to compensate for that. 262 00:16:28,320 --> 00:16:33,760 To test for exposure I’m going to cover up most  of the film and paper with something opaque,   263 00:16:33,760 --> 00:16:36,399 then expose the paper for two seconds. 264 00:16:36,399 --> 00:16:39,668 I’ll then move the cover over and do it several times more. 265 00:16:40,000 --> 00:16:43,101 This creates a strip of paper that will show  banding, 266 00:16:43,101 --> 00:16:47,126 and each band has been exposed for 2 seconds longer than the next. 267 00:16:47,126 --> 00:16:50,811 Now I’ll develop it, stop, fix, and take a look. 268 00:16:51,040 --> 00:16:53,245 This section was exposed for 2 seconds, 269 00:16:53,245 --> 00:16:54,119 this one 4, 270 00:16:54,119 --> 00:16:56,577 this one 6, and so on. 271 00:16:56,577 --> 00:17:02,517 The first section where the film base stops getting darker  is the time I want for the contact sheet. 272 00:17:02,517 --> 00:17:09,046 So now, let’s make a contact sheet with this  film and expose it for however many seconds we just determined we should do it for. 273 00:17:09,046 --> 00:17:13,176 You’ll notice that I can’t fit the entire thing over the paper. 274 00:17:13,176 --> 00:17:17,449 That’s because I don’t have paper  large enough to use with these negative holders, 275 00:17:17,449 --> 00:17:23,830 and I use these negative holders because my film  scanner - yes sometimes I scan film like a digital heathen - 276 00:17:23,830 --> 00:17:26,147 can handle strips with 6 frames, 277 00:17:26,147 --> 00:17:30,703 plus these actually hold 36 images unlike these holders that, 278 00:17:30,703 --> 00:17:33,246 while they DO fit an 8 x 10 sheet of paper, 279 00:17:33,246 --> 00:17:35,760 force you to sacrifice a frame on each roll. 280 00:17:36,320 --> 00:17:38,598 Frankly I’m just making this contact sheet for you 281 00:17:38,598 --> 00:17:41,774 because I already have a digital copy of all of these sitting on my computer. 282 00:17:41,774 --> 00:17:43,442 Ordinarily I don’t bother. 283 00:17:43,442 --> 00:17:45,160 Anyway, get on with it! 284 00:17:45,520 --> 00:17:49,520 Now, to be clear the timing here isn’t really critical.   285 00:17:49,520 --> 00:17:52,455 Contact sheets certainly don’t need perfect  exposure 286 00:17:52,455 --> 00:17:57,253 but getting it close to ideal will help identify shots that might  be troublesome to print 287 00:17:57,253 --> 00:18:02,400 because they weren’t exposed correctly in the camera or  are really contrasty or something like that.   288 00:18:02,960 --> 00:18:06,027 If all you want is a sheet of positive images  for reference 289 00:18:06,027 --> 00:18:09,958 you can easily just guess a time and if you can see the film against the paper, 290 00:18:09,958 --> 00:18:11,815 oh well no big deal. 291 00:18:11,815 --> 00:18:15,482 But with correct exposure, we know that clear film - 292 00:18:15,482 --> 00:18:18,433 that which wasn’t affected by the light in the camera - 293 00:18:18,433 --> 00:18:21,360 will make the paper at least close to completely black, 294 00:18:21,360 --> 00:18:24,651 and any part of the image on the film will lighten it. 295 00:18:24,651 --> 00:18:30,080 That makes the images more-or-less representative  of how they will actually print without adjustments. 296 00:18:30,720 --> 00:18:35,391 Anyway, with our contact sheet made we can pick a  frame to print all big like. 297 00:18:35,391 --> 00:18:36,654 How ‘bout this one? 298 00:18:36,654 --> 00:18:37,973 I like it. 299 00:18:37,973 --> 00:18:40,126 So now let’s print it! 300 00:18:40,126 --> 00:18:43,803 I’ll take the film strip containing that image out of the holder, 301 00:18:43,803 --> 00:18:47,465 and now we need to take the negative  carrier out of the enlarger like so. 302 00:18:47,760 --> 00:18:51,440 We’re gonna put the negative  in with the emulsion side down.   303 00:18:51,440 --> 00:18:56,429 Because we’re using a lens, it’s going to flip  the image horizontally and vertically, 304 00:18:56,429 --> 00:19:02,138 so we need to take care that we put the negative in  correctly so that it’s projected normally. 305 00:19:02,138 --> 00:19:06,653 I mean, you don’t have to, if you want a mirror image I’m  not gonna stop you. 306 00:19:06,653 --> 00:19:13,680 And also, because perspective is flipped between looking down at the film from above and the baseboard looking up at it,   307 00:19:13,680 --> 00:19:18,807 confusingly you want the image to not be  reversed when you’re loading the carrier. 308 00:19:18,807 --> 00:19:21,094 It’s easy to mess this up at first but with practice 309 00:19:21,094 --> 00:19:23,190 you’ll eventually only mess up occasionally. 310 00:19:23,190 --> 00:19:25,837 Now here’s a very important step: 311 00:19:25,837 --> 00:19:27,567 dusting for prints. 312 00:19:27,567 --> 00:19:30,409 Particularly when using a condenser enlarger, 313 00:19:30,409 --> 00:19:34,004 dust on the negative will be very  visible in the final print 314 00:19:34,004 --> 00:19:36,744 so you want to do your best to get it off. 315 00:19:36,744 --> 00:19:41,260 I’ll give it a little dusting with one of these blower brushes. I tend to have decent luck with these. 316 00:19:41,260 --> 00:19:43,334 but you could also maybe use compressed air, 317 00:19:43,334 --> 00:19:45,065 or one of these things, 318 00:19:45,065 --> 00:19:46,521 do what you like best. 319 00:19:46,521 --> 00:19:51,058 Then we’ll put the carrier  into the enlarger and now we’ll switch the light on. 320 00:19:51,058 --> 00:19:57,883 One thing I haven’t talked about yet is the  fact that the enlarging lens has an aperture ring just like a camera lens. 321 00:19:57,883 --> 00:20:03,368 This thing really is a backwards camera that barfs light through the film down onto the baseboard 322 00:20:03,368 --> 00:20:05,124 to duplicate the image. 323 00:20:05,124 --> 00:20:11,723 When you’re composing your print, you’ll probably want the lens wide open to make the image as bright as it can be. 324 00:20:12,080 --> 00:20:14,848 Composing your print? 325 00:20:14,848 --> 00:20:20,756 Yeah, there’s a lot you can do here besides just make a big positive from a little negative. 326 00:20:20,756 --> 00:20:27,317 For one, most standard paper sizes are not the same aspect ratio as a 35mm film frame, 327 00:20:27,317 --> 00:20:30,402 so you’re likely gonna be cropping in somewhat. 328 00:20:30,402 --> 00:20:32,564 But you can also crop in more - 329 00:20:32,564 --> 00:20:40,584 put the enlarger head way up here and  you’re projecting a large image which your paper will only occupy a part of. 330 00:20:40,584 --> 00:20:43,833 To help with this process (and with keeping the paper steady) 331 00:20:43,833 --> 00:20:45,925 we use an easel like this. 332 00:20:45,925 --> 00:20:53,126 This particular model has a space to hold 8 x 10 paper on one side, and various smaller sizes on the other. 333 00:20:53,126 --> 00:20:58,017 When the paper is aligned with these indexing tabs and the top closed, 334 00:20:58,017 --> 00:21:05,740 the overlap of the top blocks the edges of the paper from the exposure and creates a small white border around your print which looks nice. 335 00:21:05,740 --> 00:21:10,480 But you could also expose the paper with the top open  to make a borderless print if that’s your jam. 336 00:21:11,360 --> 00:21:14,436 In fact in that case you don’t even really need  an easel, 337 00:21:14,436 --> 00:21:16,356 but have fun with alignment! 338 00:21:16,356 --> 00:21:22,080 The top of the tower is barely captured on this negative  so I’m definitely using the easel and the border. 339 00:21:22,880 --> 00:21:26,720 You’ve probably guessed that you need  to adjust the focus of the enlarger.   340 00:21:27,360 --> 00:21:31,023 As you move the head up and down the focal point  changes, 341 00:21:31,023 --> 00:21:33,567 so you’ll need to adjust it as you do so. 342 00:21:33,567 --> 00:21:38,880 This knob here changes the distance between  the lens and the negative to accomplish focusing. 343 00:21:39,840 --> 00:21:45,520 That also means that the image size changes as you  focus so there is a bit of finagling to be done here.   344 00:21:46,080 --> 00:21:49,061 But when you’re happy with how your print is  composed, 345 00:21:49,061 --> 00:21:54,013 you can use one of these thingies to help ensure focus is spot-on. 346 00:21:54,013 --> 00:21:57,158 This looks like a microscope and kind of is 347 00:21:57,158 --> 00:22:02,323 but what it really does is bounce the projected image  off this mirror and into the eyepiece 348 00:22:02,323 --> 00:22:04,240 so it's magnified a lot. 349 00:22:04,800 --> 00:22:09,092 This allows you to actually see the film grain when  it’s focused correctly. 350 00:22:09,092 --> 00:22:15,254 I sometimes put a piece of paper under it to ensure that the focal distance is as spot-on as possible - 351 00:22:15,254 --> 00:22:17,635 but honestly I doubt that helps much. 352 00:22:17,635 --> 00:22:22,960 Anyway once we have our print  composed and focused we are almost ready to print. 353 00:22:23,680 --> 00:22:25,212 Almost? 354 00:22:25,212 --> 00:22:27,914 Yeah, now we need to do another test. 355 00:22:27,914 --> 00:22:34,084 Because each negative is unique and the distance we have the enlarger from the easel changes the image brightness, 356 00:22:34,084 --> 00:22:37,747 we need to figure out an exposure time just  like we did before. 357 00:22:37,747 --> 00:22:43,280 So we’ll use some test strips and an opaque object to block it while we do that repeated exposure trick again. 358 00:22:44,000 --> 00:22:47,920 This time, though, we need to decide  what part of the image we want to test.   359 00:22:48,480 --> 00:22:53,880 Remember this is a negative, so the lightest  areas of the image will be the darkest on the paper. 360 00:22:53,880 --> 00:22:56,640 We could test somewhere that should be black in the print, 361 00:22:56,640 --> 00:22:59,315 or you could also test on something that will be grey, 362 00:22:59,315 --> 00:23:02,081 really it’s up to you and you’ll get better with practice. 363 00:23:02,081 --> 00:23:07,979 You may want to use the contact sheet to help determine  where you want to test and what to shoot for. 364 00:23:07,979 --> 00:23:10,757 Don’t forget that we have the lens’s aperture ring. 365 00:23:10,757 --> 00:23:16,542 When printing, it’s usually a good idea to close it down so that the exposure takes longer. 366 00:23:16,542 --> 00:23:18,751 This gives you more granular control. 367 00:23:18,751 --> 00:23:23,448 The paper is really quite slow - nowhere near as sensitive as typical films. 368 00:23:23,448 --> 00:23:30,254 So with the lens closed down to f11 or f16 the exposure  could easily take upwards of 30 seconds. 369 00:23:30,254 --> 00:23:33,849 This allows you to fine-tune the exposure  much more easily, 370 00:23:33,849 --> 00:23:39,445 and we’ll see shortly how a long exposure can be really helpful for difficult prints. 371 00:23:39,445 --> 00:23:40,880 Speaking of exposure times… 372 00:23:41,520 --> 00:23:43,816 I haven’t yet talked about this timer. 373 00:23:43,816 --> 00:23:47,610 Because for me, it’s only useful at the very end. 374 00:23:47,610 --> 00:23:51,312 This is a timer made specifically for photographic enlargers. 375 00:23:51,312 --> 00:23:57,367 You simply plug your enlarger into its power  outlet and now it is in control of the light bulb. 376 00:23:57,367 --> 00:24:01,038 It has a dial that points from 1 to 60 - that’s seconds. 377 00:24:01,038 --> 00:24:02,776 A button to start it. 378 00:24:02,776 --> 00:24:06,053 And a toggle switch for bypassing the timer. 379 00:24:06,053 --> 00:24:09,366 The idea is you point the outer dial to the time you want, 380 00:24:09,366 --> 00:24:12,112 and when you hit the button the timer starts. 381 00:24:12,112 --> 00:24:15,470 It moves this pointer to the time you have selected, 382 00:24:15,470 --> 00:24:18,376 and a motor slowly moves it back to the start. 383 00:24:18,376 --> 00:24:20,811 Once it’s there, it shuts off. 384 00:24:20,811 --> 00:24:24,230 Now, the reason it’s only coming into the picture now is because 385 00:24:24,230 --> 00:24:25,800 it’s not very accurate. 386 00:24:26,080 --> 00:24:31,040 While I could set this for 2 seconds  or even just 1 for making test strips,   387 00:24:31,040 --> 00:24:34,873 it’s just not precise enough to be reliably  consistent. 388 00:24:34,873 --> 00:24:41,440 I have a pretty good internal brain clock for counting seconds so I just use the toggle switch manually. 389 00:24:42,560 --> 00:24:48,821 But even if I didn't, stores sell these clock  thingies which are pretty handy to have in a darkroom. 390 00:24:48,821 --> 00:24:53,787 However, for longer exposures the timer’s little bit of inconsistency doesn’t really matter 391 00:24:53,787 --> 00:24:58,176 so once I’ve worked out the  exposure time I want, I use the timer. 392 00:24:58,176 --> 00:25:02,497 Now, you can get more modern digital versions of these  darkroom timers, 393 00:25:02,497 --> 00:25:04,153 but where’s the fun in that? 394 00:25:04,480 --> 00:25:06,698 Anyway, looking at the test strip we made, 395 00:25:06,698 --> 00:25:10,080 this was exposed for 2 seconds, this for 4, this for 6, 396 00:25:10,080 --> 00:25:11,437 and so on. 397 00:25:11,437 --> 00:25:16,190 This was a clear blue sky so we want  it to be light in the print but not white. 398 00:25:16,190 --> 00:25:19,756 We can look at some of the features of the tower to help  with this too, 399 00:25:19,756 --> 00:25:23,060 but perhaps of even greater help is the contact sheet. 400 00:25:23,060 --> 00:25:29,816 If we like how this looks, we can compare the test strip with the image on the contact sheet and work out an exposure time. 401 00:25:29,816 --> 00:25:33,615 I think I want the exposure to be somewhere between these two values, 402 00:25:33,615 --> 00:25:38,164 so we’ll split the difference between 6 and 8 seconds and shoot for 7. 403 00:25:38,720 --> 00:25:42,720 Now that we have determined our exposure  time we can set the timer to that time,   404 00:25:42,720 --> 00:25:45,614 put in a fresh (and whole) sheet of paper, 405 00:25:45,614 --> 00:25:46,886 hit the button… 406 00:25:46,886 --> 00:25:48,720 and just like that we’ve taken a picture. 407 00:25:49,440 --> 00:25:52,088 Or I suppose given a picture? 408 00:25:52,088 --> 00:25:55,200 Now of course we can’t see the image yet, but we will in a moment. 409 00:25:55,760 --> 00:25:59,431 Now I’ll finally tell you about an important technique. 410 00:25:59,431 --> 00:26:01,268 When putting paper into the chemicals, 411 00:26:01,268 --> 00:26:07,391 you want to sort of slip it under the surface  so that it immediately gets covered across the entire emulsion. 412 00:26:07,391 --> 00:26:10,400 You don’t want to just plop  it in there ‘cause that’ll be weird and bubbly. 413 00:26:11,120 --> 00:26:15,389 Then you want to gently rock the tray back and  forth to keep moving the solution around 414 00:26:15,389 --> 00:26:18,588 and, of course, cover whatever might not have been submerged. 415 00:26:18,588 --> 00:26:21,547 Alright, here it comes. Our im- 416 00:26:21,547 --> 00:26:23,456 no, that… that’s... 417 00:26:23,456 --> 00:26:25,388 that's not what we were just printing 418 00:26:25,388 --> 00:26:27,820 you pulled an editing trick on us you… 419 00:26:27,820 --> 00:26:28,782 you… 420 00:26:28,782 --> 00:26:29,785 tuber! 421 00:26:30,240 --> 00:26:31,721 That’s the one we just did. 422 00:26:31,721 --> 00:26:33,151 Yes that one. 423 00:26:33,151 --> 00:26:36,459 OK, so after it’s been in there for a sufficient time - 424 00:26:36,459 --> 00:26:38,789 yet another variable you can play around with - 425 00:26:38,789 --> 00:26:43,865 we’ll put it into the stop bath for thirty seconds or and finally into the fixer. 426 00:26:43,865 --> 00:26:48,071 This fixer only takes a couple of minutes to dissolve the undeveloped halides 427 00:26:48,071 --> 00:26:50,542 and now this print is complete! 428 00:26:50,720 --> 00:26:52,538 Well, aside from rinsing. 429 00:26:52,538 --> 00:26:57,460 You want to get all the fixer off of it because it can damage the print over time if you don’t. 430 00:26:57,460 --> 00:27:00,360 There are a number of print-rinsing products out there, 431 00:27:00,360 --> 00:27:07,704 or you can fill like a two-compartment sink and plug one side of it and just sorta trickle some water over it while you slosh it around in there for a while - 432 00:27:07,704 --> 00:27:09,895 there aren’t hard and fast rules here, 433 00:27:09,895 --> 00:27:11,840 don’t listen to anyone who tries to tell you otherwise. 434 00:27:13,200 --> 00:27:16,215 Except, maybe if you work in a professional photo finishing lab 435 00:27:16,215 --> 00:27:18,065 but then you knew about all this already. 436 00:27:18,065 --> 00:27:19,309 What are you doing here? 437 00:27:19,309 --> 00:27:22,673 Anyway, after you’ve rinsed it for a while you’ll want to dry it. 438 00:27:22,673 --> 00:27:27,621 You might put the paper up on some sort of  flat surface and use a squeegee to get most of the water out 439 00:27:27,621 --> 00:27:30,570 then hang it to dry. Or just put it on some towels. 440 00:27:30,570 --> 00:27:32,783 Or use a dedicated print dryer. 441 00:27:32,783 --> 00:27:37,156 There’s ever so much incredibly specific equipment you can buy if you feel the need! 442 00:27:37,680 --> 00:27:40,631 So that’s the basic printing process. 443 00:27:40,631 --> 00:27:42,476 This print, though…. 444 00:27:42,476 --> 00:27:44,146 It’s pretty dark. 445 00:27:44,146 --> 00:27:51,022 One of the struggles with darkroom printing is that it’s really, really hard to judge the print under the safelight. 446 00:27:51,022 --> 00:27:54,153 Everything looks much darker than it really is, 447 00:27:54,153 --> 00:27:58,291 and even a light gray looks quite different from the white border. 448 00:27:58,291 --> 00:28:03,645 So it’s pretty easy to see a really dark image and think it’s probably fine when… 449 00:28:03,645 --> 00:28:05,011 it isn’t. 450 00:28:05,011 --> 00:28:08,312 Honestly this just takes a lot of practice to get good at - 451 00:28:08,312 --> 00:28:10,810 practice that I haven’t had in years. 452 00:28:10,810 --> 00:28:15,434 So, uh, let’s try again but with less exposure. 453 00:28:15,434 --> 00:28:21,087 This is a much better print, though it could still probably do with a bit of lightening up. 454 00:28:21,087 --> 00:28:24,065 It could probably do with some extra contrast, too. 455 00:28:24,065 --> 00:28:26,800 And wouldn’t ya know it, there’s a way to make that happen. 456 00:28:27,440 --> 00:28:34,076 The majority of black and white paper in  use these days is variable contrast paper, or VC. 457 00:28:34,076 --> 00:28:38,640 The RC, by the way, isn’t Royal Crown, or radio-controlled,   458 00:28:38,640 --> 00:28:43,034 it’s resin-coated and describes the construction of the paper. 459 00:28:43,034 --> 00:28:49,879 I’m not gonna delve into that here because that whole topic is just filled with very, very deep rabbit holes 460 00:28:49,879 --> 00:28:56,800 but basically resin-coated paper isn’t very absorbent  and is a lot easier to process, handle and dry   461 00:28:56,800 --> 00:28:59,516 but has its own downsides of course. 462 00:28:59,516 --> 00:29:02,248 Oh and “pearl” is just the surface finish. 463 00:29:02,248 --> 00:29:07,406 Anyway, the emulsion on variable-contrast papers is made of multiple parts, 464 00:29:07,406 --> 00:29:13,600 and these parts are composed of silver halide mixtures that are differently sensitive to particular wavelengths of light. 465 00:29:14,320 --> 00:29:19,151 Of course none of the silver halides are  sensitive to this yellow safelight or red light. 466 00:29:19,151 --> 00:29:24,013 However, their sensitivity to the other parts of the spectrum is different between them. 467 00:29:24,013 --> 00:29:27,836 All of the crystals are equally sensitive to blue wavelengths. 468 00:29:27,836 --> 00:29:33,840 With blue light they quickly capture a latent image and have a  compressed dynamic range in the final result. 469 00:29:34,480 --> 00:29:39,979 However, some of the halide crystals aren’t very  sensitive to green wavelengths. 470 00:29:39,979 --> 00:29:43,849 Under green light, those basically don’t form a latent image at all, 471 00:29:43,849 --> 00:29:50,253 and it takes much more exposure time to turn the paper black since only some of the crystals are affected. 472 00:29:50,907 --> 00:29:52,640 This may sound trivial, 473 00:29:52,640 --> 00:29:56,863 but with the aid of simple color filters between the enlarger and the paper, 474 00:29:56,863 --> 00:30:00,634 you can adjust the ratio of sensitivity between these components 475 00:30:00,634 --> 00:30:03,600 and thus adjust contrast in the final print. 476 00:30:04,320 --> 00:30:05,535 Here’s how: 477 00:30:05,535 --> 00:30:09,285 This is a set of Ilford Multigrade contrast filters. 478 00:30:09,285 --> 00:30:13,126 They are graded from double zero - that’s very low contrast - 479 00:30:13,126 --> 00:30:15,935 to five - very high contrast. 480 00:30:15,935 --> 00:30:22,731 Without a filter in-place, most paper behaves as it does with a grade two filter. 481 00:30:22,731 --> 00:30:30,201 Now, Ilford includes a grade two filter because all of these filters are calibrated to produce the same exposure, 482 00:30:30,201 --> 00:30:35,586 so if you want to adjust contrast up or down  you don’t need to figure out a new exposure time 483 00:30:35,586 --> 00:30:38,993 assuming you printed with a filter in place from the start. 484 00:30:38,993 --> 00:30:44,602 Grades four, four-and-a-half, and five require a doubling in exposure time from the rest, 485 00:30:44,602 --> 00:30:45,760 however that’s still pretty easy. 486 00:30:46,400 --> 00:30:50,084 If you look at filter 00, you’ll see it’s yellow. 487 00:30:50,084 --> 00:30:54,106 This filter is blocking the majority of blue light from the enlarger, 488 00:30:54,106 --> 00:31:00,305 meaning only the slow-to-respond green-sensitive halides will be affected in the exposure. 489 00:31:00,305 --> 00:31:03,403 Filter 5, on the other hand, is magenta. 490 00:31:03,403 --> 00:31:07,223 That blocks the majority of green light but allows blue through, 491 00:31:07,223 --> 00:31:10,000 eliminating the effect of the slow-to-respond crystals. 492 00:31:10,640 --> 00:31:13,854 Remember, they’re all equally sensitive to blue. 493 00:31:13,854 --> 00:31:17,451 This causes the paper to quickly become fully-exposed, 494 00:31:17,451 --> 00:31:21,120 compressing dynamic range and increasing the apparent contrast. 495 00:31:21,680 --> 00:31:27,200 All of the grades between five and double-zero  have slightly different ratios of blue-to-green,   496 00:31:27,200 --> 00:31:31,040 allowing you to dial-in a sweet spot  between these two response curves. 497 00:31:31,680 --> 00:31:34,337 I don’t know if I’ve explained that all that well, 498 00:31:34,337 --> 00:31:38,786 but let’s re-print this image with a contrast grade of 3.5. 499 00:31:38,786 --> 00:31:44,488 I didn’t use filter 2 when making the initial prints so I am going to need a new exposure test. 500 00:31:44,488 --> 00:31:48,335 I’m also going to test between the wall here and the sky 501 00:31:48,335 --> 00:31:52,243 because I want this part of the sky fairly close to white. 502 00:31:52,243 --> 00:31:55,866 That might be a mistake but there’s only one way to find out! 503 00:31:55,866 --> 00:32:00,683 OK, let’s go for this exposure time, and make one more print. 504 00:32:01,360 --> 00:32:04,191 Since we’re now biasing the light towards blue, 505 00:32:04,191 --> 00:32:08,960 what’s essentially happening is the darker parts of the image  are getting exposed more quickly.   506 00:32:09,600 --> 00:32:16,254 Requiring less light to turn the paper black means  the highlights can stay brighter compared to the shadows, 507 00:32:16,254 --> 00:32:21,119 and the range of brightness values we  get on the paper is compressed somewhat. 508 00:32:21,119 --> 00:32:21,979 And... 509 00:32:22,240 --> 00:32:24,938 here’s the resulting print. 510 00:32:24,938 --> 00:32:27,287 What do you think? I think it’s a big improvement. 511 00:32:27,680 --> 00:32:30,474 Now let’s talk about when you’d want to go the other way. 512 00:32:30,474 --> 00:32:32,439 I like this image a lot. 513 00:32:32,439 --> 00:32:38,913 The bystanders on the platform combined with the  perspective convey a sense of the immense scale of the locomotive, 514 00:32:38,913 --> 00:32:43,791 and the casual stance and luggage of the people tells the story of train travel. 515 00:32:43,791 --> 00:32:47,453 We are looking at a digital scan of the negative, though. 516 00:32:47,453 --> 00:32:51,481 This is a very challenging image to print in a darkroom. 517 00:32:51,481 --> 00:32:55,667 Film can capture a much wider dynamic range than paper can, 518 00:32:55,667 --> 00:32:58,525 and since the front of the locomotive is in shadow, 519 00:32:58,525 --> 00:33:05,930 exposing the paper so that we can see detail in the sky crushes the front of the train into a sea of black. 520 00:33:05,930 --> 00:33:08,351 But we know there’s detail to be found there - 521 00:33:08,351 --> 00:33:13,167 looking at the scan we can clearly see the engine number but in this print... 522 00:33:13,167 --> 00:33:14,963 you just can’t. 523 00:33:14,963 --> 00:33:19,120 The people are also now in silhouette,  when we can at least see some detail here. 524 00:33:20,160 --> 00:33:25,507 This is the exact sort of image we’ll want to  use the lower contrast filters for. 525 00:33:25,507 --> 00:33:28,186 To show the effect of the lower contrast filters, 526 00:33:28,186 --> 00:33:30,686 I made these three 5 by 7 prints. 527 00:33:30,686 --> 00:33:37,506 These were exposed for the same length of time with the 2.5 filter, the 1 filter, and the double zero filter. 528 00:33:37,506 --> 00:33:40,669 Notice that the filter is pulling up the shadows 529 00:33:40,669 --> 00:33:42,761 but not affecting the highlights. 530 00:33:42,761 --> 00:33:47,726 We see just about the same darkness in this corner across all three prints. 531 00:33:47,726 --> 00:33:50,099 But as we go down in contrast grades, 532 00:33:50,099 --> 00:33:52,625 the shadows are revealing more detail. 533 00:33:52,625 --> 00:33:55,877 With less and less blue light in the exposure, 534 00:33:55,877 --> 00:33:59,070 it took a lot longer for the paper to darken to black, 535 00:33:59,070 --> 00:34:02,080 and in fact on this print it didn’t really make it there at all. 536 00:34:02,960 --> 00:34:06,793 To get more detail out of the highlights we need to expose for longer. 537 00:34:07,153 --> 00:34:10,689 These three prints were all done at 7.5 seconds. 538 00:34:10,689 --> 00:34:14,320 Now, let’s take the double zero print and add exposure time to it. 539 00:34:14,880 --> 00:34:17,314 Here’s double zero at 11 seconds. 540 00:34:17,314 --> 00:34:19,276 And now 18. 541 00:34:19,276 --> 00:34:24,479 More time finally pulls the highlights down to the point we can begin to see the sky’s detail, 542 00:34:24,479 --> 00:34:27,731 and indeed more detail in the train cars, too. 543 00:34:27,731 --> 00:34:30,984 But of course the shadows are also getting darker, now. 544 00:34:30,984 --> 00:34:35,355 I think the exposure on the 11 second print is pretty close to ideal, 545 00:34:35,355 --> 00:34:38,683 but I wish we could pull a little more detail out of the sky. 546 00:34:38,960 --> 00:34:43,799 I wish there were a way we could combine these two exposures somehow. 547 00:34:43,799 --> 00:34:45,040 Oh wait, there is! 548 00:34:45,760 --> 00:34:47,749 Dodging and burning. 549 00:34:47,749 --> 00:34:54,147 Users of photo editing software who have never spent any time in a darkroom are about to get their minds blown. 550 00:34:54,147 --> 00:35:00,113 If we stop the lens of the enlarger down so that the exposure will take a good 30 seconds or so, 551 00:35:00,113 --> 00:35:05,659 we can play around with casting shadows over the paper in regions that we don’t want to get too dark 552 00:35:05,659 --> 00:35:07,440 while the exposure is happening. 553 00:35:08,080 --> 00:35:09,757 That is called dodging, 554 00:35:09,757 --> 00:35:14,897 because you’re blocking light from the enlarger and causing it to miss the paper. 555 00:35:14,897 --> 00:35:18,149 This image is a perfect candidate for dodging - 556 00:35:18,149 --> 00:35:25,332 I want the front of the locomotive to be brighter but still want the paper exposed long enough to see detail in the sky. 557 00:35:25,332 --> 00:35:28,407 So, with a bit of shadow-puppetry skills, 558 00:35:28,407 --> 00:35:31,280 I’ll just block the locomotive for part of the exposure. 559 00:35:32,080 --> 00:35:36,720 You are witnessing the first time I’ve  ever attempted dodging and you know what?   560 00:35:37,280 --> 00:35:39,090 Here’s the print. 561 00:35:39,090 --> 00:35:40,511 It’s not bad, is it? 562 00:35:40,511 --> 00:35:43,006 I mean, I’m pretty pleased. 563 00:35:43,006 --> 00:35:48,041 If you’re doing as sloppy of a method as shadow puppets you want to make sure you’re moving a little bit 564 00:35:48,041 --> 00:35:50,312 so you don’t create hard edges. 565 00:35:50,312 --> 00:35:52,691 And there aren’t any hard edges here, 566 00:35:52,691 --> 00:35:56,207 though you do notice some blooming around the locomotive. 567 00:35:56,207 --> 00:36:00,963 The other flaw with the method as I’ve done it is that my fingers are attached to my hand 568 00:36:00,963 --> 00:36:04,480 so I ended up dodging this area of the platform as well. 569 00:36:05,120 --> 00:36:09,920 It’s not too bad here but I did a second  print with more aggressive dodging   570 00:36:09,920 --> 00:36:13,608 and honestly this looks like a light-leak in the camera or something. 571 00:36:13,608 --> 00:36:15,593 This one was a little overdone. 572 00:36:15,920 --> 00:36:20,880 If I wanted to do a better job, here, I would  have obtained or even fashioned a dodging tool   573 00:36:20,880 --> 00:36:24,270 on a stick so I could cover just the locomotive. 574 00:36:24,270 --> 00:36:29,785 Then I would just rotate the tool to make sure the shadow casted by the stick didn’t stay in one place. 575 00:36:29,785 --> 00:36:33,517 If there were an area that I wanted to be darker than the rest of the image, 576 00:36:33,517 --> 00:36:35,178 I could use burning. 577 00:36:35,178 --> 00:36:40,253 Here you block all of the image except what you want darker and expose that further. 578 00:36:40,253 --> 00:36:43,200 A simple yet effective photo manipulation technique. 579 00:36:43,920 --> 00:36:48,063 If you want, you can get really precise and create masks. 580 00:36:48,063 --> 00:36:52,060 Ilford gives you this red filter with the set of contrast filters 581 00:36:52,060 --> 00:36:57,943 which you can use to project your  image onto photo paper without actually exposing it. 582 00:36:57,943 --> 00:36:59,569 If I were really committed, 583 00:36:59,569 --> 00:37:05,401 I could compose my print on the easel, then put a piece of ordinary construction paper or similar below the enlarger 584 00:37:05,401 --> 00:37:08,939 and trace out the shape of the locomotive. 585 00:37:08,939 --> 00:37:12,609 Then I could cut that shape out and make whatever trimmings  I might need to 586 00:37:12,609 --> 00:37:18,230 to get as close to the shape as possible and create a very precise mask. 587 00:37:18,230 --> 00:37:26,139 What I’d then do is put some photo paper in the easel, then use the red filter to project the image onto it without exposing it. 588 00:37:26,139 --> 00:37:34,354 While it’s projected, I’d place the mask as precisely as I could, turn off the enlarger and remove the red filter after I’ve done so. 589 00:37:34,354 --> 00:37:36,983 Then put whatever contrast filter I might want in there, 590 00:37:36,983 --> 00:37:40,812 and then finally expose the paper for 20 seconds or so. 591 00:37:40,812 --> 00:37:45,918 If I developed the paper as is there’d be a big hole where the front of the train was 592 00:37:45,918 --> 00:37:47,983 because the mask blocked the light. 593 00:37:47,983 --> 00:37:54,671 However if I expose for another 20 seconds after removing the mask (and being careful not to nudge the paper), 594 00:37:54,671 --> 00:38:02,096 now that hole gets filled in with the front of the train but exposed for half as much time as the rest of the image. 595 00:38:02,619 --> 00:38:03,840 Simple, huh? 596 00:38:04,400 --> 00:38:07,070 Anyway, I think we should stop now. 597 00:38:07,070 --> 00:38:10,757 We have only just scratched the surface of this topic. 598 00:38:10,757 --> 00:38:13,186 Ooh that’s gonna show up in the print. 599 00:38:13,186 --> 00:38:18,791 Uh, anyway, I’m just giving you an overview of the process and that’s about as deep as I’ll go. 600 00:38:18,791 --> 00:38:26,233 There are lots and lots and lots of YouTube channels out there dedicated to film photography and darkroom printing, 601 00:38:26,233 --> 00:38:29,782 and if this interests you I'd encourage you  to check them out. 602 00:38:29,782 --> 00:38:35,608 It’s hard for me to pick out one of these film-based channels because their scopes are so different between them, 603 00:38:35,608 --> 00:38:42,626 but I have recently found The Naked Photographer who has not only got a much better (and proper) darkroom setup 604 00:38:42,626 --> 00:38:46,400 but has been doing a lot of great experiments and comparisons. 605 00:38:47,040 --> 00:38:51,524 If you’d like to check out that channel there’s a  card and I’ll probably pin it in a comment, too. 606 00:38:52,160 --> 00:38:58,640 I said in the outro of the last video that we’d  look at why 35mm film became the dominant format   607 00:38:58,640 --> 00:39:01,896 and pretty much remains so to this day. 608 00:39:01,896 --> 00:39:04,722 Well, uh, we’re out of time. 609 00:39:04,722 --> 00:39:09,070 But the mere existence of this thing should give you a decent clue. 610 00:39:09,070 --> 00:39:16,636 Enlarging this tiny film frame to an 8 x 10 inch print is about a 6000% increase in size, 611 00:39:16,636 --> 00:39:19,162 and yet it still looks pretty sharp. 612 00:39:19,162 --> 00:39:21,901 Film is pretty amazing stuff. 613 00:39:22,841 --> 00:39:25,345 ♫ contrastingly smooth jazz ♫ 614 00:39:26,261 --> 00:39:32,435 Resin-coated paper isn’t very absorbent  and it’s a lot easier to process, handle, and dry but… 615 00:39:32,435 --> 00:39:34,106 oh you sharnt… you aren’t supposed to see this image yet. 616 00:39:35,120 --> 00:39:35,752 Right. 617 00:39:35,752 --> 00:39:39,846 Then I will fold it back up, put it back in the box… 618 00:39:39,846 --> 00:39:41,167 which is upside down. 619 00:39:41,167 --> 00:39:44,640 For a very long time, this was the most efficient energy… 620 00:39:45,680 --> 00:39:46,546 dangit! 621 00:39:46,546 --> 00:39:50,593 For a very long time, this was the most efficient energy lights… 622 00:39:50,593 --> 00:39:52,799 I did it again! I said efficient energy! 623 00:39:52,799 --> 00:39:55,172 The paper is kept inside of a plack… 624 00:39:55,172 --> 00:39:57,211 plack blastic plag! 625 00:39:57,440 --> 00:40:02,072 But even if I didn’t, stores sell these clock thingies which are pretty han… 626 00:40:02,072 --> 00:40:02,905 pleurgh 627 00:40:02,905 --> 00:40:03,405 dangit! 628 00:40:03,600 --> 00:40:06,175 I don’t mean that glossy paper you might buy for your print… 629 00:40:06,175 --> 00:40:08,606 yeah I need to have it in my hands! 630 00:40:08,606 --> 00:40:11,359 We’d be looking at a deuhhh!! 631 00:40:12,602 --> 00:40:15,633 So, how many of you had no idea how this process works? 632 00:40:15,633 --> 00:40:19,065 I sorta get the sense that it's a lot, but also I'm not sure. 633 00:40:19,065 --> 00:40:22,758 Like, I imagine even a lot of the older folks out there who used film cameras for decades didn't know this, 634 00:40:22,758 --> 00:40:25,432 but maybe I'm completely off base there. 635 00:40:25,432 --> 00:40:27,760 Anywho, toodles!