I finally got the "Wet-Prints" exchange prints finished. Whew, what a task.
Once you have EVERYTHING set up and rolling, making a print or ten of
something is usually a pretty easy task, but when rebuilding a darkroom and
getting everything rolling again after a two-year hiatus, it was anything
but simple.
For some reason I was fighting a focus issue. I couldn't figure it out for
the life of me. I'd focus the negative, and get it precisely where I wanted
it, but when I went to make the print it was out of focus again. I'd adjust
it and the next attempt it was out of focus all over again! This went on
and on... I was blaming the equipment--always blame the equipment, right?
So, what every good darkroom technician does is step out of the darkroom and
go do something else for a few minutes. Coming back in, the neg was in focus
again I hadn't touched anything. But as I'm staring at the image on the
easel, the stinking thing went right back out of focus! I fully understand
that my eyesight isn't as good as it used to be, but this is just plain
nuts.
I am a voracious reader and vaguely recall something I read about this Fuji
100ss B&W film--it has a thinner base and will easily warp when in the
enlarger. When I focused and framed the image the negative would warm up and
as it warmed up it would bulge up and go out of focus as I use a glassless
negative carrier for 35mm film. So, my misdirected frustrations against the
enlarger (after spending an hour tweaking and maintaining the stupid
thing--good thing too, since I found a couple other problems), were directed
to the negative instead.
The question is which way should I go with the printing? Do I shoot the
print almost wide-open for 1.5 seconds and wait a bit between each print
(printed 16 copies altogether), or do I stop down to F11 and print for 15
seconds so I can do a touch of dodging and burning? I opted for the long
exposure so I could dodge and burn and get a touch better image. But what I
had to do was keep the negative warm. I kept the enlarger on until the
moment I got the next sheet of paper out, quickly shoved it into the easel,
then covered the lens with my hand while I turned the enlarger back on for
five seconds, off, removed my hand and pressed the go button. Doing it this
way, MOST of them stayed pretty sharp. :) No biggy, as the image is kinda
dreamy looking to begin with.
What an adventure. Just a note for the curious, that Fuji 100ss B&W film is
pretty funky in a multitude of ways. I'm glad it was as inexpensive as it
was and I'm also glad I tried it, but sadly, it ain't no Ilford film. I'll
go back to shooting PanF and the Deltas without regrets.
AG
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