COBBLER'S PAGE Back from
our holiday and plenty of film to process - this seemed to be the
ideal time to try out the new Rayco Kit. My
approach to testing any formula and film combination is to expose film
in the field as I normally do on a wide variety of subjects, usually
under a wide range of lighting conditions. I don't think charts and
coloured squares give much idea of what a film will do when used in
less than perfect conditions. For
formula testing care is used in mixing and temperature is as near as I
can get it on the night, though this can vary as much as 5%. Time is
adjusted to take variation into account. This method may not be the
ideal but I think these conditions probably represent the approach
used by the majority of amateur photographers. Anyone
who uses an E6 formula knows that the first developer is the critical
one, time and temperature have to match. As the temperature drops
despite all efforts at adjusting tank and water baths,it is
re-assuring to come up with a time to take care of this. Out comes the
chart supplied by 'Chrome Six'with this information on. The colour
developer is not as critical but again any deviation from the normal
is listed. Bleach Fix is done till it is done and can be inspected to
see when that is. This balancing method works and takes a lot of worry
out of getting it spot on. Open
the Rayco Kit to find four plastic bottles of equal size and a small
bottle of stabilizer (a good touch that) and the instruction sheet.
Following this sheet the mixing is done in minutes. It is idiot proof
or nearly so. The 1st developer concentrate has a red label the same
as the A.B solutions of the colour developer. The Bleach A. B bottles
have blue labels. I think a different coloured, or even a plain label
for the 1st developer would just make that distinction for the idiot. Also,
for ease of working,I would have liked time and temperature charts for
the 1st and colour developer. I
have not come across this pre-warming method before and it did not
work for me,as it resulted in lower than ideal temperature for the
first film. The rest of the instructions are concise and well written. I
processed 5x36 exposures of Konica film, 1x24 Fuji 200 ASA and a 120
Fuji 50 ASA. Two of the Konica films and one of the Fuji were
processed at 38%C (time adjusted) the rest were done at 35%C. Results
were very good. The exposed leaders giving a good dense 'black'. The
colours were spot on, no colour casts. The
kit was very easy to use and good value. General
comments. Why do some kits and formulas recommend six minutes at 38%C
and others six and a half minutes? I
would like to see a kit which contains 2x300 mls of developer in
separate bottles and 1x300mls bleach/fix. It always seems a waste to
have twice as much bleach fix as one needs. I seem to remember one of
Johnson's Ferrania kits was done that way. CONTRAST
CONTROL Anyone
who has used reversal paper to print their colour slides on will have
had problems with contrast. Burnt out highlights and blocked up
shadows are the result of the contrast curve difference in material.
To get optimum results you have to compress the tonal range of the
slide. The negative process uses a mask built into the film to achieve
this, hence the orange/brown look of colour negatives. In
theory when making masks for your slides you should have two types,
one for the colours and one for contrast. In practice, contrast
control is enough for the amateur. Kodak used to make a film specially
for this purpose. No longer available they advise using TMax 100 black
and white film. The
film has to have a neutral base ie.no trace of haliation dye or base
tint. This I find is not always the case with TMax. FP4+ would work as
well, if not better as it is easy to get a clean base. Lith film could
be used when subjects contain no important red areas as the advantage
of developing by inspection and its clean base are set against its
non-sensitivity to red. To
make a mask you need a sandwich of black and white film and slide
film. A contact printing frame makes life easier at this stage.
Because the mask has to be unsharp you print with the slide emulsion
uppermost through to the black and white film. You are aiming for a
negative that is quite "thin" showing hardly any detail in
the shadow areas. Processed in a soft working developer for three
minutes should give you the required gamma 0.3 once you have the
correct exposure. This will be achieved by the test strip method.
Ilford ID11 or home mixed D23 is suitable. Now
comes the tricky bit when you have to register your negative and slide
film together. This is made much easier if you have used some pin
registration at the printing stage ie.slide mount registration pins
built in for 35mm film. Once assembled you should have a slide that
has veiled highlights due to the presence of the black and white film
and its showing in those areas. This has the effect of compressing the
tones thus allowing easy control of contrast. Anyone who has tried to
burn in areas will be aware of colour shifts (to grey/blues with
Ilfachrome). Not all slides need masks but you will usually find your
better slides tend to be the more contrasty ones. However, remember it
is light contrast and not colour contrast we are controlling. Home
brewers can try the following taken from the PHOTO TECHNIQUES
MAGAZINE, Oct.'97. A one shot developer, small dish development at 70
degrees for 3 minutes. Said
by CETIN,(from whose article the formula is taken) to give the
required 0.3 gamma. Water
700 mls To
finish on a lighter note I would like to take another small item from
the current edition of Photo Techniques. "A
California woman equipped with a single-use camera captured a couple
of candids. Myko Kona,30, was walking to work one morning recently
when a man driving a van stopped and asked her for directions. While
she was answering him, the driver exposed himself and began
masturbating. She
took out her camera and snapped a photo as evidence - "I just
took the picture and he went ballistic", Kona told KNBC.TV. The
driver tried to grab her but she broke loose and ran to the front of
the van to take a shot of the front licence plate - but there was no
plate. When she tried for a photo of the rear license plate the man
backed the van up drove onto the sidewalk and tried to run her over.
But she managed to get a few pictures of the license plate before
dodging the van by jumping into some bushes for safety. Police
got the film developed and identified both the van and its driver. He
was arrested at his home that night and charged with assault with a
deadly weapon (the van), attempted kidnapping, and indecent exposure.
Police said the pictures were crystal clear but did not reveal what
brand of single-use camera helped to nab the flasher". Just goes to show you should always have a camera handy you never know what you might chance on! |