Real Photographs

Part of a series of images from a visit to this stone circle in May 2010

Hasselblad, Ilford Delta 400 film processed in PMK developer.
Printed on Adox Nuance Grade 3, Neutol WA developer, Se toned.

From an early morning trip on a very dull day to Walcott on the Norfolk coast.

Hasselblad, Ilford Delta 100, PMK developer.
Print on Adox MCC 110, Neutol WA developer, Selenium toned.

Contact print from an 8×10 negative on Adox CHS 100 negative processed in Rodinal 1+25 6mins 20°C, printed on Adox Nuance G2.
Print developed in Beers #5 and split-toned in Kodak RST 1+4.

This was photographed some 30 years ago, whilst running a photography workshop in Cambridge. Contrary to everyone’s belief, the flower was not placed there by the photographer!

The film was Kodak Royal-X Pan, rated at 800 ISO (which was ASA then) and the print was made on Agfa Record Rapid paper, selenium toned.

From a 5×4 film negative, straight bromide print on Ilford Galerie fibre paper, selenium toned.

This print is made on Fomatone 131 Glossy from an Ilford Delta 100 negative developed in PMK developer. Continue reading »

A print made from a 120 film negative exposed in an old Koroll camera; HP5 developed in Rodinal. Continue reading »

The first image above shows a print on Fomatone MG Classic paper, lith processed in LD20 and then toned with Tetenal Gold toner for five minutes. The lith colour has been almost completely lost following the gold toning, but the result is a pleasant blue.

The second image is an experiment with lith processing Adox Nuance Grade 3 paper, developed in LD20. Tim Rudman says that this graded paper liths well, but I am having trouble getting it to work effectively. The gold toning, for a shorter time than the previous print, has left some of the brown lith colour in the deepest shadows and imparted a similar blue tone to the rest of the image. Bearing in mind that this is a Grade 3 paper, the contrast in lith developer is actually lower than on the Fomatone Grade 2 paper, with retained shadow details and more detail in the highlights.

The third image is the same negative printed ‘straight’ on Adox Nuance Grade 3 paper, conventionally processed in Agfa Neutol WA developer and then selenium toned.

The fourth image is a print on Fomatone MG Classic, lith processed in LD20 and left untoned. Of the four, I prefer this end result the best, but it’s interesting to see the variety of colours that can be rendered using different papers, processing and toning.

If you enlarge the images by clicking on them you can have more than one open on the screen and move them around for comparison.

Experiments continue…

This image, made on 5 x 4 inch sheet film, has been printed using a point-source lamp in the enlarger. This light source, combined with a high-quality enlarging lens, produces extremely sharp prints and is capable of rendering the most detail possible, as this enlargement of a section shows. (NB: Large image file) Note also the speckled appearance of the image, a effect created by the specular light source and condenser system which contributes to the high edge contrast. The enlarger lens must be used at full aperture; exposure is controlled by varying the intensity of the lamp.

The effect is not dissimilar to the sharpening filter in Photoshop, but no digital sharpening has been applied to this image.

Original print made on Agfa Record Rapid Glossy paper, selenium toned.

I’m not completely happy with this one and feel it needs more attention.
Fomatone MG Classic paper, developed in LD20 and toned in selenium.