darkroom

Useless Film Developing Trivia

I would occasionally, back in the day, require extremely fast film. I encountered a recommendation for processing TRI-X exposed at EI 4000, tried it, and found that it produced very useful results. (Contrast was high, shadow-detail was low, but grain was startling small, and if properly exposed it lead to a very satisfying rendition of the scene for late-night convention parties and music sessions. The film had a strong curl, and a high level of base fog.)

I just ran across a pointer to the details of the process, which I hadn’t quite remembered, and a citation to where it originally from. I don’t expect to ever use it again (though the materials are still available!), but I’ve been unhappy not remembering the details, so I’m documenting them here, as well as where a re-discovered them.

Michael G. Slack (in Darkroom Photography, July/August 1979, p. 13) reports pushing Kodak Tri-X Pan to EI 4000 (with extreme contrast increase) by developing for 5 minutes at 75 F in HC-110 replenisher diluted 1:15 (like Dilution A, but starting with replenisher rather than syrup).
Michael Covington, https://www.covingtoninnovations.com/hc110/

46 Minutes of Your Time

Many of you won’t care, but some of you desperately need to spend the time to watch this video.

It’s Ctein demonstrating actual dye-transfer printing (to Michael Reichmann of the photo website Luminous Landscape).

Many of the interesting parts of the process are done in normal room light, so you get to see the real thing, and you see the equipment and hear about the process for the bits done in the dark.

Watch this!

And, we’re coming to the end of the sale on the remaining inventory of Ctein’s dye transfer prints, info here.

Photo Co-op Darkroom

Back in the early 70s, I helped build the first version of the photo co-op darkroom in the basement of Sayles-Hill Gymnasium at Carleton.

I discovered tonight, while I was at the Career Center also in that basement, that there’s still a photo co-op darkroom there.Â Came close to getting to see the inside; one of the students I was talking to (about careers in computers) was a member of the photo co-op.

We went to get the key, but it had been checked out since April 29, and nobody was actually in the darkroom.Â I understand the darkroom is now used somewhat less than it used to be.

From what I can remember, I think maybe it’s in the same place it used to be. I wonder what it’s like inside these days?