Search results for: 'lot'

Mounting your Prints Even the most stunning print can look better when it has been properly mounted. Mounted prints are also better protected as they are kept flat with the image separated from the immediate surroundings by unobtrusive margins. There are no hard and fast rules about mounting prints; the most suitable results will depend on individual preference, the nature of the image, the intended use and other circumstances. It is recommended that only boards and other materials intended for the p...

Split grade printing The version of split grade printing described here is that taught to me by the ILFORD head printers, Mike Walden and Terry Offord, and is the simplest, fastest way to make good darkroom prints from pretty much any negative. (The exception is really underexposed negatives to print these you usually only need high contrast). This is a very powerful technique that can be used routinely with variable contrast (VC) papers, such as ILFORD MULTIGRADE. It makes use of the differing performa...

What is the luminogram process? The Luminogram process is light, directed onto photo paper in the darkroom. About as basic as ‘photography’ can get. It has been with us for a long while. László Moholy-Nagy (1895-1946) started using it in 1922, while Gottfried Jäger described it as "the result of pure light design; the rudimentary expression of an interaction of light and photosensitive material… a kind of self-representation of light." And yet it has always seemed to sit on the sideline...

 A lifelong hobby One of my lifelong hobbies is photography. I have been taking photographs since I was about 10 years old when I was given an old Kodak folding pocket camera that had belonged to an uncle, Bertrand Perrett, who was a professional photographer and painter in England. I learned to develop and print black-and-white film at school when I was a teenager back in the 1970s. The Slower Pace When digital photography came along I moved to that medium, but recently I’ve come back to film aga...

I’m a passionate film photographer. There are plenty of us about and indeed plenty of reasons for choosing film as a medium. Many of these reasons are quoted ad nauseam by any and every film photographer. One of the biggest problems I have with digital photography is that it's given film photographers a soap box to waffle on about how much better film is… Yawn… I’m going to make some assumptions about the audience of this blog, and as such I’m not going to repeat all of the justifications usually ...

How I work I believe in self-learning, and I’m always up for something new to explore. I adhere to a strict code of conduct and don’t believe in photoshop, or do much if any post processing. It has to be an exceptional day for me to crop an image. I use Ilford’s Delta 400 for most of my work and use XP2 Super when I need my results fast. Changing times I was born in 1988, which meant that I got a first class ticket to experience the world converting from analogue to digital during m...

One of the best things about film photography is that the creative process doesn't end in the camera. Processing your images in a darkroom is not only great fun, but it also allows you to exercise complete creative control over the final look of your image. We cover some of the essentials needed to set up a darkroom in our beginner's guide and have also developed a series of short animations which cover essential darkroom equipment, darkroom safety tips as well as how an enlarger works. Below, we cov...

Lifelong love of black and white Growing up in the late fifties and sixties, one of my favourite movies was The Day the Earth Stood Still, a lot of which was shot at night in black and white. That early exposure to film noir inspired a lifelong love of black and white photography, especially at night. When I first started shooting pictures in 1967, though, the only option for night photography without a tripod was “pushing” 400 ASA film and using specialized developers. While what was essentially un...

Starting Out As a relative newbie there is a lot I still don’t know or understand the history of photographic film types and the various process do’s & don’ts.  I’m OK with this and let me tell you why. There are countless books, articles and resources to help me learn as well as a very supportive film community.  It is important that I do my homework but it is also important I don’t let all this information overwhelm me. Learning For me the main and only way to learn is time behind t...

Man of science I love alternative photographic techniques like dry plates and brushed on emulsions. I am a darkroom fanatic – always exploring new ways to mash up digital with traditional analog techniques. I love all kinds of print processes – cyanotypes, salts, van dykes to name a few. I shoot all formats right from 35mm half frames up to 8×10 large format. I am also an avid camera collector but prefer to be a user rather than an admirer of my cameras. I currently use a Nikon F3, Leica M-A, Hasse...