Text ENG: Darkroom: equipment needed for printing in black and white_part 1
Darkroom: equipment needed for printing in black and white_part 1
Hello everyone,
in this video I want to show you the equipment we need to expose the printing paper in darkroom We are not considering the overall process which is gonna include also the one that I call "wet" with basins.
So let’ start.
First of all, as we already said, we need an enlarger. It can be a condenser enlarger or it can be a diffuser enlarger.
The differences I have already explained to you in another video that you can find the down here in the infobox.
So we will need one of the two types of enlarger, then we need a light bulb as a source of light, some of our negatives, obviously in black and white,
... no sorry, I’m a liar, we can also print colour negatives with black and white paper only that are a grey scale.
So the enlarger, the light, the negative ..and we need the lens.
The lens is very important, it works exactly like for taking the photo, so we would need a good quality lens.
I am now using this one which is a S Companon lens and I believe it is probably one of the best I have tried so far.
So, yes the lens.
Then we need a micro focus finder.
What does it practically do?
It’s placed under the image, once we have the light on, and practically, it makes a very consistent blow-up of the image reproduced by the enlarger and in this way we can actually focus the negative with the plane in which the paper is placed.
This is because maybe the photo is often out of focus, and to be sure that the negative is on focus with the print plane of the paper, we simply use the micro focus finder.
So we need the micro focus finder.
.
Next point:
If we did not have a colour head and therefore we are in this condition as here, we would also need some filters to work on contrast, these are from ilford, the multigrade… they work from a value of 0 up to a value of 5, the smaller the value is, the lower the contrast is.
So, 5 is the maximum contrast. So, as you can see, they are coloured gelatine sheets that we insert between the light source and the negative itself, in this way.
And then what we need is paper.
......Here I am.
So, what I was saying is that we need the printing paper.
This is an Ilford, ilfobrom.. oh well this is a fixed contrast grade 1. So if you want to work with fixed contrast papers, which today are very difficult to find on sale, you don't need filters.
However there will be another video where I’ m gonna explain fixed contrast papers, and variable contrast papers that would be the multigrade.
I've only left one sheet here, so I'm going to burn it. Always remember that when you open one package of printing paper, you absolutely have to work with red lights, otherwise the paper and the all sheets in the package burn. But now it is fine because I have already arranged everything so that there is only one sheet inside. So I'm going to waste one only one piece.
What is the paper like?
The paper ... .. is safe in a black light-tight bag.
You take our sheet of paper ..... you are gonna positioned under the enlarger ... obviously with the red filter on, once you have positioned the paper, we turn off the enlarger, we remove the red filter and we expose the paper.
You should also have a timer to check the exposure.
The timer works in three modalities:
- one is the fixed light, so we are using it when focusing the image, so, the first phase.
- Then we have the second modality which is to turn off the enlarger, and we are gonna remove the red filter
- And then the third modality, is the controlled time to expose the paper.
At the moment I don't have any timer here with me, so when I work in these situations I simply turn on/off by hand and I’ll count loudly
. I turn the enlarger on and, just like at the beginning, I’ll count by myself
If you want an advice, to count up to 10, I advise you to count 101, 102, 103, 104, because saying that 100 gives you that necessary second and to have the quantity of the time studied always the same.
....
Obviously, we need the red light to work.
This is, I think, all the equipment necessary for the first phase of exposure of a black and white paper in analogue printing.
I hope you enjoyed the video and we'll see you in the next one.
Bye
