Today has been busy. Well I guess it started last night. As the regular readers will know by now, I don't post on Tuesdays. Mostly because I need at least one day off. Also, every other Tuesday is edit night for my school paper. We usually aren't done until the early morning hours and I just don't have the energy to do it after that. Well on top of edit night I had to wake up early this morning to get an interview. All of you know that I am very passionate about photography, but I also rather enjoy using a video camera. I am currently in my second Television Productions class and this morning I had a project to work on. It's a simple one really, just a common news package like you would see on the evening news. The three minutes you see though can sometimes translate into three hours worth of work. We are covering a sports event at our school so this morning we sat down for an interview with the coordinator. We still have to go back and shoot on Tuesday though at the actual event so we can get our b-roll (those are the shots that play while the anchor does the voice over work).
After that I finished up the last few pictures on my roll of film and went to develop it. I guess there isn't really a whole lot of purpose in developing just one roll, but I wanted to be in the lab so bad. I thought I would tell those of you who don't know just how long that takes. First off you have to get the film out of the canister. This has to be done in total darkness (the room with the red lights comes later). So, blind as a bat, you have to pop off one end of the canister and pull the film out. Don't touch the film though or you will get finger prints on it. Gripping it by the sides, you then have to locate the tail (the part you initially loaded into the camera) and cut it off. Once you have done this you can start loading the film onto a reel (again, in the dark). This was my third time doing this so I actually got it done pretty quick this time. Once it's on the reel you cut the spool off and put the reel in the development tank. Once you seal the tank you can turn the lights on. On to actually developing it.
Step One: You must rinse your film with water that is the same temperature as the developer (in my case 68 degrees). This is called the pre-wet. You invert the tank slowly while twisting (this is called agitating) for thirty seconds. After agitation you gently tap the tank against the sink a few times to dislodge air bubbles from the film. You the rest for thirty seconds and dump out the pre-wet.
Step Two: Pour in the developer. The film I use must develop for eleven and a half minutes. You agitate for thirty seconds initially, and then ten seconds at the beginning of each additional minute, tapping the tank at the end of every agitation. Pour out the developer ten seconds before the time is up.
Step Three: The developer is bringing out the image on the negatives. We now need to 'stop' that reaction from happening, so we pour in our stop bath and agitate continuously for thirty seconds. After that we rest for thirty seconds.
Step Four: Now we have neutralized the developer, but the film is still sensitive to light. We need to 'fix' the images so that they will not be photosensitive anymore. Pour in your fixer and, just like the developer, agitate for thirty seconds initially and then for ten seconds at the beginning of each additional minute for three and a half minutes.
Step Five: We need to get most of the fix off of our film, so we will fill the tank with water and dump it three times.
Step Six: Now we will add a chemical that will help us remove the rest of the fix. Agitate continuously for about a minute or two.
Step Seven: Now we need to wash the fix remover off our film. We do this by either filling the tank up and inverting for set amounts of time, or by placing the reel in a container that fills with water and empties by itself for five minutes.
Step Eight: Now we are going to apply a wetting agent. The reel goes back into the tank and we agitate continuously with the wetting agent for about a minute or two.
Step Nine: The film now comes off the reel and goes into the dryer. Before we dry it though we must take a clean sponge (soaked in wetting agent) and sponge the film gently. Once this is done you let the film dry in the dryer for about fifteen minutes. Cut it into strips of five for storage and you're done!
You are all now experts in film development (sort of). Valuable life lesson really. You're welcome.
I had to leave the lab to go to class, but later on I went back to make a contact sheets and to experiment with making prints. I haven't learned exactly how yet but I had a rough idea so I gave it a go. Nothing really came out but I did have a lot of fun. Once again, the dark room (that's the one with the red light) is very soothing.
I did whip out my digital a bit tonight. I was initially trying to create a wong-style diffuser (imagine a barf bag over the top of a flash) when I had an idea. I'm not going to tell you how I did it just yet. Feel free to guess though.
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| 1/125 sec f:9.0 ISO 400 |
It came out exactly as I had hoped it would. This is pretty much straight out of the camera. There were a few lens flares I had to fix but other than that I didn't do a whole lot of processing here. Everyone should immediately notice I broke the all important rule of thirds (omfgwtf?!). Calm down. It's going to be alright. I centered the subject because I wanted the blackness to really envelop him. Others might not agree, but I think this goes to show that rules are meant to be broken, even if only occasionally.
That's all for tonight. I'm sure I will have a hell of an earful tomorrow evening. I will be learning how to make prints tomorrow. I might go home too. So that should be an interesting blog. Goodnight everyone.
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