Joao Ribeiro (jribeiro@greco.com.br)
Fri, 22 Jan 1999 11:40:26 -0200
Carl, Liam and All,
This is going to be a long post with a lot of English mistakes ...
1) Film: Agfa Tecknical Darkroom CUCS 24X30 cm - This film is for Image
Setters and as I said is very transparent. I used to work with Kodalith
and Fujilith 4X5 that are much more opaque.
2) Developer: Dektol 1:2 with constant agitation for 5 minutes in a very
larger tray than the film size. I control developer's fatigue by
counting "Mississippis" to see how long the image takes to show, usually
3 to 4 Mississippis and the image darkens pretty fast if it takes much
longer I would replace developer.
3) Stop bath acetic acid + water (I don't measure, just drop a few ml of
it in the water and keep adding more as my testing paper shows an
increase in ph)
4) Bleach
5) Clearing bath: 2 minutes with constant agitation (since the lights
are on, it is easy to check for air bubbles
6) Redevelopment
I tried base exposure as 3X the positive test as described and even w.o.
flash got very little detail in the shadows and block up highlights. I
decided to try with the base exposure as being the same as the 1st
positive one and got shadows but no highlights (this was expected, it is
a lith film isn't it?) I decided test flashing then. I went from 2 to
12% flash (based on the base exposure) and got good detail in the
highlight, densities around 2,0 but shadows washed out, no details at
all.
I decided to try decreasing base exposure to have room for longer flash
exposures, so I fixed some intermediate amount of flash and tested for a
base exposure lower than the 1st positive exposure. I got a good
starting point at 1/2 the 1st exposure.
I then started with this base exposure (1/2 the first one) and went for
a flash test again. I actually got a pretty good neg., with full shadow
detail and highlights, w. density range of 1,3 or something about it.
IMPORTANT: I don't have a densitometer, I am working comparing to a
Stoufer's tablet as in PF#1.
Although the negative was fine, there was some spots with higher
densities all over the film, also there was a pronounced strait line and
a few weaker others crossing the smaller side of the film, just as if I
had photographed a creased sheet of paper, it looks like a got of a
creased paper image behind the image I printed. It happens always at the
same high (2/3 of the film's lenght) and have been happening in all
negatives I tried, so it is not in my neg. for sure. Also, sometimes it
happens at the right and sometimes at the left side of the enlarger's
easel, so I assumed it is not my enlarger either.
About equipment: I am using a very old but in good shape Fuji 6x9
enlarger. It is very hot here in Sao Paulo/Brazil (I am considering
moving to Senegal, it's colder there) so I don't know if this
temperatures matters for the mottling problem.
Thanks for further information,
Joao
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.0b3 on Sat Nov 06 1999 - 10:06:43