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Darkroom / Film


Date: Sat, 4 Jan 1997 02:13:51 -0800
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From: Godfrey DiGiorgi <ramarren@A....>
Subject: Success!
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I set up my "darkroom" tonight and made my first Minox prints!

The darkroom is laughable. It's my bathroom, I have to shut off all
lights in the apartment and draw the blinds, wander around like a bat
with a flashlight in my hand, to reduce the light leaks to a tolerable
minimum. The enlarger, paper pack, tiny light box, magnifier and anti-
static cloth sit over the sink, the developer and stop sit on the
ledge over the toilet, the fixer is on the toilet seat and my tub of
rinse water is on the floor behind me. Step wrong and I'm in the soup. ;)

I still don't have a timer, but I found that most of my exposure
times were easily done with "one chimpanzee two"; had to hit three
for one print.

Anyway, I made 7 prints ... HC110 and Rodinal on Agfa 100 ... and a
couple of them look pretty nice. They're drying now, I'll scan a
couple tomorrow, do some spotting, etc.

Some notes:
- My enlargement size was kept constant, for ease of exposure
evaluation and consistency, at 4.5x6 inches. They look good
at that size printed on 5x7 paper.
- Dust is an ever present problem. Thank god for a scanner and
PhotoShop.
- So is grain, although I'm liking what I see so far. A little
work and there should be some nice stuff. I tend to like a some
what visible but smooth grain for a lot of my portraiture, there
are a couple of subjects in this batch that would have benefitted
from less grain but I'll be experimenting for a while yet.
- A lot of the negative were hand held images at very slow shutter
speeds, 1/20 sec or less. It's very surprising to me how sharp
even these came out.
- I'm going to try for a slightly denser average negative, most
of these were just a touch thinner than would have been ideal.

This is great fun. First wet lab prints I've made in 13 years!
I don't have any place to put them on a website or ftp host just
at the moment. Not that I think they're deathless art, mind
you, but if folks want to see them, I can't really mail them
individually to everyone. Going to have to work on that.

Godfrey
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Date: Sat, 4 Jan 1997 08:44:41 +0100
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From: Don Krehbiel <dkrehbie@S....>
Subject: Re: Success!
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Godfrey DiGiorgi wrote:

> The darkroom is laughable. It's my bathroom, etc.

Sounds VERY familiar. Did some of my best work in a similar setup.
Even Cibachrome.

> I still don't have a timer, ...

Get a Lux kitchen timer at the hardware store, or an old metronome, or
a little pociet "count-down" calculator, etc.

> This is great fun.

Of course it is!

> I don't have any place to put them on a website...

How about the SubClub?
http://members.aol.com/xkaes/index.htm
I think we should USE that resource. E-mail is a bit iffy for sending
images since the local servers get clogged and is is relatively slow.

> Not that I think they're deathless art...

We ALL feel that way

> but if folks want to see them...

I do!

You have just described what it is all about. FUN. I think we all get
too serious and paranoid about our work. Everyone needs to read Edward
Weston's descriptions of how he worked. Your setup is probably already
better than his. We all need to be a bit more "Westonian" .

Don
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Date: Sat, 4 Jan 1997 10:18:24 -0800
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From: Joel Moskowitz <mathison@I....>
Subject: Re: Success!
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Godfrey DiGiorgi wrote:
>
> I set up my "darkroom" tonight and made my first Minox prints!
>
> The darkroom is laughable. It's my bathroom, I have to shut off all
> lights in the apartment and draw the blinds, wander around like a bat
> with a flashlight in my hand, to reduce the light leaks to a tolerable
> minimum. The enlarger, paper pack, tiny light box, magnifier and anti-
> static cloth sit over the sink, the developer and stop sit on the
> ledge over the toilet, the fixer is on the toilet seat and my tub of
> rinse water is on the floor behind me. Step wrong and I'm in the soup. ;)

Sounds like we have the exact same setup.

I hung a filter holder from the negative holder on the enlarger. I was
in the kitchen but I am thinking of getting a Jobo PrintPod (about $100)
to cut down on the chemicals but more importantly to cut down on the
space requirepemtns and make it easier for me to set up. I have been
toying with the idea for a few months.


I bought a real digital darkroom timer - It makes my life much easier

It's fun but I already have bumped into a door or two in the dark. I put
a safelight in the bathroom, pull the shades in the apartment and then
keep the bathroom door open. Otherwise it quickly goes to >90 dgrees in
their.


Have fun

Joel


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Date: Sat, 4 Jan 1997 13:22:07 -0500
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From: peter zimmerman <peterz@E....>
Subject: spies and darkrooms
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Joel, Godfrey... I too learned the darkroom craft with a durst 606 in my
bathroom. 10 minutes to set up; 20 minutes to clean up and a wife frantic
to be certain the chemicals didn't stain the formica in the rented
apartment. Even did color printing by the old, old processes with 7 trays.
So you guys have my admiration and sympathy. In my middle years I could
afford to build in a darkroom, which is convenient but gets awfully littered
and cluttered since there is no discipline to tuck everything away at the
end of a session.

I'm looking forward to seeing your pictures too; I've sent 4 to SubClub, but
they weren't posted as of last night. Joe was travelling. But the one
thing I worry about is that we might get into a spirit of competition for
better pix or finer grain or whatever and wind up like a camera club
squabbling over what is 'correct' form for a submin picture. My own hope is
to learn from what you guys post and to have you, in turn, get some ideas
from my work. Maybe we can synthesize a 'school' of submin photography.

As to espionage, somebody did point out that Harold Nicholson was videotaped
under his desk at CIA snapping away with a Minox. The CIA could bug his
office at Langley; all the hi-tech gadgetry in the world wouldn't do
Nicholson any good as a spy because it is not adapted to high resolution
recording of documents, and the Minox is. Penkovsky used a minox in the
USSR before he was caught and fed to a furnace, feet first, but that was, to
be sure, decades ago. I haven't heard whether Aldrich Ames used a Minox,
but he did get caught with photographic equipment.

And MicroTec used to sell infra-red adapted ECs modified to shoot exactly
one page of paper, together with a totally invisible IR strobe flash gun.
Who do you think was in the market for those little toys? Not necessarily
government agents, but perhaps industrial espionage, private investigators,
etc. To this date nothing, NOTHING, surpasses silver halide film for the
density with which information is recorded on its surface!

It's a beautiful, warm (in the 60s, F; high teens, C) day here in the DC
area. I think I would rather take a camera outside than face a screen. So
I'm off for now!

Best,
pete
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Date: Sat, 4 Jan 1997 22:45:06 -0800
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From: Godfrey DiGiorgi <ramarren@A....>
Subject: Re: spies and darkrooms
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>Joel, Godfrey... I too learned the darkroom craft with a durst 606 in my
>bathroom. 10 minutes to set up; 20 minutes to clean up and a wife frantic
>to be certain the chemicals didn't stain the formica in the rented
>apartment. Even did color printing by the old, old processes with 7 trays.
>So you guys have my admiration and sympathy. In my middle years I could
>afford to build in a darkroom, which is convenient but gets awfully littered
>and cluttered since there is no discipline to tuck everything away at the
>end of a session.

I was one of the lucky kids when I was in high school. We lived in my
grandfather's house, which was huge, and there was a full darkroom setup
in the basement which I commandeered as a sophomore. Spent many a night in
there. I was able to wheedle and borrow darkroom space through the
following
decade or so, or convert a room in my apartment, until 1984. Then I'd been
working at a photofinisher for a couple of years as well. That was the
last
time I did darkroom work. Returning to it now is a vastly fun enterprise:
my skills are rusty but I remember what I used to do very well. It's fun
to return to an earlier lifetime this way.

When I finally buy my house, you bet that there will be a darkroom in
it... :)

>... But the one
>thing I worry about is that we might get into a spirit of competition for
>better pix or finer grain or whatever and wind up like a camera club
>squabbling over what is 'correct' form for a submin picture. My own hope is
>to learn from what you guys post and to have you, in turn, get some ideas
>from my work. Maybe we can synthesize a 'school' of submin photography.

I doubt I'll do much squabbling. A little competition to produce quality
images can't hurt but whether you're a grain freak (either way) or a
formalist or a hip shooter ... as long as you're having fun and you like
what you're producing, it's fine by me. I love to look at other peoples'
pictures not only to learn new technique but also to learn what it is they
are seeing, which is the essence of photography for me.

Godfrey
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Date: Sun, 5 Jan 1997 03:33:00 -0500
Reply-To: MARTIN TAI <martin.tai@westonia.com>
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From: MARTIN TAI <martin.tai@W....>
Organization: Westonia Computer Systems of Canada
Subject: Re: spies and darkrooms

Godfrey Digiorgi wrote:
-> I was one of the lucky kids when I was in high school.

I began developing 35mm film at junior school, enlarging at
junior high. My dad had a full darkroom, and a hundreds of bottles
of all kinds of chemical. I mixed developer with all kinds of stuff
hydroquinone, amidol etc, even tried to brew my own sensitized
silver bromide paper...that was in Singapore.
Later in Beijing, I did developing using daylight
tank, microdol, or D-76, enlarged at still of night, no darkroom.
Very simple Chinese made enlarger, with 50/3.5 Leitz lens.

-> time I did darkroom work. Returning to it now is a vastly fun
-> enterprise: my skills are rusty but I remember what I used to do very
-> well. It's fun to return to an earlier lifetime this way.

I am in the process of setting up a Minox darkroom, in
bathroom. Using my wife's closet as dry darkroom for slitting
and loading Minox film. See how things go, I may eventually
build a darkroom at basement.

mt
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Date: Sun, 5 Jan 1997 03:54:00 -0500
Reply-To: MARTIN TAI <martin.tai@westonia.com>
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From: MARTIN TAI <martin.tai@W....>
Organization: Westonia Computer Systems of Canada
Subject: Re: spies and darkrooms

pete wrote:
-> etc. To this date nothing, NOTHING, surpasses silver halide film for
-> the density with which information is recorded on its surface!

Probably nothing as convenient as Minox in recording high
density info onto to film. Minox used to sell microdot device
to CIA.

>
-> It's a beautiful, warm (in the 60s, F; high teens, C) day here in the
-> DC area. I think I would rather take a camera outside than face a
-> screen. So I'm off for now!

It is gloomy, slippery, freezing rainy day here. So, make do with
Minoxing cups, pepper grinder etc, and read "On the Six Strategies"
-- an ancient book by Lu Wang, the grand daddy of ancient Chinese
strategic studies.

martin tai
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Date: Sun, 5 Jan 1997 09:52:00 -0500
Reply-To: MARTIN TAI <martin.tai@westonia.com>
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From: MARTIN TAI <martin.tai@W....>
Organization: Westonia Computer Systems of Canada
Subject: Re: spies and darkrooms

-> As to espionage, somebody did point out that Harold Nicholson was
-> videotaped under his desk at CIA snapping away with a Minox. The CIA
-> could bug his office at Langley; all the hi-tech gadgetry in the
-> world wouldn't do Nicholson any good as a spy because it is not
-> adapted to high resolution recording of documents, and the Minox is.
-> Penkovsky used a minox in the USSR before he was caught and fed to a
-> furnace, feet first, but that was, to be sure, decades ago. I
-> haven't heard whether Aldrich Ames used a Minox, but he did get
-> caught with photographic equipment.

The Minox III used by Oswald --JFK assasin - is still in display
at CIA. The serial number of that Minox did not match the ones that
shipped to USA, probably given by Russian. It was reported that the
film inside the Minox was developed and published not long ago.

mt

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The contents of this archive, have been taken from the running conversations of Submini-L participants, from the years 1996 to the present. Please keep in mind, that they are presented largely unedited. Because these posts often represent the opinion of the speaker, the accuracy of the posts cannot be guaranteed.
Last Updated May 6, 2003