Artefact Blog Michael M

In this session, we were going to be going something special. We were going to make our photographs in the dark room. Again, I was working with James Calling. I will be making different types of prints with James, such as contact prints, test strips and final prints. I know it does not look like there is so much to do however, it takes such a long process making negative prints. You can not just send them to Boots and let them do it for you, they can not do negatives. If they did, it would take them forever!

Firstly, I took the negative films out of the drying cabinet. I cut the unnecessary bits of the film (where there is no photography and is completely black) and put them in the bin because they were no use to me or James. When I got the bits of the film I needed (I only have 7 bits of useful film) in a negative file to protect them from scratching because they are very fragile. Next, we went inside the dark room. The dark room is dark (obviously) and shined red light. It was red because the film does not react with red light, it only reacts to bright white light that can only be found in the enlarger machines which prints the 'photographic light' onto photographic paper. We were going to make contact prints to see what the photographs will look like if we printed them but contact prints are minimised versions of these (they are the size of the films). To make these, you have to take the films out of the negative file and put them in a contact print maker. It has two sides, one for the films and one for the photographic paper. So, once you have slotted the films in one half and slot the paper in the other, you close the halves together. When they are in place, you shine the bright white light from the enlarger for 5 seconds. Finally, you develop (for 1 minute), fix (for 4 minutes), wash(for 10 minutes) and dry it(30 seconds or less). The first time I and James done it turned out to be a failure. We printed on the wrong side of the paper which made the print black. In the second time, we done it.

The second part of printing was the test strips. For this, we only used half of the photographic paper. Test strips show you different shades of light for the photograph of your choice. To make test strips, I covered each section of the paper by two centimetres and shined light to each two centimetre section but in different times for each section (e.g. 2/4/6/8/10 seconds). Finally, you develop, fix, wash and dry it. I chose to do one without film to see different light shades. It turned out great, it shows the best light shade in the middle. Next, I did one with film. It was rubbish because the sections were out of place, jagged and left white bits between each section. Fortunately, the test strip still shows the shades of light.

The final stage was the final prints. The test strips helped me with this as they gave me information on which shade of light I should use. This time, I used a whole piece of photographic paper. I chose to do one photo with 4 seconds of exposed light, another with 6 seconds of exposed light and one with 8 seconds. In the end, I came out with three successful prints and no mistakes made. Mr Hind said that my first print was perfect. If I get a chance next week, I will make a photograph with different sections of exposed light so it looks different.

My target for this week is to not loose track of work if I get it wrong and just press on. I need to get less distracted by people in sessions and make more prints.

Next week...well, I do not know what is going to happen next week. All I can say is I am very proud of myself for producing fantastic prints. I think it is very easy. I hope we will go in the dark room again next week.