As I think I might have possibly said before, there are a few of us now in the Club who do film and - even better - we're getting out&about on a regular basis. I'm enjoying that enormously - it's good to share and talk old cameras and film developers and swap tips with like-minded people. The other week we went to that old favourite, Ballintoy. Unknown to me, the others knew of a 'secret beach' (
shhh!). It lies behind a huge lump of rock that unless you walked right up you would assume was part of the cliff face. But there's actually a thin strip of sand behind it - between it and the cliff proper. Very clever.
It was getting late and the light was fading but still, with a tripod and cable release sure anything is possible...even losing the cable release somewhere between the beach and the car. At least I didn't lose the Hasselblad - I'd like to think I would have noticed a certain lightness in my bag.
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| At the Secret Beach, Ballintoy. On Ilford Warmtone fibre paper |
Decisions. I know the horizon is off (
again) but that can be fixed easily enough during mounting. I burnt in the sky a little but while there’s detail in the negative for the rock I didn’t try to keep it in the print - I kind of wanted to emphasise the rock's size & presence so I was happy for it to go to black. As I look at the print I wonder if if that was the best decision. Also I'm thinking I could use the magic of pot ferri to lift those waves a little. I can't do anything about the rock at this stage, but think I will try to bleach the surf - carefully, as I don't want the sky to lighten any, just a little more contrast in the part where the waves are hitting the rock.
I had HP5+ in the ‘Blad rated at 200 but since the light was fading I was able to go down to 1s to get a little blur on the water.
Update-I gave it the pot ferri treatment this morning. I just dunked the lower part of the print and for a few seconds only. The print is still wet so perhaps not a fair comparison but this is it:
I hope you deleted the GPS information the Hasselblad puts in all your prints. Otherwise the Instagrammers will be showing up in hordes. :)
ReplyDeleteHow long after you make a print can you use pot ferri to make changes?
I think the rock looks okay gone to black because the top 1/3 has detail and the waves are filling in space at the bottom. I was looking at some landscape photos the other day online and many people use raw file processing to raise Zone II shadows to Zone IV. I guess it's impressive how much detail can be preserved in a digital image, but it looks a bit unnatural to me. Still, to each his own.
Insta-what? :)
DeleteAt the magic that is potassium ferricyanide. To my knowledge, Marcus, there’s no time limit. If I had a more detailed understanding of the chemistry I could tell you why, but for now I can say if the print has been dried (as mine was), simply immerse it in water for a few minutes & then in the pot ferri. But you gotta watch it - it can act fast. I used some existing p.f. that I had already made up...I should dilute it more as it was really only 15s before I grabbed it out and washed it under the tap. It’s not irreversible - I think you can redevelop if you bleach too much but then it all gets a bit messy. This time I caught it about right I think. Then it needs re-fixing, another long wash (60mins) and finally leave to dry (again). The old pros used to call it ‘liquid light’ I think. You can paint it on with a fine brush if you are skilled enough...I’m not, as yet anyway.
I agree about the shadows & the detail - less can most definitely be more (better) in those situations. Night turns into day too easily.
Oh, liquid light! That's a great name. Thanks for the detailed explanation.
DeleteLooks like a great place for a couple of good chances to get a nice shot of the old sea hammering your shores over there, Michael. I really like light in your final print, and the lifted whites in the wave after the pot ferri treatment. Works like magic that old trick it does!
ReplyDeleteCheers Roy. It's a rescue thing, the Pot Ferri, and requires a subtle application otherwise the whole thing gets out of hand very quickly. Less is definitely more with this stuff. The lightening process continues after you lift the print out of the tray (until you can get it washed off) so you need to anticipate things and get it out before it looks quite the way you want it.
DeleteOh yes, I know. I've only had a couple of quick encounters with the stuff, and ended up with a couple of more or less bleached-to-paper-white copies in my hand. I still got some of the old chemicals in the dark room, so I'll save them for a darker day and start exercise a bit with it. It's great when used in the right way, as you obviously did right here.
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