This bench sat outside my Aunt's apartment and now lives in our garden, though I had to move it to catch the sunlight the other morning:
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| Bench, January 2021. Ilford Delta 3200 on Ilford MG Classic fibre paper. Toned in home-made sepia toner. |
I was surprised how well it printed, as the whole roll of Delta 3200 looked awful when it came out of the developing tank...very flat, low contrast negatives. That was in spite of rating it at 800 and developing as per Ilford's recommendations. That's the second roll of this film that I've had poor results from, which will teach me for be lazy and not doing some proper testing. I've a few more rolls of it which I would like to keep for 'situations which demand a really fast film' but I think I'm going to have to sacrifice one more in order to get to grips with it. That's a pain, since it's an expensive film.
I had finally exhausted my last shop-bought sepia toner so I made up my own, using one of the standard recipes from Tim Rudman's excellent Toning Book. For the record, the bleach was 1% potassium ferricyanide, 0.5% potassium bromide; the toner was 1% thiocarbamide and 0.5% sodium hydroxide. I diluted the bleach 1:6 so that things moved slowly and I was able pull the print early, since I tend to like a light touch when it comes to toning.
That's a very elegant bench in some lovely sunlight.
ReplyDeleteHow do you get your chemicals for toning? Out of curiosity, I looked up potassium ferricyanide and easily found a site in Korea where bottles of chemicals are sold. But there was a notice saying that chemicals are only sold to schools and institutions, not individuals. I guess it's a government regulation.
Thanks. The bench looks better year on year - the curves on the iron work are superb, you just don’t get that on modern benches.
DeleteUp to now I have got my raw chemicals from photographic suppliers in England (Silverprint, Process Supplies etc) or eBay. The Korean situation seems strange - I mean, where do all the darkroom workers get their raw materials?? I jest, but I’d imagine there must be a few in the country. You could always take a wander down to your Uni Chemistry/Pharmacy Department if you fancy dipping your toe in the H2O...it’s great fun, mixing your own chemistry and tweaking the numbers to create something a little unique to you.
A lot of things are banned here. Maybe leftovers from the dictator days when leaders were nervous about people getting their hands on chemicals? Don't know. Anyway, it looks like people interested in toning are limited to what Ilford and Foma sell. Selenium, indigo, and sepia are the only options I can see.
DeleteAs for looking into the chemistry department for ingredients, my university doesn't have any science departments (or humanities anymore!). It has a college of education, but science is not one of the subjects you can take.