Wewt! I am going to be a student again!

[Dee]

Went to Burton College tonight to enrol on a Recreational Photography course

Starts in a couple of weeks, and the first term runs up to xmas. I get to play in a studio, learn about lighting, mess about with post processing on brand new Macs, and have full access to a dark room! Never been this excited about education before

[Feek]

So when do you start sleeping in until 3 in the afternoon, getting up just in time for Countdown and living on 9p worth of noodles a week?

[Dee]

Start?

[HollyThirtyFive]

ahh awesome! youll love it :-) i did a year of photography at college and i think all the post digital editing is the best thing i took away, but its really cool to develop your own pics in a darkroom and learn about all the chemicals and exposure.

Is it full time, or partime?

[Mondo]

Oooooooooooooh, jealous !!! I love real darkroom, first time is a bit daunting thou. Trying to open a film cartridge in complete darkness and put it in a developing tube is a challenge but fun. Then run it through chemicals and then hang it to dry, but the best bit is printing on a sheet of developing paper. Learning burning, dodging and retouching is all really good fun, like making art in front of you.

Have fun !

[Dee]

Its only part time Holly, 7-9 Monday nights. And Mondo, I had a quick look in the dark room when I was there, was a bit daunting

[Pheebs]

WOOWEE! That sounds like so much awesome fun!

I would love to do something like that... wishing I had the time and money though - boo!

Let us know how you get on bubba!

[Mondo]

Originally Posted by Betty

Its only part time Holly, 7-9 Monday nights. And Mondo, I had a quick look in the dark room when I was there, was a bit daunting

Developing wise is all about 2 things, concentration of the chemicals, and the timing. The packaging of the film will tell you the cycles of developing you need, the "tube" where you film goes into is divided into 2 parts. Bottom section is the chemical, top is where the film sits. They don't touch each other until you shake it, so the how much it develop is long you shake it for, don't be afraid to shake it hard. There should be a stop watch there to help you. Under developed film will be really light and pale, over develop will be all dark, you can save it a bit in the printing process but it's best to get it right here first.

After you develop your B&W films (I wouldn't think you would develop colour since the chemicals for those are more toxic), I usually cut them up to a strip of 6, you can get little plastic binder slips to fit them in.

You put the negative in the enlarger, turn on the bulb and twist the knob at the top until the image on the bottom white plate is sharp. You can check it by putting this weird scope/mirror thing on the image and look through it until you see the actual grain of the photo is sharp, adjust the edge ruler thing so you get a little white boarder when you put in the paper (hard to describe but it'll make sense, promise ).

It is then you put the white paper into the tray, line it up, set light intensity and duration for exposing the white paper under the bulb and hit start. That's it, there should be a developing machine where you just feed the paper in and it'll come out in about 30 seconds with your photo on it. I wouldn't expect there are chemicals to developing prints.

You can try different effects like for example if a photo has part of it over exposed and it's really dark and the other half is normal. By covering the dark half during exposing under the enlarger with a piece of card for say 30% of the over all exposure will help correct the over exposure in the first place. And to prevent a line due to the piece of card, just hold it above the bottom but move it from side to side. If you don't like how it comes out, adjust the duration and intensity of the bulb until you get a contrast and balance you are happy with. I was always really happy everytime i get a new print from the machine and then rush of the room to see it under normal light, its like new present everytime hehe.

Paper for printing wise I tends to get Iford 10x8 size, there are different types to give different effects and you can get glossy or matt, remember do not open it outside the dark room, not even the box, tiny a streak of light will ruin it completely.

Any questions I love to help (if I know the answer)

[Dee]

Interesting read there, thanks Mondo! Ill ask you for some hints and tips when I start

I am really looking forward to getting in the studio and learning about different lighting, I love my portrait shots so that will help me enormously

And thanks Kitten

[Mark]

Sounds about what I remember, that. No machines for developing prints when I was in a darkroom (at home) though (several homes ago) - it was all trays of chemicals.

We did build a device out of LEGO to rotate the film canisters though.