Dark room

I first experimented in the dark room with chemigrams. I didn’t like the images but I loved the process involved in developing them. This lead to me purchasing multiple SLR cameras from different eras. The main two I used was Cannon eos 650 SLR for colour film and Olympus Power Focus OM101 for black and white images.

I did some test shots with OM101 to test and see if this would be a viable way of capturing images. Once I had used all 32 exposures I set about developing the images. I had to open the film canister and cut the film free. Then I added the film to a development drum and added 1 part PD5 developer and 9 parts water. Then agitated for 6 minuets then emptied it. Then 1 part SB50 Stop and 19 parts water for 30 seconds, followed by 1 part FX30 Fixer  and 4 parts water for 30 Seconds. Finally I ran warm water through the tank to clear off any remaining chemicals. Then the film was left to dry overnight.

The next day I exposed the film with a LBL Color enlarger C 7700 onto light sensitive paper, then went through the process of developing the image. This involved putting my developed film into a film slide and inserting it into the enlarger. Then switching of the light and focusing the image with a grain microscope. Once the image was properly focused and framed i would put the paper onto the tray below the enlarger. then using an ordinary piece of paper i would create a test sheet by exposing the image for different times. Once deciding on a time that best suited my images i would expose them finally onto my paper then develop.

After developing all these images (see below), I decided that I really liked the look of images that have been developed from 35mm film. The images felt aged and more artistic than what the images would have looked like if I had just captured the images on a DSLR. This lead to me doing several more trials with black and white film, shot using OM101.

Also the grain of the images lead to me re-shooting my dust shoot but with colour 35mm film using eos 650 (See “DUST SLR” post for colour film.)

Black and White

Here are some of the first images I shot on film. I attempted to recreate my dust work on film to see if the grain of the film would enhance the detail of the dust. The images below were less than successful as the film was slightly over-exposed, giving all my images an orange tinge. There was also a few imperfections in the film where I handled the film incorrectly (a fingerprint can be seen at the base of one of the subjects and streaks from the film squeegee.) Despite this I really liked the effect this had on my images. The streaks give the dust more direction in the last few images. And the fingerprint at the subjects feet looks like fire.