THE PROCESS
Now that the theory’s been
haphazardly trotted out, you’ve built your darkroom, have all of your
working solutions mixed up, let’s get to the good stuff! A step by step
instructional! For simplicity, we shall assume that the paper size is
8x10”.
DRY
1.
Prepare your space
You have your processing tube in a familiar place, nearby and within
arm’s reach. You have a piece of opaque cardboard or cardstock handy.
You have your box of paper at your side. You’ve burned the location of
these items into the depths of your soul and will be able to find them
when the lights go out.
2. Prepare your enlarger
You have your dust free, perfectly exposed, Pulitzer Prize winning
negative inserted in your enlarger. You have your easel properly
centred, your projection is in focus, etc. Your aperture is set to a
comfortable f/stop. Dial in your starting filter pack. A good starting
point (Kodak recommended) is 60M/60Y.
3.
Set up the paper
Switch off all the lights. Open your box of paper and retrieve a sheet.
Carefully close the box. Place the sheet of paper in your easel,
emulsion side (squeaky-smooth) facing up. Ascertain by feel that the
paper is correctly aligned.
4.
Make the exposure
Cover 4/5th of your sheet of paper with the card stock. Expose the
paper for 3 seconds. Uncover an additional 1/5th of the paper and
repeat the 3 second exposure. Repeat this process until the paper is
completely uncovered. You have now exposed your first test print.
5.
Load the tube
Remove the paper from the easel, carefully and loosely roll it and fit
it into the tube. The back of the paper should be in contact with the
wall of the tube while the emulsion will be facing the center. Cap the
tube and ensure that it is secure. You can now turn on the lights.
This concludes the dry portion
of the test print! Now that your paper is exposed, all that needs
to be done is to process it.
WET
Prepare the chemistry. Your
working solutions are mixed. You have decided on the temperature you’re
most comfortable working with and have taken the necessary measures to
keep it as consistent as possible. You have prepared 300ml of Developer
and 300ml of Blix for this session.
NOTE: Processing time will vary depending
on temperature. If you are working at ~94F, you will be looking at 60
seconds of development and 90 seconds of blixing . At room temperature,
times should be doubled.
1.
Pre-wet (Optional, but recommended)
Add 150ml of water (lukewarm) to the drum. Rotate for 30s. Discard.
2.
Develop
Add 100ml of Developer to the drum. Rotate for 50 seconds. Discard
approximately 25% of used developer, and return the remainder to your
bottle of working solution. (the print will continue developing until
the next step. Discarding at 50 seconds is to account for the extra
time it takes for you to transition to the next step.)
3.
Stop
Add 150ml of water (lukewarm) to the drum. Rotate 10s. Discard. Repeat
once (optional.)
4.
Bleach/Fix
Add 100ml of Blix to the drum. Rotate for 90s. Discard approximately
25% of used Blix and return the remainder to your bottle of working
solution.
5.
Wash
Add 150ml of water to the drum. Rotate for 15s. Discard. Repeat (x6) or
until satisfied.
6.
Hang to dry
Hang the prints from a line using clothes line clip or some such
implement. Wait until fully dry before evaluating the print!