The Devil is in the Details

I have learned quite a bit this week. Unfortunately, a good share of what I have learned was learned the hard way.

I have extensive darkroom experience. Although the experiences I brought with me are not with developing 35mm film and print making, the majority of the skills I already had translate. As far as chemical basics go, I am well aware of the basic functions of developer, stop bath and fixer. Unfortunately, understanding these processes did not prevent me from making a bone-headed mistake. I was alone in the photo lab and was about to develop shots that I had made in awful winter conditions. I laid out my chemicals for the process so that I did not have to dispense them as I was working. I had all of my chemicals ready EXCEPT developer. So, I took beaker number one and proceeded to pour the chemicals into my developing container. I had my timer set appropriately for developing. About two or three minutes into the process I had a horrible thought come to me. I had laid out everything except for my developer and unwittingly had added stop bath to my film. OUCH! My first roll of film was toast.

I got a second roll of film and decided to shoot my assignment the following day. I loaded up roll number two and went out in windy, wintry conditions once again. I came back in after a couple of hours of running around in bad weather and was set to develop my film, or so I thought. I went to rewind my film and it became painfully obvious my film had not loaded properly....although my counter had advanced, my film was not exposed and I had rewound my film back into the container.....I can likely salvage the roll, but that is another story.

So, I got another roll of film and set out to shoot my assignment. No minor setbacks were going to keep me from turning in assignment number two, or so I thought. After shooting this roll at a faster pace than rolls one and two, I came back inside to the photo lab to develop my film. I realized the film I was given was a roll of 100 and I had been shooting 400. I did not change my camera setting. I knew my film was going to be overexposed. Fortunately, the night before, I had read up on some techniques Ansel Adams had used. I had a great idea. I could use a more dilute solution and double my time with less agitation. I modified that strategy and shortened the developing time below twice that recommended by about 25%.

Fortunately, my strategy worked and my shots were not a total loss, even if they were not as accurately exposed as they would have been with proper procedures. In addition to learning to think on my feet, I also learned how to expose and develop test strips and prints. I have developed a decent understanding of apertures. Therefore, I understand the relationship between opening up or closing down and how this will affect my exposure. This knowledge is very helpful in print making because you have more latitude with prints if you are able to change F stops to double or halve the amount of light and adjust your exposure times accordingly. Anyhow, some people are under the assumption I have a cot hidden in the photo lab due to the inordinate amount of time I spent there over the course of this last week.