Polaroid is Dead. Long live Polaroid.

Finally, a reasonably decent day with enough sunshine to go try my Polaroid 809.  What is Polaroid 809 you ask?  It is 8×10 color instant film.  Requires a special holder and processor to pull the negative, positive receptor sheet and chemical pod through the rollers.  I have on loan from Alex Hawley a holder and tabletop processor.  Thanks Alex.

Loaded up the Seneca Improved View 8×10, installed the Leclair 13″ brass lens and with the judicious use of rubber bands and a Lee filter holder I can put the Packard shutter on the front of the lens.  With the camera racked out to about 20″ and some quick calculations, 1/3 second exposure is called for.  Except I can’t really guarantee anything that quick with the Packard.  Mine doesn’t have the “instantaneous” mode so best I can hope for is something under 1/2 second.

Not bad, a bit over exposed but what the hell, it worked!  Only screwed up twice getting to this point.  27 more sheets to go!

A bottle of snot!

Saturday I acquired a bottle of snot.  OK, not really a bottle of snot but that is what a bottle of Liquid Light emulsion reminds me of as I melt it out and divide it into smaller containers.  I went to the local camera store to have some color enlargements made and noticed they had a bottle in their little display fridge.  Turns out it was expired so they discounted it by 50% and Becky bought me the bottle for my birthday present.

I’ve melted out about 1/2 to 2/3 of the bottle into a collection of black 35mm film cans.  I then took one of the cans and diluted it about 2 parts snot to 1 part photoflo (working strength).  This I kept on the hot plate and melted down further while I coated several sheets of watercolor paper.  After a little bit more drying time I’ll slip the paper into some black bags so I can play with it tomorrow.

This should be very cool.  Some of the sheets coated nicely, at least it looks nice under the safelight.  A few of them I think the gelatin started to set while I was brushing and so they may have some emulsion balls stuck to the surface.  Almost like trying to spread out rubber cement.

Fuji Transfers

Not the greatest day outside today. I had hoped for some sunshine because I wanted to get a jump on some 8×10 Polaroid work for the Ode to Polaroid exchange at APUG. But no such luck.  So instead I decided to take another stab at using Fuji FP100C for emulsion transfers.

I don’t have a Daylab or 405 back so I make the images in-camera.  This time I decided to use FrankenRoid which is a pinhole MP4.  Get out the rubber duckies and barrel of monkeys, turn on the Wagner and create!

6 minute exposure with heavy overcast.  20 seconds development, then peel and place on the Arches Aquarelle (hot press).  Roll for 1 minute, single direction, with a hard brayer.  Important that the peel and place be done in the dark or with a dim safe light.  Once down, the back of the Fuji is light proof so the lights could be turned on, I just worked under the safe light the whole time.

Fuji FP100C has a very pronounced blue shift for long exposures so I was to use a Daylab I might want to adjust the color pack to be a little minus blue.  There are some good discussions of this technique on www.flickr.com and www.apug.org  .   Both sites have search functions so key words like “emulsion+FP100″ or “fuji+transfer” should help find them.  I just feel lazy right now and so don’t have links to include in this entry.

Long exposure

OK, so how does a 3 month exposure grab you?

(the”negative”)

(the “positive”).

Step 1: Stumble across interesting site where a woman has gathered lots and lots of 3 to 12 month exposure pinhole pictures and decide to try it. Also be sure to loose track of the link so you can’t find it again later… (Found it! http://www.solargraphy.com)

Step 2: Put a sheet of black and white photo paper into a pinhole camera made from a clean quart paint can.

Step 3: Strap said camera to side of deck, facing out across the back yard and to the west.

Step 4: Wait three months.

Step 5: Retrieve camera and remove “film”.

Step 6: Straight to the scanner, no developer bath (it would go black after all).

Step 7: Admire the pretty colors that appeared in the negative and the resulting “positive” made from the scan.

I’ve done a little bit of fooling around with extreme overexposure of B&W paper to produce a print from a large negative. Works pretty well but it will bleach back quite a bit in the fixer, even plain hypo. So I’m not going to run this one through the fixer. Just make a good scan and then store the negative in an envelope in the filing cabinet. It will eventually turn a uniform purple-gray color and be lost forever.

The wrong kind of pinholes…

So I get my hands on some Polaroid  809 8×10 color print film.  And Alex Hawley loans me an 8×10 Polaroid holder and processor.  Great, other than crummy weather, I’m all set.

Hmm, maybe I should double check that the camera is in good shape and ready to go.  How about we check the bellows for pinoles?  OK, sounds great.  You turn out the light and I’ll shine a flashlight inside the camera.  Hey, look at that, it is just like going to the planetarium!  Crap!  80+ year old bellows plus use of the camera has started the dissentrigration of the bellows!  I knew this would start but so soon?

Time to gather the bits to make a new one I suppose.  I love the smell of contact cement in the morning.  Smells like victory…

Mean time, I have a spare dark cloth I can drape over the bellows.  Must make some test exposures out in bright sun to be sure the pinholes aren’t going to light-strike the film.

28th Annual Lawrence Art Auction

http://www.lawrenceartscenter.com/Auction/index.html

Lots of representation by the Lawrence Photo Alliance (www.lawrencephotoalliance.org) again this year.

Two pieces went in, one B&W contact print from 8×10 negative

and one color print made by scanning a pinhole picture made on Fuji instant film.

Silent Auction begins March 17th, 2008.

Good day out with the cameras

Last Saturday was pretty nice, a bit windy but still very nice outside.  Ran a roll of Tmax-400 (the “old” emulsion formula) through the Pinhole Graphic with 67 back.  Developed in Pyrocat-HD and printed a few last night.

Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day workshops

OK, here are some details:

April 13, 20 and 27th (last three Sundays in April)

1pm to 5pm      Suggested donation $10 to cover room rental and materials.

Lawrence Art Center, 940 New Hampshire, Lawrence, KS 66044

Make your own camera, borrow a camera, modify a camera!

Learn a little bit about how pinhole cameras work and some basic wet-darkroom technique.

Develop your pinhole paper negatives at the Lawrence Art Center Darkroom.

Images made on April 27, 2008 (select your favorite one) may be posted to the WPPD web site at www.pinholeday.org

Go to www.pinholeday.org and check out the gallery from past years.  The gallery can be sorted by city so find us!

For information email lpapinhole@photographer.net

Life after Polaroid

There has been some discussion over at Flickr ( link )and on the AAPUG mailing list about ways to get emulsion transfer to work with Fuji FP100-C film. I can say that the method outlined by Mr. Balazsy does work. In fact, I did a few things “wrong” and it still transfered. Wrong in the sense that I made some expedient substitutions of paper and medium soft brayer for the recommended hard brayer. Just stuff on hand. Also, the exposure was a bit on the low side. All I had on hand was my pinhole Frankenroid room lights. Guessed at a 10 minute exposure, probably needed 20 or 30. Close enough for a test shot though.

The scan has problems and it looks like there was an uneven pull through the camera’s rollers. Not the case on the real print, the problem is a little bit of curling in the paper and I didn’t put a weight on the scanner lid. Crappy little all-in-one scanner doesn’t have much dynamic range either.

The one serious defect in this test print are the large “snowflakes” at the center. This is missing emulsion. Could be the paper (hot press Canson, probably heavily sized) combined with my rolling technique. But know what, I don’t care! It freakin’ worked so there is promise.

For emulsion lift fans, there is a lot of chatter on the AAPUG mailing list about technique to get the transfer to stick to its new substrate.

Has anybody seen my typewriter?

Damn monkeys!

They keep getting into eveything!