Printing Up a Storm, Darkroom Updates, and More!

 Quite a few things have been going on here since last week's little instructional video made its debut.

First and foremost, the weather outside has been frightful, compressing available shooting time to half-day spurts of creativity. I'm half way into my first and last box of Tri-X 8x10, and so far it has done as expected. Were it not 2x pricier than Ilford HP5+, and a special-order-only product, I may have switched back to Kodak stock for 100% of shooting. Unfortunately, though, that is not the case. Five more barbershop shots on this Tri-X and it's back to HP5+. I'll miss the bit more speed of TXP (pyrocat hd gives slight loss of speed), but definitely not the price!

Second on my plate is the upcoming Midwest Large Format Asylum Portfolio Review. A funny name for a funny group of large format shooters, but they're all really great guys. I met a large chunk of them last summer at Photostock 2011, and from the looks of things, I may not only be the youngest guy attending this meetup, but I may also be shooting the smallest camera! To add even more pressure to uneasy feeling of showing a bunch of seasoned LF veterans my portfolio, I promised these gentlemen an all-carbon-print portfolio, and darnnit' that's what I'm gonna' give 'em!

While we're still on the topic of carbon printing, I received in the mail a brand new, custom made coating rod from R.D. Specialties out of New York. They're great folks to deal with, and through a little help of the Carbon Transfer Group, started by Sandy King, I was able to find all the information I needed to get just the right size formed rod to coat my own carbon tissues. Fourteen have already successfully coated, five already printed, and with a good twenty* more coated and done by Friday of next week. (* hopeful estimate). For folks out there still scratching their heads about carbon transfer printing, below you'll see an embedded YouTube video that will fully demonstrate the insane amount of time that goes into a simple contact print. Trust me, once you see one in person, it's worth it!

Fourth and finally is some even more funky, out of left field news. I just got in the mail today 100 sheets of Agfa Green Sensitive X-Ray film! That's right, the same kind of film we all got to view our first broken bones on can be used in view cameras to make negatives for contact printing! Since the film is a little more quirky than modern panchromatic (most of our visible spectrum) emulsions, it gives a more early 1900's look, with it's biggest advantage being sheer economy. You're not going to believe it until you see it, so click HERE. Your eyes don't deceive you, this film only costs $0.28/sheet in 8x10!! With my most commonly shot films coming in ~$4/sheet in B&W and ~$12/sheet in color, it's easy to see why giving X-Ray film a try was the next logical step in shooting more 8x10 film. Expect regular updates in this area, I plan on exploring every inch of this wallet-friendly film!

Well that's it, I'm off to the darkroom to carbon print for hours and hours and hours. If I get too bored, don't be surprised if you see YouTube video show up (below) on the carbon print process

Have a great weekend and long live film!

Update on Saturday, January 21, 2012 at 10:17PM by Mat Marrash

Well here it is, I got bored, and just as promised, a little video from today's carbon transfer printing session! For the record, it was a great overall printing day, I went 7/9 on prints, the other 2 not even making it to the sensitizing stage as the carbon tissue mysteriously cracked while drying.

More videos like this to follow in the coming weeks!

Bellows! (Extension Factor)

Now THESE are some bellows! Camera and photograph property of a HUGE photographic inspiration of mine, Sandy King.A few weeks ago, I made a promise to some Twitter followers that I'd answer a very common question that takes place in the world of large format photography. When you're focusing a camera that has bellows, there's a good chance that if you're focusing at portrait distance or closer, you're going to need to compensate for that bellows draw!

The math is, overall, pretty simple.

1. Measure the focal length of your lens.

2. Measure how far the bellows are extended (for this to be relevant, this number should be greater).

3. Divide your extension by the focal length, and then take that number and square it.

4. This will give you the factor by which your bellows are drawn. Since light falls off exponentially, apply your extension factor to Log Base 2 of your number and that's how many stops of extra light you'll need in your exposure.

For an even simpler, more visualized version of this, check out this video:

John Edward Lenhart, 1927 - 2012

Earlier this morning, I received news today that while incredibly saddening, is a humble reminder of just how strong an impact photography can have. Around 10AM this morning, my grandfather, John Edward Lehnhart (Ned), passed away. For the sake of both my family and myself while writing this, I'm going to spare the details surrounding his death. After all, this post has no meaning being on a photographer's blog being a "woe is me", this post will be about photography, and what it means to be a photographer during sorrowful times. 

About three and a half years ago, I was an eager senior at The University of Findlay waiting, excited to start his first ever Digital Photography class, with professor Jeff Salisbury. Within seconds of the sounding bell to class, Jeff asked the class, "Why do we as humans take pictures?" The flurry of usual answers ensued, "To express ourselves!", "To capture the world around us.", so on and so on. After a few minutes of not hearing the answer he'd wanted to come out, he started to get a little bit teary-eyed and asked the class, "What about because people die?". All fifteen of us students, stunned, had no idea how to respond to that. After a few more seconds of silence, Jeff went on to explain how a young woman he'd taken senior pictures of several years earlier had died in a car accident earlier that morning. He hadn't been taking the news well all day, and explained to us all just how important it is to get any pictures we can of our loved ones, no matter how mundane the portraits may seem at the time.

Today, with a bit of a smirk and a tear in my eye, I can confirm just how right Jeff was.

The technical qualities of a photograph always come second to the fact that you took the time to take it!What I used to think was a questionably executed photograph, an exercise in bad film loading, and a test sheet in a new developer, is now one of the strongest photos I have of my grandfather. Most of my relatives didn't even know this photo existed, until today, and now I'm going to spend the next several days making silver gelatin contacts, per my family's request. A typical snapshot of that loved one today could be one of the only things you have when they are gone.

So the next time you're photographing your boyfriend/girlfriend, spouse, crazy uncle, family pet for the ump-teenth time, calm their frustrations by letting them know these shots are for you.

Now get out there and make some great pictures!

Ned & Art at The Toledo Mud Hens John & Rita Lenhart, Maumee, OH