Monday, October 17, 2016

A Harsher Print Look

Been doing lots of tests of the "My Fathers Last Days" pain photograph. I want to give the image a contrasty, harsher more difficult expressive feel to it. Here are some shots from those tests. I will complete the 20x24 final version of this negative early the week of the 17th (after my security guard work week).

 The steps for these test prints include:

- Ilford warm tone  20x24 inch FB
- Dectol 1/1
- 50mm El-Nikkor lens at its widest setting of F2.8
- Base exposure 150 seconds at Filter 3.5
- Dodge the face 100 seconds
- Burn the blanket and left corner +80 at Filter 1
- Flash burn black with a flashlight the upper right corner to burn in neg damage (film accidentally exposed). 3 quick burns blending the edge to best effect.
- Extensive bleaching to create pure white bursting contrasty highlights on face.

Note* While doing the final test print bleaching with brush I accidentally used hot water in my rinse hose. The hot water seemed to accelerate-intensify the beaching. Something to possibly intentionally do in the future? Water temp, added fixer, bleach concentration and time seem to all be variables in this technique.

Some GoPro 2 shots of the various test strips.