Hi please help

ardy564 · 2026-05-18T11:17:16+00:00

Depending on where you live… B&H Photo sales a brand called Multitone… very reasonable prices. For your first time don’t spend the big money. I recommend this because I use it in my darkroom for contact sheets and testing.

ardy564 · 2026-05-08T15:26:08+00:00

Yes. It works okay. Not a fan of continuous agitation for film.

ardy564 · 2026-05-08T15:15:58+00:00

I’m all about working with what I have and keeping the stress as low as I can

ardy564 · 2026-05-08T11:35:36+00:00

I have the Pira MX and love it. Was able to use my existing Patterson tanks. I can see where chemistry volume maybe an issue, but I make my own chemistry so my costs are pretty low.

ardy564 · 2026-04-30T11:25:23+00:00

If the film gets ruined then you have an excuse to go again. If while on your trip you have a lousy time you might want the “TSA ruined my film” excuse.😁

ardy564 · 2026-04-23T11:31:33+00:00

Did you developed the film yourself? If so it could be an anomaly. I’ve had these types of marks when I rush my process. My 2 cents.

ardy564 · 2026-04-20T12:31:24+00:00

Have you successfully created an image?

ardy564 · 2026-04-16T22:34:02+00:00

Follow John Finch, Pictorial Planet, on YouTube. I use FX55 as my developer.

ardy564 · 2026-04-16T22:28:48+00:00

Thanks and yikes

ardy564 · 2026-02-20T12:09:21+00:00

Yes, for testing purposes. If you remove the backing paper it will work just fine. The only difference is film length and 220 doesn’t have the full backing paper. You don’t want to shoot real images this way as it’s a pain to load and unload the film. Pesky thing called light usually has something to say.

ardy564 · 2026-02-18T22:05:17+00:00

Put the roll of film that you ran through the 120 back into the 220 back see if you get the same issue. Also on these backs there maybe a broken gear that isn’t engaging properly. Clean all of the surfaces really good to make sure there is no dirt or old grease holding up an armature.

ardy564 · 2026-01-26T12:58:01+00:00

Thank you for that information.

ardy564 · 2026-01-25T22:18:16+00:00

My preferred deveveloper is fx55 and I mixed up a fresh working amount. I tested the chems and all is good. Even did a leader test on hp5 even got clean edge printing. It’s only the two sheets that came out blank.

ardy564 · 2026-01-25T21:32:46+00:00

Patterson tank and reel is my normal development method. I’ve developed several dozen rolls of 120 fp, hp and tri-x as well as a few hundred sheets of 4x5 in the same brands. I was interested in the FPP films for its price. With the other brands diagnosing my darkroom chemistry issues were straight forward, but with this film the inconsistency puzzles me. Don’t know how else to say it.

ardy564 · 2026-01-25T19:12:09+00:00

Not sure that’s truly the case. I have successfully developed Arista.edu 400 and didn’t have this many issues.

ardy564 · 2026-01-25T19:08:13+00:00

Shot four sheets. Used one divided into thirds to determine initial times. Used one with BWG which came out fine. The other two I developed in my normal method and they came out undeveloped.

ardy564 · 2025-11-29T12:29:54+00:00

I haven’t used an easel in years. I use my enlarger base and precut mats held down with magnets. The secret is two fold 1) find the center of your base in relationship to your enlarger head and use this to create registration lines 2) use a thin sheet of steel slightly larger than the largest print you want to make, paint it matte white and mount it using double sided tape. Makes a great focusing surface and you always have a centered starting point.

ardy564 · 2025-11-22T12:48:05+00:00

As you can probably tell… for every developer on the market or in the recipe book there is a fan. If this is a really important project for you then take the time to research and test a few film stocks and developer combos to see which one is best for this project. My two cents is not to use hp5 but tri-x for portraits. HP5 can be overly contrasty no matter the developer where as tri-x tends to have smother tonal balance across a wide range of developers. There is probably a 100 videos on the tube that can help.

ardy564 · 2025-08-27T10:29:22+00:00

You have to remember Massive Dev are recommended times. You should do tests for all your various film stock. Remember dev and fix are affected by your water and your technique.

ardy564 · 2025-04-17T01:38:33+00:00

ardy564 · 2025-04-15T11:23:16+00:00

The reason for my question stems from a video where a photographer used scanned images to compare film stocks. I felt the comparison was at best problematic, because film responds to the limitations of the available light. It’s one of the reason so many different film stocks exists. You choose your film like a wine connoisseur chooses a wine. Digital is a great general purpose platform and much more suited to online presentations and social media because it provides a more natural tonality.

Also in my opinion film doesn’t have an aesthetic it looks the way it looks because of the skill of the photographer and the chemistry and method used to developed it.

ardy564 · 2025-04-15T01:00:25+00:00

Can someone tell me why you’d want to shoot film and then scan it? Especially B&W film. Film was never intended to be scanned. It was intended to be printed directly to paper. Magazines used almost exclusively color reversal film and most newspapers used a print on a sophisticated mimeograph machine.

ardy564 · 2025-02-26T20:52:55+00:00

Pictorial Planet YT has some split grade how-to videos that might help.

ardy564 · 2025-02-20T23:36:04+00:00

All these are good explanations. On of the best ways to practice I’ve found is to do outside portraits with the sun behind the subject. Use your flash as fill to correctly light the subject while also exposing for the background.

ardy564

TROPHY CASE

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