Getting Mathy with Perceptol
I develop film just frequently enough to feel rusty every single time I do it while maintaining the confidence in my own skills essential to bunking things up terribly. This is important to remember whenever I write about doing anything. Film developing, sewing, parenting, driving, anything really. The day out in the sun was not adding anything to my cognitive abilities either, so it was with some chagrin that I realized that I couldn’t find a documented development time for either for the already abused rolls of 120 film I was holding. I had a working solution of Perceptol mixed 1:1, a roll of SFX 200 shot at 50 and an ancient roll of EFKE 25.
I was going to have to go some soup math here, so I started with the SFX.
From what I could surmise, Perceptol 1:1 times are about 25% longer than ID-11 times (1:15 minutes in Perceptol to every 1 minute in ID-11).
To push film by two stops, you multiple the time by 2.25. I was trying to pull film by two stops so I was going to multiple the time by 1/2.25.
Easy, right? That’s because it’s all kind of pulled out of a very dark, somewhat cellulite-ridden place. Sorry for the mental picture.
The development time for SFX 200 in ID-11 is 17 minutes, so the time for Perceptol would be just 21.25 minutes. 21.25 times 1/2.25 is just under 9.5 minutes.
Set the timer for 9:30 for both rolls, because seriously the EFKE was really a guess anyway, and this is what came out of the soup. They’re both cropped because of light damage at the edges. For all my concern about development times, I wasn’t nearly so careful with the rolls before they made it to the darkroom. I guess I’ve been spoiled by 35mm canisters. In the future I’ll take better care at the pre-development stage AND just give up the pretentious ghost and buy some ID-11 or D76. It’s also worth nothing that the are both scanned from negative on a rather cranky old flatbed so the images show more of the general exposure and range than detail and tonality.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go make some eggrolls. My recipe for those? Chop things, cook them, stuff them into wonton wrapped and bake. I do better when I’m making things up as I go along.
Ilford SFX 200 shot at ISO 50 in Perceptol 1:1 for 9:30 minutes.
EFKE 25 shot at ISO 25 in Perceptol 1:1 for 9:30 minutes.
Asahiflex iia Glamour Shot
I always cop out so badly when I’m writing these things up. It’s a camera. Gaze upon it. There’s actually a really sweet story behind it, but I’ll come back and post that later because I am beyond tired.
Also I know that this site is neglected and it’s a shame because some of my photography has been getting a fair amount of attention lately, but it is on the bottom of the list — below paid work — and that’s just how it is going to be for a while.
Two quick things
I’ve been getting a lot of traffic to this site from flickr since I posted pictures and a short video of a working (and very glitchy) chick cubimal from the lovely, but now defunct, game Glitch. Sorry that this site doesn’t have more interesting creations! It’s been pretty dormant while I’ve been working on other projects and cobbling together a freelance “hire me!” site.
On a mostly unrelated note, I get very occasional traffic from people who seem to be looking for a photographer in one Mormon-filled western state that I will not name for fear of just encouraging Google’s confusion. They have since changed their name. If you are one of those visitors – welcome! Look around. I am in Virginia and do not think that “webdesign” is a word. Google harder.
Moody Sunset
Carter House, Ferrum Virginia
Raining It Out and Notes
So I have a bunch of photos to process and post from today, but right now I need to get to sleep so … here, have these. We decided to stop by the New River Valley Air Show today — about twenty minutes before it was shutdown for … well, for clouds, really because all of the rain that fell can be seen in the picture above. But you know, the clouds looked scary.
Also none of that made any sense because TIRED. *falls over*
And the website will return to it’s previous width shortly. I built my theme as a child theme to Twenty Eleven. When I updated WordPress (and Twenty Eleven) something fairly major seems to have changed, making it no longer play well with the child theme, so I’ll have to look at that.
Alleghany Springs Farmhouse
Someday, against all better judgement, I might live in a house like this. You know, if Dave leaves me and the baby is grown and I lose my rabbit-[redacted] mind. So look for that to happen in a few years.
By the way, I used a duotone of black and Pantone Warm Gray 11 for this because that’s what Lensworks prints with and I would like to be as awesome as Lensworks when I grow up.
Point Judith (Narragansett) Rhode Island
Old Town, New Faces
Just a couple of grab shots from OTP for the new website. So. Excited. So. Tired.
Also, why did I put my Twitter account on lockdown if everyone I do business with is already a follower? I just thought of that because the folks at OTP are some of those people. Yeah, they only love me for my code anyway so it doesn’t matter. I don’t make sense to myself sometimes.
