Sept 20 – thoughts in the dark room

Sept 20 – thoughts in the dark room

Over the last few days I’ve watched the lizzie Borden series on Netflix. While the cast and story kept drawing me in episode after episode, some details will make fellow photographers / history buffs mutter under their breath, including the magic multi firing flash powder trays depicted in some scenes, or the Edison phonograph and victrola that magically start the song midway through the record and end in close to the same spot. But this is getting way off topic. For several nights after watching several episodes I’ve gone into the darkroom to develope rolls of 120. Puritans avert your eyes from here on out. I’ve been tray developing the roll film with the panning method, constantly running the film back and forth through the chemistry in a completely dark room while the timer ticks down. The issue at large the last few days was my nerves. After watching the program thoughts of Lizzie Borden run through your head as you stand by the counter panning the film like a prospector in the pitch black. To alleviate some of those nerves I did purchase a stronger developer. Shelving for now the slower working flic film black white and green for ilfosol 3. A faster reacting developer, that gets me to the turning the lights back on step much quicker. One of the rolls developed in this way was agfa copex rapid. A 50 iso high contrast film. Of course agitation breads contrast and with the panning tray technique it is constant. It was a wonder that shadow detail was retained at all. The negs looked marvelous in their complete black and complete clear white state. While thoughts of lizzie will slowly recede back into the far corners of my memory, I’ll continue to head into the dark room to process the film.