A sequence of photographs taken at Oaks Park over Labor Day.  Agfa 100 film developed in Rodinal 1:50 dilution.  Shot with a Nikkor 24mm lens and Orange filter.

This weekend I developed a new roll of film and did some printing from a Labor Day picnic at Oaks Park taken about two weeks ago.

The very weird contact sheet.  Tri-X Pan film developed in HC-110.  The beginning 6 pictures and the last 6 pictures are properly exposed but all in the middle are under exposed.  I am sure that I was checking my light meter and I was shooting out doors with a orange filter.  The last 6 pictures on the roll are shot in the same conditions.  I may have to remember to carry my light meter with me and check periodically my exposures to see if the camera matches the light meter.  I'm pissed because I was shooting pictures at Oaks Park and thought I was getting some interesting stuff.  I did though shoot another roll of Agfa 100 after I finished off this roll so there is hope yet I may have got some pics at Oaks Park.

These were scans made on a large Ricoh copier/scanner/printer that could handle 11x 14 prints. Below them scans from 8x10 prints made on my home scanner.

Printing with Graded Papers rather than Variable Contrast.  I have been running down in my paper stock and so have taken to experimenting with paper I have accumulated over the years and have been just taking up space.  The top image was made on a Ilford RC paper, pearl finish grade 2 and though the scan isn't real good I found this the nicest of the bunch.  I had a whole bunch of this paper once but now I have only a few sheets left.  I don't like Resin Coated papers as much as Fiber but this was a really nice paper and the prints dry in a couple of hours and lay nice and flat without any additional need for pressing.  The next print down is a grade 2 fiber paper that I don't really like very much it has a gloss surface but the contrast is real flat.  Maybe Selenium toning would help this a bit.  The last paper was a Grade 3 Forte paper matt surface and this printed out real nice but I only had one package left of 5 sheets of it.  I have to say working with graded papers and just using one of the bulbs in th Zone VI enlarger made work go much faster all I had to do was figure out exposure rather than playing with the controls looking for the right combination to give me the correct contrast something I am still working on.  Sometimes you can get crazy with too much choice.

Another printing strategy with a variable contrast head is to turn on one light at a time and do a series of exposures.  I then select which exposure from each light that looks best and than expose the paper twice using each light for a specific exposure and then adjusting until I get a print I like or give up in frustration.  The finished print was made with a 33.7 units of time using the soft or green bulb and then 11.8 units of time using the hard or blue bulb. I say "units of time" because of the compensating timer which adjusts the duration of the time unit based on the light output so a unit of time can be 1/2 second to 5 seconds.  The print was made on a variable contrast baryta base paper called Foma Chamois made in the Czech Republic.

I have been burning through a lot of paper since I bought a new enlarger.  I have been digging in to various papers that I purchased over the years but never used.  Today I found that I could make some very nice prints using Graded Paper using only the "hard light" bulb on my new enlarger head and allowing the contrast to be set by the paper itself.  These prints were made using an Ilford RC paper grade 2 with a "pearl" surface.  I really was impressed with the results.  Film used was Agfa 100 developed in Rodinal, 1:50 dilution.  Shooting with a Nikkormat with 24mm lens and Polarizing filter.

My all time favorite car of all time the Nash Metropolitan.