Being in the Darkroom and First Print/Contact Sheet

The darkroom

After we finished taking pictures, we have to extract the film from the packet and it must be done in a very dark room so that the film does not get exposed hence the name, "The darkroom". It was pitch black and nothing but darkness although you could touch things and hear people's voices. I struggled when I was in the dark room for the first time. While in the dark room, we had to take out the film and roll it. Since I was a newbie, I had no idea how I was going to do it while being in the darkroom. However, other people were doing just fine and they were all ahead of me. When they are already done with rolling their film, I was still struggling to get the film out of the packet. I was really frustrated and felt bad because I was slowing the group since they were basically waiting for me to finish. A classmate ended up rolling the film up for me since I was too slow. From this experience, I learn that I need to practice more on rolling the film when I have free time by using the practice film provided. This was a really frustrating experience for me although I'm going to have to do it again sooner for my other assignments so I should just keep practicing.

My first contact sheet

After the film was developed (explained how in the previous post), we then had to make our first contact sheet and our first print. An example of a contact sheet is the image above. Making the contact sheet and first print is done differently than developing the film because of how an enlarger is used. The enlarger is fairly easy when making prints and the steps are;

An example of the enlarger used in class

1.  Set the easel on the desired size.
2. Place the negative of image you want to print on the negative carrier.
3. Turn the enlarger on and make sure the image is focused by using the focus nob and the elevation nob.
4. Use the grain enlarger to be sure the image is focused. 
5. Use test strips first.
6. Decide how long you want to expose the paper to light and start the timer.
7. Place the test strip in the developer for 2-3 minutes with agitation, the stop bath for 30 seconds, the fixer and upper rinse for 5 minutes.  
8. Repeat step 6 & 7 with the actual print paper and do some adjustments on the f-stop lens if needed. 

My first print from the first assignment.

With the steps mention above, I was able to create the prints for my composition assignment which I will explain further more in the next post. I decided to use this image as my first print because it was under Mr. Ubl's recommendation and I liked how the image is composed. Before I took the shot, I tried to apply what I already knew about photography which was the rule of thirds and back/foreground. The tree was the background while the graves were the foreground. I also liked how the tree contrast with the white sky which emphasized the outlines of the tree. I also liked the major contrast between the tree and the chinese graves.