Thursday, May 19, 2016

Printing and the chemical process

   Once you have mastered using the enlarger machine and found out what time setting is best for your photograph, you are ready to print. Printing a photo is one of the easiest parts of the process. You use your test strip that I mentioned in my last blog and look to see what time your photo should be exposed for. Once you have adjusted the zoom and focus on the machine, you can go ahead and grab a photo sensitive paper from the box in the corner of the darkroom. You place the paper on the blank platform under that machine and click the timer button. The timer button will expose the paper to the projected image. You then take out the paper and go to the chemical table. 
    The chemical table consist of three chemicals. Developer, stop bath, and fixer. These are in shallow square containers and the liquid is clear. Once you have exposed your picture at the enlarger machine, you can drop your photo in the developer. After a few seconds, you will see the paper darken and the picture come to life. After two minutes, you drop your photo in the stop bath for thirty seconds, then the fixer for three minutes. You rinse your photo off with water for a couple minutes when the chemical process is finished. After you have cleaned your photo, pop it into the drier and wait until you see it emerge from the other side of the drier machine. Now you have a unique photograph that represents all your hard work. 
    

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