Is this the result of stitching two overlapping images or else you used just 1/2 the film?What is pop paper? What ISO does the Gekko matte finish paper give you?
Asher
Thank you Asher!
I took two images on 8x10 and stitched them on the computer. POP as was very succinctly pointed out, is Printing Out Paper.
I am doing a self directed class here at the college on representation of Indian people by british photographers from 1850 to 1870. As such, I have seen a lot of very old photographs. What struck me as very appealing was the image quality, which paralleled, and in most cases exceeded what I could do with my D3000. So, I blatantly went to our College archivist, an old timer by the name of Jan Boles, who offered me his 8x10 on temporary bases. That was the start of my project (Which is still not finished, and most likely will end up here).
On the side, I also managed to befriend a chemistry professor, who is from the same fraternity as me. He offered me use of chemicals after I told him of my analog escapades. I managed to get silver nitrate and all that good stuff from him for free.
So, on the process, I doubt you can get this Gekko Paper. It is at least 30 years old from the packaging, and Mitsubishi got out of the racket a while ago. It doesn't matter. I have gotten the same results from Ilford MGIV. I have no idea what the ISO is, because I developed a different system. I did continuous tone exposures with masking, and figured out, after some calculation and blind luck, that if I take a picture from my D3000 at iso 200, and multiply the shutter speed with 150, I can use the shutter speed at the same f-stop after correcting for bellows factor. FYI, Ilford MGIV has a factor of 20. I reckon if you rate Ilford at iso 6 (which a lot of people do), then then it should be iso .75. Slow as a turtle on ketamine.
I develop them in dektol 1:5. (Actually, Jan Boles, acts as a technical advisor for me in this project. We both started using paper negatives together, because it is cheap. But he has 50 years of LF experience behind him, he is way better, and because he can, and cares, he advises me. He does split development in selectol soft 1:4 and dektol 1:20, and that gives some spectacular tonal depth. I just like higher contrast so I don't use that process. And I am lazy.)
The POP paper is made according to the directions given here
http://www.alternativephotography.com/wp/processes/albumen/albumen-printing
I tone the prints in this cheap tea I like to drink.
Scanning is done on this nice, but horribly misused scanner at the college digital studio. Post-Processing, which I really don't like to do, is done on Photoshop. Some levels work, sharpening, and maybe inversion is all I allow myself.
I hope this helps Asher
Best
Rahul