Category: On film photography (Page 1 of 8)

Lincoln Cathedral

10 July, 2022 / Sidewayseye / 0 Comments

Beginning to get my act together on bromoils, although I would still like a bit more finesse. Here is Lincoln Cathedral, one of my favourite cathedrals in England.

Lincoln Cathedral Bromoil — Lincoln Cathedral in Bromoil.

Barry Thornton’s Two Bath Developer

8 May, 2022 / Sidewayseye / 2 Comments

I have always been a fan of Barry Thornton’s two bath developer – such a good performer in high contrast situations.

Arduous pictures

3 November, 2021 / Sidewayseye / 2 Comments

‘It is about a road which begins many miles before I come on its traces and ends miles beyond where I had to stop’, (‘The Icknield Way’ by Edward Thomas, 1913). So much in such few words.

The gelatin coating hurdle

15 August, 2021 / Sidewayseye / 3 Comments

How do I make smooth, flat, thin, even and bubble-free gelatin coatings on water-colour paper? Anwering this is crucial if I’m to make good Bromoil, Oil, Carbon Transfer and hand-made silver gelatin emulsion prints …

Preparing for oil prints

6 August, 2021 / Sidewayseye / 2 Comments

Recently I went to a local exhibition of oil prints of scenes of the Wirral. The pictures were something to behold. The Oil method predates Bromoil but both belong to the same family of printing techniques that rely on the immiscibility of oil and water.

One of the frustrations of working in Bromoil is the lack of papers that take ink in the right way. The Oil method requires that you coat your own paper with sensitized gelatin. rather than buying commercial photo-sensitive paper. The process is quite long and finickety but so is Bromoil when it’s not working to plan, as 70% of my attempts end up.

So I plan to have a go at the Rawlins Oil Print, as I really like the result when it’s done well.

The first step is to write out a menu for myself and acquire all of the ingredients and kit. This I have now done. So here is the menu:

No doubt I will need to amend them as I go along, but it’s the best description I can put together having read quite a few articles and seen a few videos about it. As well as talking in detail with the artist at the local exhibition.

A visit to Rye, East Sussex

6 August, 2021 / Sidewayseye / 0 Comments

This post is one in a series called ‘behind the scenes’. The series describe how I visualise images and then the difficulties of putting these visualisations into effect as pictures.

Last year, just before the first COVID lock-down in England, I went walking in Sussex with my daughter. One of the towns we visited was Rye in East Sussex. I was curious how it might have changed since my last visit some 45 years ago.

Rodinal testing – 1:25 dilution

24 July, 2021 / Sidewayseye / 0 Comments

This post examines the normal development time for my home-made Rodinal in a 1:25 dilution.

Rodinal Testing

24 July, 2021 / Sidewayseye / 0 Comments

This post looks at how I have established a standard development time for my home-made Rodinal …

Finessing a Bromoil print

18 July, 2021 / Sidewayseye / 0 Comments

I have been playing with this particular scene using Bromoil to get an understanding of the different looks that I can create …

Film and developer combinations

7 July, 2021 / Sidewayseye / 6 Comments

The advice from experienced darkroom printers is that it is best to get to know well one film and developer combination rather than frequently chopping and changing between different ones. I agree with this advice but at some point, the time comes to extend options. This post discusses how I am doing this.