AnAlogue film, alternative, hybrid and darkroom
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Contents 7
From the beginning: An introduction to Dr Tim Rudman FRPS Dr Tim Rudman
11 Adventures with infrared Aerial Ektachrome 8443 Eric Houlder LRPS
17 Reflections and progression Reg Markin LRPS
23 Split toned monochrome prints Richard Williams
Analogue Group Chair E: analogue@rps.org Treasurer E: analogue@rps.org Programme Secretary Steven Godfrey E: analogueevents@rps.org Secretary E: analoguesecretary @rps.org Editor Richard Bradford ARPS E: analoguenews@rps.org Designer Simon W Miles Web Content Manager Amy-Fern Nuttall ARPS E: analogueweb@rps.org Kay Reeve FRPS Owen Andrew Charles Binns
cover: Staircase by Richard Williams. ← left: Derelict cottage. Copper and blue toned silver gelatine. By Tim Rudman.
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By Richard Williams.
Editorial Welcome to Analogue Issue 8, maybe just in time for the Group’s AGM at the end of March. This issue starts a couple of themes which will continue into the next Analogue. The first is an autobiographical introduction to Tim Rudman FRPS, familiar from his recent exhibition of work in Iceland but whose photographic history goes back much further. Here he illustrates how the discipline of analogue photography has brought him an inner satisfaction. Very much related, Richard Williams gives us an overview of split-toned printing with tips for those who wish to try it themselves. Then we look at an example of ‘applied’ photography, a discipline close to my own photographic roots, where images provide a record of a process or outcome in another field. While sometimes looked down on as lacking creativity, it brought its own challenges as long-time practitioner Eric Houlder LRPS explains. Taking us on his quest is Reg Markin who describes the factors involved in creating his ideal photographic system. Clearly a work in progress, this is a tale familiar to many. After two issues of Analogue in quick succession, I need more contributions – text or images, or a combination of both. I am happy to help anyone who is unsure of their material, so please contact me via the e-mail address below. Richard Bradford ARPS, Editor analoguenews@rps.org
Copyright: The copyright of individual articles and images belongs to the contributor, unless otherwise stated. Copyright of the Analogue newsletter belongs to The Royal Photographic Society © 2019. Disclaimer: The views expressed in the Analogue newsletter are, unless otherwise noted, those of the individual contributors. They are not necessarily those of the Analogue Group or of The Royal Photographic Society. This includes articles from a contributor who is also a committee member or Society employee. ➤ AnAlogue MAgAzine ➤ 8
The Royal Photographic Society was founded in 1853 to “promote the art and science of photography”. The Analogue Group was formed in 2015. Membership of the Group is open to all Society members at an additional subscription of £15.00 per annum. This includes the Analogue magazine which is published during the year. Back issues are available for viewing and download on the Issuu website. The Royal Photographic Society, RPS House, 337-340 Paintworks, Arnos Vale, Bristol BS4 3AR T: +44 (0)1225 325733 E: reception@rps.org W: www.rps.org Website & Social Media E: web@rps.org ➤ APRIL 2019 ➤ 5
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From the beginning: An introduction to Dr Tim Rudman FRPS Tim Rudman
Where it all began My first photographic recollection is probably age 10 or 12, eagerly taking the basic family camera to the beach at Hove to photograph a small yacht that had floundered in the surf. It was lying on its side and I clearly recall waiting patiently for a wave to cascade over it for that ‘decisive moment’ shot that nobody else would have. I finished the roll over the next few days and took it to the chemist for processing and eventually I sent it to the newspaper. It didn’t make the front page. It was old news. I had a lot to learn about the turnover on a daily newspaper! I have no further photographic recollections until I photographed Elvis Presley. The year was 1962, the place the Seattle World Fair. Odd-jobbing my way around America during my first medical student long ‘vac’ I turned to unexpectedly see Elvis strolling through the fair just behind me during a filming break. I fumbled out the old family Box Brownie (I was not into photography!), located him on the tiny murky viewfinder, fired, wound on and fired three shots. Nobody at home believed my story that he spotted me first and called out ‘Hey. Is that Tim Rudman’? Although the moment was memorable, the photographs definitely were not.
← left:
My photographic epiphany came shortly after in a bookshop. After browsing medical textbooks my eye caught the cover of a coffee table black and white photography art book – ‘Cowboy Kate and other stories’ by South African photographer Sam Haskins. I was transfixed. It wasn’t the fact that the model wore little more than a Stetson and a gun belt (it was the ‘60s after all!); it was the high contrast, grainy graphic elegant dynamic compositions. I had never seen black and white photography used as an art form in this way and I knew in that moment that I had found my medium, replacing my black and white sketching hobby. Within weeks I had found a community darkroom and was trying to learn how to print. Fifty years later I still am. As Pablo Casals said when asked why at 83 he still practised four hours a day, ‘Because I think I am making progress’.
Choosing Analogue Today all my work is all made with B&W film and printed in my darkroom. The finished work may not however always be ‘black and white’ in appearance as I most commonly either pre-visualise it or re-interpret it in various colour hues by using different developers, processes, toners and techniques. The journey has been an interesting and absorbing one.
Derelict West Pier #19.
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Unlike many who are reading this, I started my photography in a world that was entirely analogue. Digital technology, mobile phones and the Internet had not yet been invented. Telephones were bulky heavy instruments that stood on tables, connected to a wall socket. All pictures, from family snaps to newspapers, to feature films, were captured on film. There was no other way. The advent of digital photography caused great excitement, with an increasing number of photographers embracing it enthusiastically from the beginning, whilst others clung to traditional methods. The photographic world became divided – not only by the arrival of a new process, but also by pointless arguments about which was ‘better’ and why. Analogue workers often seemed to feel the need to defend and to justify their practice to digital workers. Like you, I have heard many reasons why some people use and even prefer an analogue workflow today. Some cite the uncertainty of the process – not an aspect that I would consider an advantage – or the delayed gratification and anticipation after a shoot or a trip, but before the results are revealed. Many film users will identify with that mixture of anticipation and excitement, tinged with anxiety, about a few ‘special’ frames that ‘hit the spot’. Will they prove to be as we remembered, or prove to be just wishful thinking?! Many find that having a finite number of exposures per roll, or one per sheet of film, focuses the mind and encourages thought about what the final print should look like and why, before the exposure is made. This slows the process down in a way that the infinite number of available digital exposures may not do and for many this considered or even contemplative approach aids the production of their art form rather than hinders it.
For me it is primarily that I enjoy making prints by hand. The solitary darkroom environment with its gentle safe-lighting, softly running water and carefully selected music fosters my creative side. Time slides by unhurried and unnoticed. There are no distractions and focus is total. I like the fact that I begin work with a blank ‘virgin’ sheet of paper, expose it to controlled light, interpreted with shading and burning, handle it through various chemical baths to reveal and then alter the results as I want, wash, dry and press it to hold in my hand the finished work that I have handled through all of the processes. I like that tactile physical involvement and find it infinitely more satisfying than looking at a virtual image on a screen. I feel that there is more of a connection with my work. When digital photography first became sufficiently sophisticated I attended a couple of workshops from the current gurus and enrolled in evening classes. I very well remember my initial excitement about the degree, fineness, and precision of the printing controls possible. The Holy Grail for printing control it seemed. So I bought 2 printers, 1 for colour and 1 dedicated to tri-ink black and white (before the advent of quad tones). Quite soon I realized that although the even then new technology promised unbounded possibilities, it lacked one essential ingredient for me – ‘making’ a print with my hands. There is an important lesson here. Find your own medium. It will not be the same as everyone else’s. It doesn’t matter. And it will probably evolve, grow and change anyway.
↖↖ top-left: Silver birches. Selenium and Gold toned lith print. ↖ top-right: Dawn. Thiourea and gold toned silver gelatine. ← ← far left: Iceland trees. Selenium and thiourea toned. ← left: Under Yosemite Falls. Second pass lith print. ➤ AnAlogue MAgAzine ➤ 8
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Brief Bio: I am a fine art photographer and darkroom printer and began my involvement with photography in the 1960s. I work with film and wet processing and am widely held responsible for the popularity of the lith printing process and chemical toning techniques. My printing workshops have been sell-outs around the world and my prints are held in permanent and private collections in many countries, including The Permanent Collection, housed in the V&A Museum in London, UK. I am a Fellow of The Royal Photographic Society and have been involved with its distinctions since the 1980’s. I am currently vice-chair of the Fellowship Board. Links: www.timrudman.com www.iceland-anuneasycalm.com https://www.facebook.com/timrudman Last exhibition (ended in November 2018): Iceland. An Uneasy Calm. All images © Tim Rudman. ← far left: Smoked fish. Iceland. Selenium and thiourea toned. ← middle left: Dark force. Iceland. Selenium and thiourea toned. ← left: Remembrance. Iceland. Selenium and thiourea toned.
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Merced River, Yosemite. Selenium toned silver gelatine.
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Walking tree. Near Yosemite. Selenium toned.
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↑ above: The author in flying helmet in action. An early selfie. Minolta SR1v, 28mm Lumax, Fujichrome 100. ← left: Michael Leach in the Chipmunk which was used in the initial sorties. Yashica 44 TLR. FP3. → right: One of the author’s students at this time was Simon Thorp, now Editor of VIZ. This is one of his earliest efforts at caricature. All images © Eric Houlder LRPS ➤ AnAlogue MAgAzine ➤ 8
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Adventures with infrared Aerial Ektachrome 8443 Eric Houlder LRPS Back in those long-ago summers of the late 1960s, I was working as an archaeologist for the British Museum on Britain’s most charismatic archaeological site, Sutton Hoo. Part of my responsibility as a site supervisor was shooting colour transparencies. For this I was using my Minolta MD outfit (initially and SR1V, later an SRT101, then the X-series) a including a Weston V meter, with Agfacolor CT18, which was acknowledged as the most accurate colour film for scientific purposes, though not perhaps the sharpest. I also had a Yashica 44, a twin lens reflex using 127 film for monochrome. Whilst going about our daily work on site, we could not help noticing USAF F100 Super Sabres passing over on regular patrols; the pilots were intrigued by the dig below and visited us in the base chopper, a Kamen Husky, which raised clouds of dust and caused many symbolic two figure gestures! So they re-visited us in their cars, and offered to make amends by shooting some aerial pictures of the site.
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This they duly did, and a week later, together with the other three supervisors, I was called into the director’s hut to see the weirdest transparencies I had ever viewed. This was my first experience of Infrared Ektachrome which had only recently been de-classified by the US military. The aircrew were not photographers, they had no access to the necessary No.12 (3x yellow) filter, and the Husky, being twin rotor, contra-rotating, shook like mad. Frankly, the images were rubbish, though today some would label them a bit shaky and pretend that they were deliberately shot.
However, they demonstrated that this film could see through thin sand, soil, some crops, and shallow water. Back home in Yorkshire, in the pub following a meeting of Pontefract & District Archaeological Society, I mentioned these pictures to a friend, Michael Leach (who sadly died very recently). He possessed a pilot’s licence, and offered to provide the necessary wings. Cliff Green, our local dealer went to enormous trouble and eventually obtained two twenty exposure cassettes of the film direct from Kodak Rochester.
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Swotting up the extensive leaflet, I tried everywhere to obtain the Number 12 filter. Initially I used a gelatine one, but this bulged in the 120 mph slipstream; Cliff finally discovered that Toshiba produced a glass version and got one. We soon discovered, too, that the dense filter obstructed the view in an SLR, so I purchased a Zorki 4 rangefinder camera. The film was processed using the Kodak E4 process, but expensively as the solutions could not be re-used owing to contamination by the IR film. The recommended speed setting was 100 ASA which included the filter. This proved to be accurate, but as another camera with conventional film was required as a control, it would make metering unduly complex to continue using 50 ASA CT18. Luckily, Fuji had just released a new 100 ASA film, Fujichrome 100, so some of this was purchased. Later, I received a small legacy and bought a Minolta SRT101 with match-needle metering, so that the Weston Master could be reserved exclusively for the 8443. One of the problems of using 8443 was that we were trying to photograph traces of an ancient world that were, by definition, invisible to the human eye – so where did we point the camera? After a couple of sorties in which ➤ AnAlogue MAgAzine ➤ 8
I attended a number of conferences on aerial photography, and on one memorable occasion actually projected for Professor J.K. St Joseph, the guru of the discipline. On another occasion, Sir Mortimer Wheeler on viewing one of my pictures in an exhibition arranged by the RPS Archaeology Group, said that it was the best aerial photograph that he had ever seen. Happy days!
the camera was directed serendipitously, we decided that the best bet was to seek out places that promised results, like strategic spots along Roman roads, and sites of known interest. This quickly produced results, though ironically, the cost of colour printing in those days made it difficult to publish the results. Today, however, it is possible to restore these old images (I use Affinity Photo), and they may be seen for the first time in their full glory. One was actually a runner up in last year’s Historic Photographer of the Year. ↑ above: Kamen Husky taking the first 8443 images at Sutton Hoo. The observer’s ‘bone dome’ may clearly be seen at the window. Minolta SR1v, 55mm Rokkor, Agfa CT18.
There were a number of exceptionally dry summers in the ‘70s, and we were kept busy using both 8443 and conventional emulsions. With the acquisition of the SRT101, the older SR1v became available for monochrome. At the same time, Derrick Riley (DSO & bar, DFC, with three tours with BomberCommand under his belt) one of the leading exponents of the discipline asked me to fly and photograph with him. His area of operations covered the North Midlands and all Yorkshire. We flew in most conditions, using the aircrew lounge at Leeds Bradford Airport, or flying club bars, to eat our sandwiches, though on one sortie we inadvertently opened both side windows of the Cessna 150 at the same time, only to see an OS map and a pack of sandwiches momentarily wrapping themselves around the tailfin before disappearing behind us!
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The results were published in the usual journals, and in Derrick’s 1980 book, though only in monochrome because of the cost. In 1979 disaster struck in the form of an inner ear infection. Leaning out into a vicious slipstream with a roaring engine at arm’s length in front just may have had something to do with this! I could not stand for several weeks, whilst leaning out of an aeroplane was strictly verboten. The effects lasted, so that today I still cannot fly comfortably. However, our adventures make a fascinating lecture which I deliver to both photographic and historical societies all over the country. I gave my Zorki to my son-inlaw, a Leica enthusiast who had it and its lens re-conditioned. The SR1v was presented to the Sutton Hoo site Visitor Centre, whilst the SRT101 was stolen in an airport whilst on loan to a friend. My son has my Weston Master V, together with my Mamiyaflex outfit. I still have the slides, which though faded do scan most satisfactorily with the ‘restore color‘ (sic) button engaged. I do wish the human body had a similar button. However the memories remain along with the pictures, and they return each time I project them. Bibliography British Archaeology and the Forums of the Council for British Archaeology (http://new.archaeologyuk.org/) Riley, D.N. (1980) Early landscape photography from the air. Sheffield: University of Sheffield Yorkshire Archaeological Journal Yorkshire Archaeological and Historical Society (https://www.yas.org.uk/) Contact erichoulder@gmail.com → right: An Iron Age village near Bawtry on the Yorks/Notts border in infrared colour. This was the first ever infrared colour cover image published in Britain. Zorki 4, 50mm Industar. 8443 Ektachrome. ➤ AnAlogue MAgAzine ➤ 8
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Reflections and progression Reg Markin LRPS The requirements and standard of work set by our Distinctions panels are good guide for all presentations of club or exhibition work. Basically, try to aim all future projects or assignments that would serve such purpose, and use a standard picture format and mount size. With 35mm or 6x9cm everything has that 1:1.5 aspect ratio or ‘envelope’ shape, said by many to be the way we see, and popular with landscape photographers. However, whilst recognising the convenience of the (once socalled) ‘miniature’ 35mm format for sport and street photography, I have exhausted that one - so what are the alternatives? Traditional portrait photographers often used a single- or twin-lens reflex which produced a square ➤ AnAlogue MAgAzine ➤ 8
6x6cm format on 120 (or 220) film. It is a matter of having the best tools for the fun that one intends on having and whether you like square or cropped pictures! Then there is the 645 format, a compromise arguably having the versatility of 35mm but with a larger negative size. For example, Bronica’s roll-film 645 is the lightest and immediately to hand in vertical format. So that was the decision, and in 2015 I acquired a full Bronica ETRSi kit, light enough for a pensioner to trek with and better quality than 35mm. But the picture is not finished until it is printed so I started working with it in the darkroom. Depending on one’s picture size requirements and easel frame, the limitation of having the longest
side of the format across the width of the film soon became apparent. This meant that the throat depth of the enlarger (between the lens and column) was the limiting factor rather than the longest format width left to right. So, what to do? Read on!
7 filter), graduated filters are nigh impossible to use on any rangefinder and yet they are often an essential landscape tool for easier darkroom printing. But, oh, that 6x7cm format is ideal - just right for quality prints up to 60 x 80cm or scan to 100MB.
As a keen landscape photographer, I followed the quality drive up as far as 4x5in (a Toyo, acquired in about 2000), and on reflection worked only from the boot of a car with such gear! I still enjoy working this equipment and by the time one has climbed a hill with the backpack and tripod it has turned this art form into a sport! Now in my twilight years the weight has become too much and I was attracted to the Mamiya 7 whose portability won over carrying the 4x5.
For printing 645 negs vertically on a standard 6x7 enlarger I wall mount the column. This allows the arm of the easel to position underneath and print onto 16x20in. or 20x24in. with Kaiser head spacer and standard Lens. Otherwise with a Beard easel (for FB margins) it is a struggle to print over 8x11in.
The Mamiya 7 (acquired in about 1997) has, in my view, the best quality medium format lenses ever made and their popularity supports this. Aside from the dedicated PLZE 702 polariser (the only dedicated Mamiya
So with the experience of sport and street photography from the late 1990s with 35mm, 645 on industrial exhibition work, and the mountains of the Pyrenees with the 4x5in, my final choice is 6x7, in the form of a Bronica GS-1, my ‘new’ baby delivered back in July this year. This size of negative will still lay flat with less risk of dust in the enlarger than 4x5in and with quality to match or better the best digital on the market. No more ➤ APRIL 2019 ➤ 18
changes – twenty years has taught me this. The total weight of an outfit with AE finder and spare film back is 2.5kgs. A body and lens kit can be had for around £450. Concerning materials, I have found the best film and developer combination to be Fuji Neopan Acros 100 in FX-39 - why, oh why, are Fuji discontinuing it? Without Fuji, I would use Ilford FP4 rated at 200 ISO and developed in Kodak XTOL for 9m 45s, closely followed by Ilford Delta 400, again in X-tol. I started darkroom printing on a summer course in France back in 1997, so let’s talk about enlargers. The colour/type of light source should be decided on your subject matter. For portraits use a mixing box or diffusion head, while for landscapes use a harder light/condenser head. With the condenser head there is more risk of dust spots, but this does settle down to become less troublesome. My favourite enlarger is the Kaizer 7005 Halogen and 7002 incandescent - harder. This ➤ AnAlogue MAgAzine ➤ 8
design uses a light path of combining a mixing box and condensers, handling formats up to 6x7 with light intensity adjustment. For larger work I like the De Vere Varicon with its head adjustment handles at the table and 200 watt lamp. As for papers I learnt just how uncompetitive the performance of Ilford papers are compared to Adox for response, consistency and highlight detail. By that I mean, for convenience I used to buy two sizes of paper, with the idea of one to fit the test-strip printer and the other at full size, only to establish that one pack had a difference of up to ¾ stop to the other! Adox are right to advertise their products response as being virtually the same and give the production date on the box! Then, although I can burn-in highlights, I prefer split grade printing and if still necessary two bath development. These processes show the comparative difference in responses between papers. My favourite paper is Adox MCC 112 FB Semi-matte.
I process paper in slot developing tanks for convenience, at least for the test strips, which saves space for a toning bath in sequence. Contact mail@hughward65.plus.com All images © Reg Markin ↑ ↑ top: The darkroom.
Further information Fujifilm Neopan Acros 100: https://www.fujifilm.eu/ uk/products/analoguephotography/p/neopan-100-acros
↖ above left: Bronica GS-1.
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↖ left: Richard Williams Thorpness at dawn 1. ← left: Richard Williams Thorpness at dawn 2. ↑ above: Richard Williams Thorpness at dawn 3. ➤ AnAlogue MAgAzine ➤ 8
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Split toned monochrome prints Richard Williams Around the walls of my study (and in boxes in my darkroom) are monochrome prints where the black shades have a subtle blue tone. Back in the 1980s, I used to gold tone a few prints that I considered worthy of this relatively expensive post-development treatment and I am pleased I did, because 30 plus years later these prints stand out from the others. I stopped toning my prints sometime in the mid 1990s, but 3 events re-kindled my interest. The first was a visit to the annual summer photography festival in Arles where so many of the analogue prints (argentique in French) had that rich depth of black that I have found so elusive. The second was attending the RPS Improving darkroom skills workshop given by Tim Rudman FRPS where he talked us through the theory of toning and then supervised the participants as we single toned or split toned some of our prints. The third was finding Tim Rudman’s The Master Photographers Toning Book in a second-hand bookshop in Arles for the bargain price of €25. ➤ AnAlogue MAgAzine ➤ 8
Like many analogue techniques, the chemistry is quite forgiving and there is no ‘right way’ or ‘wrong way’ of working. I have split toned around 50 prints since May this year and, having taken copious notes on my evolving technique, have found that dilute solutions and short immersions give a more subtle effect and more dramatic transformations occur when you increase the solution concentrations (obvious really).
The selenium toner I use is Harman Selenium Toner and the sepia toner was Fotospeed ST10 (although for the images of Thorpeness I made my own sepia toner using Tim Rudman’s recipe). I usually tone my prints in selenium for 1 minute at the recommended dilution, and then I bleach the prints for 45 seconds in a 75% more dilute bleach solution, followed by 20 seconds in sepia toner at the recommended dilution.
Very simply, split toning is putting the print in one toner to affect the dark areas and then in another toner to work on the light areas; practically, my prints are given a short bath in a dilute selenium toner followed (after washing) by a short bath in a weak sepia bleach/toner.
One less obvious discovery is that grainy negatives tone particularly well. My prints After Degas and Dawn at Thorpness, both of which are relatively grainy, changed dramatically on toning. In contrast, toning has only a very subtle effect on my prints taken on 120 Ilford Delta 100 where there is little or no grain.
My first ever split toned print (selenium/sepia) was the vase of tulips. Toning had 2 effects on the print; first the selenium deepened the blacks and then the sepia gave the light tones a golden sheen. The images you see here were printed on Ilford Multigrade IV RC paper, except for the flowers which were printed on Ilford Warmtone RC paper.
Split toning is not a difficult technique – try it! Contact richard1williams@outlook.com All images © Richard Williams
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Richard Williams Spiral. ➤ AnAlogue MAgAzine ➤ 8
Richard Williams Spiral 2. ➤ APRIL 2019 ➤ 22
Richard Williams Teazles. ➤ AnAlogue MAgAzine ➤ 8
Richard Williams Tulips. ➤ APRIL 2019 ➤ 23
Derelict West Pier #7. © Tim Rudman.