16”x20” Matte Fibre Print from 4”x5” Negative
Biggest Silver Gelatin Print to come out the darkroom to date, pretty stoked 😊#largeformatfilmphotography #darkroom #silvergelatinprint #4x5film #ilfordfiberpaper
Having fun testing some of the Ortho Surfers series.
8x10 Glossy contact print from 8x10 Ilford Ortho Negative
#largeformatfilmphotography #darkroom #silvergelatinprint #ilfordorthoplus #8x10
Ezra Freeman 20.4.26. 8x10 Silver Gelatin contact print from 8x10 @ilfordphoto FP4 Negative.
Yesterday @_ezra_freeman_ asked if today was a good day to take his portrait and within half an hour he was sitting before my 1950’s Deardorff camera as I started explaining the process of large format analogue photography. Two hours later I was scanning the negative and the next morning I was making a prints.
It’s taken me longer than anticipated to complete @halfartstudio as I’ve never done anything like this before, and at times I wasn’t sure if I could and I’m still not sure if I can make a living from this but I’ll never know if I don’t give it a go.
So thanks Ezra for inadvertently showing me my dream of making a studio to produce my own work and share this somewhat antiquated and nearly obsolete form of photography is complete, well, sort of, I’m not sure darkrooms and studios are ever really complete as there’s always some other piece of equipment you find yourself searching market place for to try another old process to make other types of photographic art and that’s fun too.
I’m not sure why the world is in such a hurry to do less and have AI do more but I’m happily going in the opposite direction with @halfartstudio and slowing down to create handmade one off photographs that you can hold in your hand and will last for years and require no digital intervention whatsoever and it makes me really happy doing so and without exception every single person I share this process with loves it too and that brings it all full circle for me.
If you don’t enjoy what you do and it doesn’t bring any joy for anyone else then how are you making this world a better place?
#largeformatfilmphotography #darkroom #silvergelatin #filmportraits #8x10
Nigel. 18/2/26 When friends drop into the studio to say hello and take a look at the space it seems a shame not to make a portrait. Nigel was telling me about his days as a photographer for the Sydney Morning Herald, one of his jobs was to shoot what they called the final strip, the photo of all the race horses crossing the line which he developed in the car on the way back to the office often drying it out the window of the moving car so they could print the photo and send it to print in the paper that evening.
This was also a little test of two different developers, 510 Pyro, and this one developed semi standard as I normally do with Rodinal .
#largeformatfilmphotography #largeformatportrait #ilfordorthoplus #8x10 #rodinal
Escaping the 37 deg Celsius Fredrickton sunshine in the 20deg darkroom is a lovely way to spend the afternoon. 8x10 Silver gelatin print from a 6x7 @kodakprofessional TriX negative developed in Rodinal developer, printed on glossy Ilford RC.
#analoguephotography #silvergelatinprint #portrait #filmphotography #mediumformatphotography #pentax67ii #kodaktrix400
After two days of Platinum & Palladium printing in the darkroom which is a far more complicated and expensive. There’s something beautifully simple about the cyanotype process. This one is an enlarged 8x10 negative on a sheet of 320gsm cotton rag paper. Fixed in Hydrogen Peroxide, contrast c in trip with baking soda and finally toned in selenium. I’m all about the detail and going big, waiting on some larger acetate to print even bigger.
#cyanotype #contactprint #largeformatfilmportrait
My second attempt at printing in the Platinum & Paladium process. This print in nobel metals from a 35mm negative was scanned and enlarged onto a sheet of acetate and contact printed onto a 16”x20” sheet of 320gm cotton rag paper
