Pink Frog 粉紅色青蛙, 24 May 2006

Today only 3 students attend at darkroom printing lesson so I was able to ask the tutors many questions.

My goodness, the other students forgot to bring their gloves so it was up to me to take three chemicals from bottles and dilute for use in the processing trays. While I poured the chemicals wearing safety glasses and very pink gloves. I was glad I was in a darkroom - they were not the height of latest fashion! I felt like a 'pink frog' in a strange dark world.

Now there were fewer students it was easier to see the BSL interpreter's hands so I asked the tutor if I could do 'one to one' in future. While he explained the process I asked him if I had set it up correctly? Then I tried my first exposure alone. I was ready to do a "test print" of the image using a base exposure plus several additional step exposures to evaluate the tones of the image. Like film, photographic paper is sensitive to light. The more light it is exposed to the darker it gets. Which one is better, 4 secs, 8 secs, 12 secs, 16 sec. I showed my results to the tutors about 3 times; failed and had to do it again. Then we choose the 12secs exposure on the test print. With this test print we can now evaluate what the final exposure of 12 secs for the finished print will be. The finished photo looks great, i am happy with it!

© Sheng-Kai Chou 2006