Friday, July 6, 2012

Juliet at home

Juliet at home by Jay DeFehr
Juliet at home, a photo by Jay DeFehr on Flickr.

Racer Juliet

Racer Juliet by Jay DeFehr
Racer Juliet, a photo by Jay DeFehr on Flickr.

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Untitled by Jay DeFehr
Untitled, a photo by Jay DeFehr on Flickr.

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Untitled by Jay DeFehr
Untitled, a photo by Jay DeFehr on Flickr.

Testing the pancake lens.

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Untitled by Jay DeFehr
Untitled, a photo by Jay DeFehr on Flickr.

Crop

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Untitled by Jay DeFehr
Untitled, a photo by Jay DeFehr on Flickr.

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Untitled by Jay DeFehr
Untitled, a photo by Jay DeFehr on Flickr.

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Untitled by Jay DeFehr
Untitled, a photo by Jay DeFehr on Flickr.

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Untitled by Jay DeFehr
Untitled, a photo by Jay DeFehr on Flickr.

Comrade Juliet

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Untitled by Jay DeFehr
Untitled, a photo by Jay DeFehr on Flickr.

Juliet looking like a movie star.

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Untitled by Jay DeFehr
Untitled, a photo by Jay DeFehr on Flickr.

A sunny day in Seattle (yes, we have them).

My darling daughter

Untitled by Jay DeFehr
Untitled, a photo by Jay DeFehr on Flickr.

Roman at Patriarshy Ponds, Moscow

My friend and fellow photographer, Roman, on a beautiful Moscow day.

Kaya and Travis

Kaya and Travis by Jay DeFehr
Kaya and Travis, a photo by Jay DeFehr on Flickr.

Last day of a wonderful visit.

Juliet in sweater

Juliet in sweater by Jay DeFehr
Juliet in sweater, a photo by Jay DeFehr on Flickr.

photo.JPG by Jay DeFehr
photo.JPG, a photo by Jay DeFehr on Flickr.

Available light.

Thursday, July 5, 2012

Umax 400/ OA

Untitled by Jay DeFehr
Untitled, a photo by Jay DeFehr on Flickr.

TP/ OA

Untitled by Jay DeFehr
Untitled, a photo by Jay DeFehr on Flickr.

Adox CHS 50/ OA

Untitled by Jay DeFehr
Untitled, a photo by Jay DeFehr on Flickr.

Pan F+/ OA

Untitled by Jay DeFehr
Untitled, a photo by Jay DeFehr on Flickr.

OA/ Acros

Untitled by Jay DeFehr
Untitled, a photo by Jay DeFehr on Flickr.

Obsidian Aqua

I get a lot of inquiries about sourcing the ingredients for Hypercat from people living in places where propylene glycol is not available locally, and expensive to ship, and so I started thinking about a water-based version that could be sourced locally in most places, requiring perhaps only the catechol to be shipped. I call this version Obsidian Aqua.

Obsidian Aqua

Distilled water                                750ml
Sodium or potassium metabisulfite      20g
Catechol                                          250g
Distilled water to                             1 liter

Dilute 1:500 in a 0.666% solution of potassium carbonate (6.66g/ liter), or a 0.5% solution of sodium carbonate (5g/liter).

This is a very concentrated developer with excellent keeping properties, and gives results identical to Hypercat. I give options for using either sodium or potassium compounds, as availability differs, and results are identical.

Handling OA is a little different than handling Hypercat. Hypercat is best dispensed by a measuring syringe, and while this will also work with OA, because of the smaller volumes used, I find a pipet to be most convenient. I bought a precision one like this:

http://www.amazon.com/Mohrs-Pipette-Pipet-Borosilicate-Glass/dp/B007CL88SG/ref=sr_1_4?s=industrial&ie=UTF8&qid=1341534806&sr=1-4&keywords=pipet+1ml



and a latex bulb like this:

http://www.amazon.com/VWR%C2%AE-Pipet-Bulb-Latex-2ml/dp/B001CKY8NC/ref=sr_1_1?s=industrial&ie=UTF8&qid=1341534858&sr=1-1&keywords=pipet+bulb


The pipet is 1ml and graduated in .1ml, making it easy and accurate to measure out the 0.6ml for making up 300ml of 1:500 working solution for 35mm film, or 1ml for making 500ml for developing 120 film. If you normally make up larger volumes of working solution, higher capacity pipets are available. 

There are a number of ways to handle the carbonate. if you always make up a liter at a time, you could add 1 level teaspoon of carbonate to 1 liter of water, and get repeatable results, or you could make up a stock solution (I use a 66.6% solution of potassium carbonate) and dilute it, or make up a ready to use solution of 0.666% potassium, or 0.5% sodium carbonate. The important thing is that the working developer contains 6.66g of potassium carbonate, or 5g of sodium carbonate per liter. 

Development times should be the same as Hypercat, provided you're using the same mix. 

2.5ml of Hypercat A = 1ml of Obsidian Aqua A
OA 1:500  = Hypercat 1:200, using the same carbonate content for both.  

Some starting point development times for OA 1:500 are:

medium to slow films: 9:00 - 12:00, 70F, 10 seconds agitation/ 3:00

400 speed films: 12: -15:00, same as above

Kodak Technical Pan, and other document-type films: 1:1000, 15:00, 70F, agitate 10 seconds/ 3:00

I'll follow with some examples.