Angela & Murph

October 21, 2024
365 Challenge #295

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Your photograph was taken with a 5x7 inch Korona View Camera (Also known as a large format camera). This camera was built around 1910 and is composed of only wood, metal, leather, and glass. Everything on the camera is operated by hand, and every decision must be made with intention and precision.

After I took your photograph, the film returns to my darkroom waiting for its developing session with 3 other films in a stack. Since the film is large and flat, I am able to process it in a series of trays in complete darkness. This takes about 45 minutes, while a stack is in a tray, the film will need to be cycled from the bottom to the top, while in liquid chemistry… Let me shut off the lights and walk you through the process:

1) Prewash, 3 minutes - This allows the film to prepare for development and prevent them from sticking to each other.
2) Developer, 10 minutes - The time here can vary, but 10 minutes is an average. This chemical makes the photograph appear as a negative in the film. Creative control can be made here by adjusting exposure to the film itself or adjusting the development length, affecting the end result.
3) Stop bath, 1 minute - Don’t turn the lights on yet! The development needs to be stopped or washed off the film before the next step. I use plain water.
4) Fixer 1, 4 minutes - Fixing means to make the image permanent and to make it viewable in the light. It also clears the film making it transparent. From here the lights can be turned on.
5) Fixer 2, 2 minutes - For archival reasons, the film is fixed twice. This ensures the film reaches archival standards when stored properly. Black and white film theoretically will have image permanence of at least 500 years when stored well.
6) Wash, Approximately 20-30 minutes - To remove residual chemistry and to retain archival permanence, the water wash cycle has two parts: 3 quick fill and drain of fresh water followed by a series of 3 five minute soaking baths.
7) Dry, 2-3 hours - Using a final soak in a drying aid, the negative is hung up to dry and then carefully placed into a protective sleeve where it is stored until later.

The film negative is now ready to make prints in a darkroom or scanned into a digital image file. To turn it into the picture you see now, the negative is carefully placed onto a specialized flatbed scanner and "wet mounted" using a dedicated fluid for scanning film which ensures a very high quality conversion. It is then scanned for about 20 minutes to capture every detail down to the grain of the film. Dust and bubbles are the biggest problem here as everything gets through to the scanner’s sensor.

The wet method is a game changer at reducing dust from the scan, but it isn’t perfect. The tiny dust and bubbles that are produced in the scanning process has to be removed by me in a photo editing software. To create the final finished product. I then make small adjustments to brightness and contrast until I find something I am happy with. After a quick resize, the final image is ready to be exported.

Each photo is put in its respected place, uploaded, and an email is composed with your name on it with good news in the title. From there, the circle is finally complete. Your portrait is now yours.