UNIT 35 Camera, Film and Darkroom research

Task 2 – Camera, Film and Darkroom research  Unit 35: P1, P2

SLR stands for single lens reflex camera normally uses a mirror and prism system.  The seven main components of a film camera are focusing ring, aperture ring, shutter speed dial, Film rewind crank and knob, film advance lever, shutter release button and film speed rating.

Manufacturers such as Kodak, Fujifilm, Adox and ILFORD produce black and white film but they all sell different kinds of film such as colour negative and chromogenic.

All of these manufacturers sell a variety of different sized films from 35 to an ultra large format sheet. 35mm film comes in a variety of frame counts this is because when a moving picture is displayed each frame is flashed on a screen for a short time. Persistence of vision blends the frames together producing what is an illusion of a moving image. Film comes in different speeds because there are different effects that come with it.

 For example 400 ISO will create a high contrast and sensitivity with the film.  The higher the ISO/ASA is the faster the films and shorter exposures but by using a high ISO this may make your contrast and grain higher but the slower the film is generally better because you get more sharper and detailed images. The red light is normally referred to as safelight or red light, is used for illuminating the parts only on the visible spectrum. The main components of an enlarger are the enlarger head, film carrier, enlarger lens, elevation knob, focus knob, easel and the baseboard easel. 

Contact Prints Diagram

First you get your negatives and place them in to the contact print holder,  then you set your color settings for the enlarger head  which are:

•Cyan 0

•Yellow 23

•Magenta 56 

You then set your aperture to 5.6 The next step is to make sure your negative holder is in the correct place. To do this you will need to press white button on the timer to show the outline of where your negatives will need to be placed. Then you add a piece of grade 3 paper underneath the negatives so that the image will print on to it.

After that you will need a piece of cardboard for the exposure to work. This means that you will produce your image in intervals I  set my timer to 10 x 3 which is 30 seconds. So my intervals will be 10 seconds each. Once the time has run out you will need to take your grade 3 paper and take it to the chemistry trays  which are labelled developer, stop, fix, and  rinse.

The developer brings up the image you have developed hence the name and it takes 1-2 minutes . The stopper is what stops the developing process from working. The fixer is just to stop the developing and stopping process and this takes 2 minutes. The last step which is rinse  cleans off all the chemicals off and takes 30 minutes. 

Final Prints Diagram 

First you select the four photos you want as your final prints. Then you set your aperture to either 5.6 or  depending on what kind of brightness you want. Then you put one of them in your film carrier , use the elevation and focus knob. After you are happy with the look of the image you then set your timer to the appropriate time and get a piece of grade 3 paper. After that you then put your paper in the developer for 30 seconds.  Then you put it in the stopper for 2 minutes and after that you put it in the fixer for 5 minutes. Then you rinse it which takes 30 minutes.