[drdag]

Lens is made of glass though??

[drdag]

Klieg eye is probably the same as ‘arc eye’ a very painful affliction received after being exxposed to an unprotected view of mig, tig or arc welding for a short period. I have had it and it is in the top ten of nasty things I have had/done to myself.

[drdag]

Well done, I am sure you have all of our support and agreement.

We are having trouble on another small unrelated forum of which I am a member and it’s is time-consuming and bothersome.

[drdag]

I compare the plate with an unsenitized one reflecting a crack of light down the side of my garage door 12 feet away. This gets my eyes used to it. It seems that experience and feeling is the best way. I seem to get better at it the more I do. I have made maybe 600 plates and I have about 1 out of 15 failures.

[drdag]

Hi Jason

I have bought bromine water, (fairly easy to get). I am lucky enough to have some phials of bromine (that I got from a dodgy mercury supplier) to ‘top it up’

(I am Brenton who you helped/inspired a while back)

[drdag]

From my limited knowlege I would say that the third cycle Iodine is way too much, I would go for the first cycle I am doing F4.5 EV 15 about 40-70 seconds with great results. I ghet images like the above if i over iodine

[drdag]

Try this http://www.largeformatphotography.info/bellows-factor.html

[drdag]

I do not know yet, I hope to come depending on circumstances

[drdag]

I made 70 images like that until I ‘got it’ .

Because your plates are so large you will need to have a larger distance between the iodine and the plate to get an even coating. From my failure experiences I would say there is too much Iodine and too much exposure time. I would press on with these images but maybe try Becqueral development, and not using the Bromine or Mercury. Once you have that nailed then move on to the more difficult techniques.

[drdag]

I am not familiar with the micron grades, but from my car painting/polishing days it looks

like some contamination is in there either in the foam or the paper. Trouble is that 1 bit of grit goes a long way, is it wet and dry? if so is it absolutely flooded with water?

[drdag]

Dont worry everyone is making it up. Just do whats working for you, there is no right or wrong way, just different ways.

[drdag]

emf , you are really close. Nice to see you using the tripoli and rouge. Most important is the cleanliness of the rouge and its mop/s. If you put the rouge bar down on the bench and it picks a bit of dust or tipoli up that will scratch your metal. I use two rouge mops one for cleaning and polishing then a final polish one. I keep them in plastic bags when not in use. For my final polish I use cotton velvet on a padded board for a couple of minutes, then another cleaner one to get the mirror finish. Again any dust that falls on this can scratch and you have to go back to the mop. Polishing is a bit like making dags sometimes it just doesn’t happen for me and I walk away for a while.

Also don’t make the mistake thinking that the silver plating will somehow ‘fill in’ the scratches.

[drdag]

I have submitted 2 images from my new series and 4 from my last series.

I feel it is important to continue with new work, although the series isn’t finished.

I have had a hard winter with many technical problems. I have a much more critical eye, ditching what would have been perfectly good images 1 year ago. I guess the chemicals are getting to me….

 

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[drdag]

I have ordered 5 litres of 99.95% as well as some ‘distilled water’ I will report back

[drdag]

Is this the stuff? http://www.twenga.co.uk/offer/5813/7470951720218085297.html

[drdag]

This is great stuff, I have a wood burning stove going most of the time, so I will make a condenser and make my own. We are also blessed with the softest water in the uk which should help. It is such a shame when you have a keeper, you’ve done the hard work only to mess it up at the last minute. I feel that my de-ionised water came straight out of the sea!

I like the idea of alcohol, I guess you buy it from a pharmacy? Otherwise I could triple distill some Jack Daniels in my new still!

What was that recipe for crystal meth Jonathan?

[drdag]

you will be lucky, I will have another exhibition in England later this year, Date and place TBA.

(I am Christopher Brenton West)

[drdag]

Now it’s light here in blighty, I have dusted off the gear and started making the new series of images. I have noticed a brown sheen where the blacks (IE no silver Iodide) are meant to be.

I thought that it maybe the 4 month old Sodium Thiosulphate solution that I had. I tried some Ilford fixer which worked, but I still had the brown sheen. It is not something that I have experienced before. The only other thing is that I Iodize to the first Yellow (usually about 30-40 secs)Any Ideas?

The image is a little less brown in real life, but pic. taken under tungsten with AWB. It should all be black like the central patch.

Interestingly both the old Sodium Thiosulphate and the fixer stained a plate slightly by just leaving half of it in the tray, standing up.

I have no new Sod.Thio. until it comes later in the week.

 

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[drdag]

A couple of tests from my latest series, appologies for the poor repro. and dirty glass.

Interestingly I made and gilded a couple last week and failed to seal for about 5 days and the tarnish has set in already , making them almost useless.

 

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[drdag]

I get mine from ebay

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/50g-pure-elemental-iodine-crystals_W0QQitemZ320347522495QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item320347522495&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1683|66%3A2|65%3A12|39%3A1|240%3A1318

[drdag]

hear,hear!

[drdag]

sorry I should have said, I sensitize the plates when they are in the holder.I wouldnt recommend

touching plates at all once iodized.

[drdag]

I VERY gently push it with a clean bit of velvet, Also my plates are very flat so need little encouragement to stick.

[drdag]

Me again…. my exhibition is now underway at The Devon Guild of Craftsmen for 6 weeks. I have been offered an Associate Membership on merit for my work which is another pat on the back.

All I need is for someone to start buying….

[drdag]

As you may know I use 5X4 plates, I use ordinary 5×4 film holders, and put about 1 inch of double sided tape right in the middle to stop any darkslide/silver meetings. If you use too much then it is difficult to get off.

[Author]

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