Exposure of Liquid Light emulsion

What is the ISO or ASA or speed of Liquid Light emulsion? Well, I got a pretty good picture at f8 at 1 second on a almost brilliant sunny day of average subject. The Sunny Sixteen Rule was applied to those factors. As it turns out, a brilliant day is 200 or 20 depending on which light meter you use. It does not matter what ISO you have to work with; all meters and cameras and lenses are based on this Rule: brilliant sun is gaged at f 16 at 1 over the film speed for the shutter. So, if you have 200 as the bright sun as on a Weston light meter, and 400 for a film speed, f 16 falls on 1/400 second for exposure. Lenses must be focused on infinity. Anything closer will cause the bellows to be extended farther, decreasing light intensity by the square of the distance. Infinity focus is required to start with in order to determine exposure using the Sunny Sixteen Rule.

My daylight and exposure fit the above information perfectly. ISO was ... the lowest setting on any light meter at hand. Get a Weston 715 just for the dial, the cell does not even need to work. Light was 18.5 on a Luna Pro or one block lower than 200 on the Weston. It looks like I'll be using the old Weston meter again.

The other part of the equation is developing the exposed plate in the darkroom. This is also standardized. Dektol is used, diluted 1:3, one part Dektol to three parts water. Mix according to directions on the package to get the one part. One minuet is used as a time. 69 degrees Fahrenheit is the temperature throughout. Agitation is minimal. Kodak Fixer is used to both stop the development and to fix. A small amount of Fixer is put in a tray and used as a stop bath for 30 seconds. The fixer tray has more in it and is used for at least 2 minuets. If milky white is observed in the plate, then longer time is required to remove it. 5 minuets of wash in water is all that remains. Plates are stood on edge on a paper towel to dry. Drying can take one hour to all day depending on how thick the emulsion is, dryer air and more of it speeds things up. I place the completed dry plate in a sealable plastic bag.

Washing comes first, Calcium Carbonate or Barkeeper's Friend are enough with a tap water rinse to get the emulsion to stick. I scrub the powder with a brush and a little bit of water over the plate in a tiny tray. Lots of tap water cleans it off. That is all that is needed.

Pouring plates every day

Pouring plates after cleaning them different ways is getting easier and easier. Exposing them is coming along, too. A Bender 4x5 camera was used in order to use the lens on it that has a cable release, a Caltar 210, and a Copal #1 shutter. Accurate exposures are in order. One of two plates came out great today. It was shot at f8 and 1 second; the light was not quite brilliant full sun, 18.5 on a Luna Pro meter. ASA or ISO is below the .8 lowest so is about 1/2. The plate was subbed with emulsion and fixed then coated again; it was thick and slow to dry. After scanning at 1200 I enhanced it, and touched it up a bit. It makes a very nice 8x10 print on the PC.

The emulsion is light and loose

The emulsion is very thin and light. It is also subject to humidity. As it is raining and very humid outside, it came loose. So, back into the oven with only the piolet light on to dry out then back into a bag. Perhaps it should be varnished after developing.

My First Plate

This is my first image. It is a 4x5 glass plate made with Liquid Light on top of Polyurethane water base high gloss (varnish). The whole thing lifted off, then dried flat again. Weird.
The problem today was to determine ISO. Tests were done on card stock first. This image is underexposed at 1 ISO instead of 1/2. One second was used at f 16 on a bright sunny day. Dektol was used at 1:3 dilution at 69 degrees F. developed two minuets instead of one because of the underexposure. It was scanned in the computer at 1200 dpi, auto adjust, unsharped, stiched, shrunk down to 20% at 300 dpi and posted as a medium sized image. A Pony Prime No.4 camera was used with a R.O.&C. Victor f8-5.6 lens.

All Together Now

Everything has been done, once. Chemicals were mixed, photographs taken, film developed, (glass broken), (emulsion peeled off and put onto another). The entire cycle has been done for the first time.
Now to do it again and again until it is done right.
The ice is broken.

Second Pour

A full bottle of emulsion takes a while to heat up enough to get it out of the bottle. It was put into a slightly larger sized stainless steel coffee peculator pot, and sat on the strainer lid! Just like a pressure cooker; the lid on the bottom keeps the plastic container from getting too hot.
When warm enough to pour, some was put into a stainless steel daylight developing tank. That, in turn, was floated in warm water in a Pyrex measuring cup.
Temperature was monitored. The small amount was allowed to cool to the required temperature (do the math). More was put in there for the next time. It will be easier to warm up a small amount than the entire bottle.
The plastic apron went on, and the developing tray, white, went on my lap; I sat. The plates done yesterday were in a light safe. They were very much uneven to say the least. Both were covered again. The plates were done at room temperature and not warmed up first; that proved to be an error, warming them did.
The light safe was put onto the enlarger base, checked with a level.
This is cool: The emulsion bottle came in black plastic bag in the box. With the bottle in the pot, the bag is put over it, squeezed to get air out and slid all the way to the bottom. That way I can get out of the room without exposing the emulsion; some light gets in, when the door is opened, as this darkroom doesn't have a light tight walk way exit. Then the door is shut again. Bad design that but a cool workaround.

Science and Photography

Science in High School was attractive but not enough so as to make me do the work. Now is the time. Photography gives me motivation to learn it.

C 1.8 + 32 F

F (F-32) x 1.8 C