Comment by galago

Comment by galago 2 months ago

1 reply

About a year ago, I had an opportunity to use an 8x10 field camera. This description is correct. I didn't have any film, so I loaded the film holder with paper and developed it under a safelight in the darkroom. This isn't a typical process though and film has very low ISO. I then contact printed through the paper. The resulting image wasn't particularly sharp. It was a fun exercise though, and I'd like to borrow the camera again. Using it is a very slow and formal process. The film is as one would expect, expensive.

yawpitch 2 months ago

Paper negatives are interesting, but yes even when you’ve got a subject that sits still long enough and the camera is on a really steady tripod the result will still be a lot less than critically sharp when printed because the paper diffuses any light passed through it. Cheaper than film, but but vastly sharper than paper, are wet plate collodion processes like anbrotypes and tintypes, though you’ll either have to make (or have made) a back appropriate for glass or metal as the substrate.