Technical notes and print care.

All the photographs shown here were taken on a Wista field 45VX camera using Schneider lenses (Super Angulon 58mm and 90mm 5.6 XL and Symmar-S 150mm 5.6).

This camera is both light and portable, but is also very rigid and durable with an excellent range of movements to enable the correction of distortion. Many of the shots were taken very early in the morning or late at night and often involve long exposures of between 15 and 100 seconds duration.

All images were captured on Kodak’s Portra 160VC 5x4 sheet film ( negative emulsion ) and processed through standard C41 chemistry (Eddy Cater at Rapid Eye / 020 7729 0001).

Conventional C-type colour prints are printed by hand by the photographer at Rapid Eye’s hire darkroom in Shoreditch using Kodak Super Endura E paper ( Colour fast for 100 years in normal domestic enviroment, 200 years in dark storage / Kodak website ). Considerable changes in both colour cast and picture density can be achieved at the printing stage, which makes the printing process a very subjective and creative task. The final results seen here are a combination of the photographic technique employed and the changes made at the printing stage with enlarger filtration, dodging and burning.

Black and white Giclee fine art prints were created by Jonathan Rogers at Immediate Image (020 8442 7007 ) by first scanning the Portra negative on an Imacon Flextight 949 and then manipulating the 200 Mgb file to achieve the best results via a calibrated Epson 9600 printer. Prints were made on Da Vinci fine art smooth white 315gsm using Epson Ultrachrome pigment inks with an estimated life of 120 years on this acid free 100% cotton rag media.

Considerable effort has been made to achieve a neutral black and white tone to the Giclee prints. However their tone and colour can change under differing light sources even though they are neutral in daylight. It is also possible to make warm (sepia) and cool (blue) toned prints, emulating the black and white toning previously achieved with chemicals in the darkroom. A smaller printed proof from Jonathan at Immediate Image would be necessary to guage the level of ‘toning’. Please feel free to discuss this in more depth.

As with any art print, storage in a moderately cool enviroment of consistent humidity and away from strong direct light will increase print life. Framing here is by Frontispiece (020 7515 1424) using archival acid free mount board.

 

Andrew Hamilton