LongHouseLife

#LHL #PHOTOGRAPHY #LARGEFORMAT #FOURBYFIVE #DIY #CAMERABUILD #EXPERIMENTAL

Today marked a culmination of many segments of construction and trial/error.

I have made an image that I can be completely satisfied with. The test now is to recreate this with other images...

First though, here are some images of the most recent developments in the build:

The 'new' back – without and with:

The 'new' Waterhouse Stops – inserted and seperately:

Due to the weather not been conducive for an outdoor shoot, I made the fruit bowl my centre of attention. Yesterdays trial had resulted in some light leaks, so the trial this morning was to hopefully iron that out. In short the new back was lifting by approx 1mm at one corner, and I believe this was the source of the light leak. I adapted the whole camera by inserting two opposed ¼” brass eye screws and temporarily attaching an elastic band between – this holds down the Holder. More importantly it seems to have cured the light leak, but a bright, sunny outdoor day may be different....?

I trialled the same shot at 3, 6, and 12 asa using Kentmere RC Variable contrast paper as my negative medium. While all three images had their quirks – the 3 asa had good shadow detail but blown highlights, the 12 asa image had good highlight detail, but blocked shadows... The 6 asa image was a good intermediate, and possibly 8 or 10 asa may yield better results..? I only have a couple of sheets of this paper remaining, and have a pack of 25 sheets Glossy RC variable contrast paper from Fotospeed to start. Taking the positive with this latest test I may commit to either a pack of Harman Direct Positive paper or a pack of Ilford Ortho film.

Without further ado, here is an 8x10 print of today's success: