One of the nice things about physical (as opposed to digital) photography is the ability to share prints with people. It's a nice thing that reminds you of a (hopefully) good time that you can hold in your hand! Polaroids were popular for a reason, but the revival of film has unfortunately not brought with it the resurrection of instant peel apart film that can be used with large format cameras.
(Side note: I really dislike the term "analog photography" for anything that is non-digital. I don't know why, maybe it just makes me feel old. I don't have a good alternative. "Film" isn't expansive enough - would you consider instant to be "film?" Glass plates certainly aren't, and people still shoot those! Anyway.)
So, I've got my Crown Graphic, and I think it would be great to bring it to parties because I'm a masochist. But I also want to be able to give people photos of themselves. I could buy a LomoGraflok back (it prints Instax Wide images), but that's a) too easy and b) a waste of the 4x5 since the Instax Wide format isn't really big enough to fill the whole frame. Obviously, I needed to come up with my own solution.
The setup centers on Ilford's Direct Positive Paper, which was apparently created with pinhole cameras in mind. This is a paper that will produce positive tonality using standard B&W chemistry and processes - no need for an extra bleaching/reversal step. Two downsides with the paper: first, it is incredibly slow compared to film (Ilford estimates ISO between 1 and 3), and it is very, very contrasty. To reduce contrast, you can "pre-flash" the paper.
Anyway, on to the setup. You'll need to bring everything required to expose and develop the paper on site. My kit includes the following:
- Crown Graphic camera with a lens, film holders, and cable release
- Pack of direct positive paper (I'll bring some film with me, too, just in case)
- 5-in-1 light bouncer/diffuser
- Light meter
- Tripod
- Patterson tank with Mod54 insert
- Dark bag
- Pre-measured chemicals (1L each paper developer and stop bath, 2L of fixer)
- Graduated cylinders, funnel
- A rag
- Five gallon bucket
And the whole process:
- Arrive on site, pour chemicals into graduated cylinders, fill bucket with water, mount camera to tripod
- Load paper into film holders
- Pre-flash the paper - meter the sky (for shooting outdoors, the paper is about ISO 3), then stop down three stops. Point the camera at the sky, place diffuser in front of the lens, and then expose the paper. Put the dark slide back in, and it's ready to take an image. (credit here for the method)
- Meter subject, take image. In partial sunlight, you're look at around 4 seconds at f/11.
- Transfer paper to the developing tank, and develop to completion (I use 3 minutes dev, 1 minute stop, 4 minutes fix).
- Put the paper into the bucket of water to rinse for an hour. Remove, dry flat.
Problems that currently exist:
- It's fiber paper, so it takes forever to rinse. It also curls terribly as it dries. Carrying around a dry mount press is not really feasible. I suggested to folks receiving the pictures that they could rewet the paper and then dry it in a towel pressed between books.
- The paper is very floppy when it's wet and doesn't like to stay in the film holder in the developing tank. This may cause issues in the future, but so far it seems to just get plastered to the inner wall of the tank, and the movement of the (now empty) film holder is enough agitation to develop properly.
- Again, because it's fiber paper, the fixer gets depleted very quickly. You can replenish it (hence the reason for bringing extra fixer), but doing a lot of images in a session might require quite a lot of fixer.
- Image quality is pretty decent if the conditions are right (see example), but a) shutter speeds are long so subjects like children are difficult to get clear images of, and b) any amount of backlighting produces weird gray skin tones. Oh, and since you're not making an intrapositive like you would with negative film, the image is mirrored.
It's a fun party trick if you don't mind hauling thirty pounds of gear around!
