News

  TheLightFarm -
February 9, 2010
A great big TLF 'Congratulations!' to Tim Bessel.  Tim has started making absolutely gorgeous paper emulsions.  Even better, he is experimenting with materials and techniques, including developer tweaks.  He will be writing up his findings when his work reaches an appropriate stage, but in the meantime he is sharing his progress on APUG, here.  The thread also includes excellent information on darkroom chemical safety. 
January 1, 2010
Happy New Year! (and Decade)
Added pages 53-93 in the book 'The Photographic Emulsion', chapter titled 'The Photographic Emulsion After-Ripening' here.
December 30, 2009
Marco Boeringa sent this fascinating link to another 'how film is made' video. here. The film is in Dutch but I think by now we can get the idea.  It's a great historical piece.  Also, see the discussion about this on APUG. Thank you, Marco.
(Editor's note 1/1/2010: There's now a text of the translation to English on the APUG thread.  Thanks, 'AgX'.)
December 18, 2009
Kevin Klein suggests changing the hypo addition in his dry plate recipe from 0.02% to 0.2% to achieve greater sensitivity/'speed' here.
December 18, 2009
Kit Funderburk has published new, invaluable information on the history of photographic paper manufacture at Kodak.  Please don't miss the opportunity to read his work here.
December 14, 2009
Added: The 'Bits and Pieces' section will be a research blog for the foreseeable future.  I will be trying every recipe and technique that has struck my fancy in the last few months of reading.  My old photo chemistry books are festooned with Post-its, every marked page waiting for testing and/or comment.  I've been trying to develop a 'best order' strategy, but the complexities of that have only served as an excuse to procrastinate.  So, it's 'Tally-ho!' and over the wall I go — no particular order, rhyme nor reason — just follow the fox.
December 14, 2009
Added: Additional information on contact printing dry plate negatives here.
October 25, 2009
Added: Advanced Silvergum Tutorial here.
August 30, 2009
TLF welcomes Mark Osterman and his excellent article on dry plate photography (here) and new recipe page (here.)  Mark's work and the mission of George Eastman House soon will be expanding to include the actual processes of the historical processes, including silver gelatin emulsions (more here.)
June 8, 2009
I am delighted to welcome new contributor, Michael Carter.  Michael is setting out on the great adventure of learning to make emulsions.  We are lucky that he is going to be writing about his experiences on his website,  http://www.studiocarter.com/ with a special section for a blog:

http://newlightfarmer.blogspot.com/.  Good luck and fun, Michael!
May 9, 2009
For the last month, we've been bumping and grinding our way to the new navigation and page style.  We think it's all done; hope you enjoy it.

Also, we finally have officially listed Marco Boeringa as a contributor to The Light Farm.  Welcome, Marco!  And, thank you for the historic Kodak film. Check out Marco's website, you'll enjoy the visit.
March 5, 2009
We have replaced the What's New section with two new sections: News and Bits & Pieces.
March 1, 2009
We have added a new section, Historical Films.

Please check out our first film, How Film is Made.
January 12, 2009
A big TLF welcome to contributing editor Kevin Klein.

Kevin has added to our catalog of dry plate emulsion recipes here.  Be sure to see Kevin's dry plate prints here. To learn more about all of Kevin's photography, please visit his website, kevinklein.biz.
January 7, 2009
A great new year and new friends.

We are delighted to link The Light Farm with MichaelandPaula.com, the website of Michael A. Smith and Paula Chamlee.  To learn more about Michael and Paula and their work, please go here.
December 8, 2008
New section: Making Baryta

The homemade baryta recipe and technique has been updated.
December 1, 2008
New section: Gallery

All emulsion makers are invited to contribute. For information on how, please go here.
November 22, 2008
New section: Film Negatives

Growing this section will be ongoing for several months, starting with some information on Melenex.
November 4, 2008
New section: Dry Plate Photography

There are many pages of new information.  Please check it out.  You can see the new link from TLF's home page.
Five-Color Silvergum and Silvergum Gallery
June 20, 2008
I have added new information to the Silvergum section.

Read about 5-color silvergums here, and visit the gallery here.
Welcome to Bill Winkler
April 24, 2008
We are delighted to welcome Bill Winkler to our team of Contributing Editors. Bill tells us this about himself:

"I began studying photography, and purchased my first SLR (a Pentax K1000), at the age of 45. Fortunately, this was in 1993 and the 'Digital Revolution' had just started crying for Mother's Milk. So, I received an excellent foundation in traditional Black&White Photography. Shortly after taking my first course in Color Photography I saw my first Large Format Color Transparency, and became obsessed with everything transparent. I did a one semester Independent Studies course in Color Separations, shortly before taking a workshop in Platinum Palladium Printing.

The next ten years, I dedicated to working out a method for printing Pt/Pd/Au on glass.

I now have a system for reliably printing these metal images on glass, and (if desired) adding color using a variation of the Gum Dichromate method. I have entered the world of emulsion making because I hate being dependent on commercial film. Also, I wish to do Dye Transfers and Matrix Film is no longer commercial. Since all of my work involves Color Separation, I must make Panchromatic emulsions. I am currently restoring two 1930-1940 tri-color 'one-shot' cameras.

I am a Native New Yorker, but have lived in California since 1974. I have always worked in some field of research, first in Cell Membrane function, then in industrial coatings."

To read Bill's first article, please go here.

Welcome to Kit Funderburk: Papermaker
April 3, 2008

We have a rare and valuable opportunity to expand our knowledge of the iconic Kodak papers. Kit Funderburk was a papermaker at Kodak and is an historian of photographic papers. He is our newest Contributing Editor. He isn’t an emulsion maker, per se, but he understands the substrates and the essential character they bring to b&w paper. It is his belief that we should be able to get very close to the original papers – closer even than I had dared hope. Welcome, Kit!

Here is Kit’s contribution to us:

“In 2006, I edited/authored a book (spiral bound booklet) titled History of the Paper Mills at Kodak Park which was intended as a memento for Kodak papermakers (the last papermachine was dismantled in 2005). I won't go into the details but that book led to lots of questions about the history of the fiber based B&W papers so I wrote a second book in 2007 titled A Guide to the Surface Characteristics, Kodak Fiber Based Black and White Papers. I'm strictly a papermaker (retired). The books are about manufacturing paper support and there is nothing about emulsions, emulsion coating, or photo products (subjects I don't know much about). Both books are available at no charge though I do ask that requesters cover the mailing costs. The mailing cost is $4.60 within most of the US but is as high as $14.00 for some international locations. If you would like a copy or want more info you can contact me at 'KitFunderburk at gmail dot com'. I'll also be happy to try to answer questions here.”

Home made coated paper drying box
February 17, 2008
Many thanks to Marco Boeringa for sharing his invention with us, here and on his website.

Dye Transfer Matrix Film
Thursday, February 7, 2008
My name is Jim Browning. Over the last 10 years or so, I've been involved with resurrecting the Dye Transfer process. This is an excellent process for making color prints. Eastman Kodak used to sell materials up until the mid 1990s, at which point they completely dumped the process (sound familiar?). Not to be denied, I went to the library, and found a book on emulsions by Duffin. Not intimidated due to my ignorance, I threw together a rudimentary emulsion and in one afternoon had made a crude matrix film which actually transferred an image. I probably wouldn't have pursued it further if my initial success hadn't happened.



The only material needed to make Dye Transfer prints that isn't readily available is Matrix Film. This is a film which is unhardened, and contains a yellow dye. The film is exposed either by enlarger, or by contact to form a matrix. This is developed in a pyro developer which hardens, or makes the gelatin insoluble in hot water wherever it has been exposed. Since the film is exposed emulsion down, and the yellow dye absorbs the light the to which the emulsion is sensitized, a relief image is formed. After washing off the unhardened gelatin in hot water, only the hardened areas remain. The matrix is then dyed in dye baths: 3 matrices are used and dyed as Cyan, Magenta, and Yellow. These are then rolled into contact with ordinary fiber photo paper (without the silver halides, just the gelatin, and a dye mordant). The result is a beautiful color print, with all the qualities of a B&W fiber print, but in color. Since the dyes mix at the surface of the gelatin layer, there are no complex layers which interfere with the quality of the print. The maximum density can be very high (> 2.70), and when viewed under bright light, the prints can resemble the look of a chrome on a light table. I'm regularly making dye prints for myself, and for others up to 30 x 40".

The first phase of the project was to build a sheet coater. Since I wanted to make sheets large enough to make 30x40" prints, I constructed a traveling slot coater (Extrusion coater) that coats onto a sheet of polyester film which is vacuumed down on a large platen. The coater was motorized, and the emulsion was supplied by 3 funnels on top. This system worked quite well, and I made quite a bit of film myself.

The second phase saw the results of the first phase (a small lab process) applied to factory production of the matrix film. Two colleagues from Germany and myself traveled to Samobor, Croatia. There, we worked with the great people at Fotokemika (Efke Brand) to produce some samples to the same formulation that I developed. Surprisingly, their techniques were very similar to mine, and it scaled very well. We spent a week there and had a great time both working, and being escorted around Zagreb by the director of the company. We took the samples home, and tested them, and they worked well. We had Fotokemika produce 3 miles x 45" of the film, all of which is now sitting in various people's freezers. I'm using the film on a regular basis. This is an example of how a modest project can expand into a factory run, and help to continue a discontinued process. I have found this work to be very satisfying.

If you are interested, there are full details of the project at www.dyetransfer.org . I have listed the formulation of the matrix film, and other information on mixing dyes, and the chemistry needed. Finally, there are pictures and descriptions of the equipment I constructed for the first phase of the project. Since then, I have sold the equipment. I also sold the 1 mile x 50" roll of Melenix 583 film to the Photographer's Formulary. This film is no longer stocked by Dupont, but you can order cut sheets of it from the Formulary - thanks Bud, I think that will prove valuable for people wanting to make their own film.

While you many not be interested in using or making Matrix film, the formulation may be of interest anyway. By hardening the emulsion, and by using a gold sensitizer, and possibly some sensitizing dye additions, I believe the emulsion would make a great taking film.

For more up-to-date information, you can go to www.dyetransfer.org and follow the link to sign up at the Yahoo Dye Transfer forum. If there are any future announcement about film availability, you will see it there. Hopefully a new supply of matrix film will become available in the future.

Regards - Jim Browning

Digital Mask
187 Stevens Rd.
Lebanon, NH 03766

james.browning@valley.net
603.448.6241

www.dyetransfer.org
www.chromiraprints.com

Some Emulsion Literature from Google Books Online
February 3 2008

Kirk Keyes has done some research for us and found a number of books from our literature list available to read from Google Books Online. Look for the links on the Literature List page.

Thanks, Kirk!

ps, Kirk is well on his way to successfully coating glass plate negatives and he will be sharing that with us ASAP.


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