Koraks tinkers

Whither hybridia – The challenge of digital output for alternative printing

I’ve never made a secret of my frustration with digital negatives. Yet, they also appeal to me, for the obvious reasons of consistency and as a crucial means to marry digital imagery with analog/alternative printmaking. For something like color carbon, I consider digital negatives the only feasible way to go – but man, are they fickle. In this blog, I’m going to try and list the options, although frankly, I have no solution yet that I feel comfortable with. Maybe getting it off my chest and structuring the whole thing will help some.

Unpaper – Rutty photos will not be printed

I haven’t photographed much lately. Occupied with other things (electronics, software, housekeeping, private stuff) too much. The only thing that helps is some subtle force. Walk around with a camera, snap the mundane stuff I come across. It’s unlikely I’ll print any of these images; quick & dirty scans are probably as far as they’ll ever get. That’s OK – there’s always more rocks than nuggets!

All over the place – The problem with color negative film scans

Scanning color negative film is something that often throws people for a loop when it comes to getting “good” colors. I can relate – I still find it a frustrating endeavor sometimes. And it isn’t helped by the algorithms in scanners and scanning software that are intended to make this process easier. The actual result is that these automatic color adjustments make life pretty frustratingly difficult if you’re after consistency! Here’s an illustration (and a solution, but I already discussed that earlier).

Ghosted – When and how to clean an Epson 4990 transparency unit

I’ve had my Epson 4990 since the model was new, so the best part of two decades. It has always served me surprisingly well, although it’s now old enough (by far!) to occasionally require a little TLC. In particular, it can do with a little dusting once in a while.

Fade to black – Why ‘modern’ Gossen light meters might drain their batteries

This came up the other day on Photrio where @RalphLambrecht wondered about why his Gossen light meters drain their batteries while they’re supposed to power down automatically. Now, I happen to have one of those Gossen meters powered by a 9V battery, so I figured I could have a peek inside to see what might be wrong with his.

Cheap chips from China – A brief look at the CH32V003 microcontroller

I admit I love AliExpress specifically for low-end electronics components. I often shop around for stuff like IC’s and microcontrollers. And while you can get certain Microchip (Atmel), Texas Instruments and STM devices attractively from China, this has been starting to feel a bit odd to me. After all – a nation that retrieves rocks from the dark side of the moon is surely capable of making a decent microcontroller by itself. So why purchase Western parts from China, and not dip into the actual Chinese-made (and, in particular, engineered) stuff? So that’s what I did!

Full bloom – DAS carbon starting to come together

I’ll probably jinx it by saying this, but…I have a feeling my DAS carbon printing workflow is really starting to get somewhere. Maybe I should take a moment to reflect on some of the key lessons learned. Perhaps even muse a little on what’s next, too…

Extend your d… – Chromium intensifier for silver gelatin negatives

Despite the relative silence on my blog, I have been printing regularly lately, with carbon transfer absorbing most of my lab hours. My printing currently revolves entirely around silver gelatin negatives. Given the relatively inflexible contrast that carbon transfer allows, this means I’ve had to be a little creative sometimes in making my negatives work for the printing process. One of the tricks I use a lot is chromium intensifier. Slightly nasty – but very, very effective.

Brilliant ID – In praise of ID62 all-purpose developer

I stopped buying B&W developers years ago. It’s not that I didn’t like what I could buy. It’s just that I liked to experiment – and still do. And the flexibility of mixing your own ‘soups’ comes in handy in that case. One of the formulas I’ve come to rely on is this general-purpose developer of Ilford pedigree, ID-62. I think it’s just great.