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Navigation guide to the floating menu on the left:
- Other stuff
- Miscellaneous
- Photography
- B&W photography... you are here
- Cameras
- Colour photography
- Photography links
- Pinhole photography
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I love looking at old B&W photographs. Don't you? If you explore this website
you will find that it contains lots of old B&W photos of Findon.
Naturally, most of the photographs that I took as a child, during the 1950s, were
B&W. However, my interest in photography really took off during the the early
1960s, when I was allowed to borrow my father's old 120 film Agfa Isolette and I began to do my own B&W processing at home.
I used to convert the family bathroom into a darkroom. The dishes
containing the chemicals were placed in the bottom of the bath and I used the hand basin to wash my prints. I used to plug the baisin and leave the tap running so a trickle of water flowed continuously out through the overflow. My
home-made enlarger rested on my mother's pasty board laid across the sides of
the bath. I clearly remember the excitement of producing my first B&W print.
There's nothing quite like the magic of working in a darkroom! Later, when I
started taking colour slides using a 35mm camera, my interest in B&W was
temporarily forgotten.
I rediscovered B&W during the late 1990s and once again started taking medium
format B&W photos, which I developed and printed
in an improvised darkroom. Actually, my wife insisted that it was her utility room,
but from time to time she allowed me to transform it into a darkroom!
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Camera: Yashica Mat 124G (TLR)
Film: Kodak T-Max Pro 400 (120 B&W print).
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Groynes on the beach at Ferring, West Sussex, UK.
I used an orange filter to emphasize
the clouds, when I took this photograph. Effects like this can be further enhanced in the darkroom. Time
spent in a darkroom can be very rewarding.
Nowadays I use a 'digital darkroom' in the form of applications such as
Paint Shop Pro.
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Camera: Yashica Mat 124G (TLR)
Film: Kodak T-Max Pro 400 (120 B&W print).
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Worthing seafront, West Sussex, UK.
This photograph shows part of Worthing Pier and
the Dome Cinema, following a storm.
When I started working with medium format B&W again in the 1990s, I bought a secondhand
Yashica Mat 124G (TLR), but later 'upgraded' to a secondhand
Bronica ETRS (SLR). I have two lenses, the
standard 75mm and a 50mm. However, it's a long time since I last used a film camera.
B&W film is especially useful for experimenting with pinhole photography,
as it is still comparatively inexpensive.
Pinhole photography
is probably the best-kept secret in photography. You don't need a fancy camera, nor
even a lens. All you need is a light tight container of some sort, some film and of course a
pinhole. Lensless, or pinhole photography, is incredibly satisfying. You should
try it ... it really is terrific fun! Some people now use digital cameras to produce pinhole photographs.
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Camera: Contax G2
Lens: 35mm f/2
Film: Agfa Scala 200x (35mm B&W slide)
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Bodiam Castle, Bodiam, East Sussex, UK during 2000.
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Camera: Contax G2
Lens: 35mm f/2
Film: Agfa Scala 200x (35mm B&W slide)
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Trees in Wiston Park, Steyning, West Sussex, UK during 2000.
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Camera: Contax G2
Lens: 35mm f/2
Film: Agfa Scala 200x (35mm B&W slide)
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Cloister at Laycock Abbey, Laycock, near Chippenham, Wiltshire, UK during 2000.
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Camera: Contax G2
Lens: 35mm f/2
Film: Agfa Scala 200x (35mm B&W slide)
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Old door at Laycock Abbey, Laycock, near Chippenham, Wiltshire, UK during 2000.
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Camera: Contax G2
Lens: 35mm f/2
Film: Agfa Scala 200x (35mm B&W slide)
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An office where I worked in Brighton, East Sussex, UK during 2000.
| Book | Comments |
Larry Bartlett's Black and White Photographic Printing Workshop
Text by Jon Tarrant Published by Fontain Press ISBN 0-86343-366-9 |
This book covers: equipment, papers and processing, darkroom layout and design,
basic printing techniques, advanced printing techniques and chemical solutions.
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Exploring Black and White Photography (Second Edition) Text by Arnold
Gassan and A J Meek Published by WBC Brown & Benchmark Publishers
ISBN 0-697-12523-8 |
This book contains chapters on: looking at and talking about photos, camera
controls, darkrooms workrooms and equipment, negative exposure, negative
development, making contact prints and enlargements, finishing protecting and
storing, lighting basics, filters and films, photo chemistry and advanced
printing. |
The Black and White Handbook - The Ultimate Guide to Monchrome
Techniques Text by Roger Hicks and Frances Schultz Published by David
& Charles ISBN 0-7153-0572-7 |
This book contains chapters on: theory and practice, film structure, speed
lattitude and sensitisation, film choice and format, exposure and metering,
filters and filtration, film development, from short stop to negative file,
silver printing papers, enlargers and enlarging lenses, the darkroom, print
processing, the art of printing, alternative processes, the colours of black
and white. |
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