Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with blackandwhite

Stupid Darkroom Tricks?

JoanArkham — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 07:37:20 -0800

I'm looking for simple techniques, tricks, or experiments to get interesting results from a home B&W darkroom. So after a really, really long time I finally have a darkroom set up and working at my house. I think I've re-learned most of the basics...printing, burning, and dodging. Now I want to try some special effects and experiments.

I bought a really interesting book on alternative printing that was WAY too technical. I'm not a gearhead, and I'm not crazy about the idea of buying and mixing my own chemicals.

What I'm looking for are more like "stupid darkroom tricks." The one I do know about is the Sabattier effect, which is easy to do but unpredictable and fun.

Help me get my GIMP on

dchrssyr — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 14:02:17 -0800

Teach me how to download plugins for GIMP as if I were a person with no computer experience at all. I'm actually not a complete idiot but for some reason, I can't figure out how to install plugins for GIMP. I'm a new GIMP user and I've figured out the basics of using curves and I'm slowly figuring out how to use layers, but I'd like to find some plugins for better black and white conversions, as well noise reduction and a lomo script. Could you walk me though it, step by step, as if you were teaching a child? I'm using GIMP 2.6 on a machine with windows 7. Or, alternatively, you could point me toward some websites and videos that do so. I have found some tutorials but they just seem like gibberish to me, so obviously, the simpler the better. Thanks!

Photograph of a girl dribbling milk... Where is this from and / or who is it of?

FuckingAwesome — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 08:39:13 -0800

Photograph of a girl dribbling milk... Where is this from and / or who is it of? Please help! Thanks...

How much more black could it get? None.

Gortuk — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 07:51:03 -0800

Tried developing my first bw film last night and it didn't turn out at all - what did I do wrong? I decided to take the plunge into home developing my own black & white film. Bought the chemicals, a tank, and a plastic graduated cylinder. After an hour of practice I managed to load some 35mm film onto the reel, and followed the instructions here as well as I could.

After the fixer step, I took the film out and didn't see anything at all. Hoping it was just the end of the roll, I finished the wash and wetting agent steps. Looking at the finished film, it was completely clear (with some light streaks coming from the sprocket holes). Nothing even approaching an actual image.

I did some film developing in university a long time ago, and the most common explanation would be that the film didn't actually get exposed - but I'm pretty sure that's not the case. I rewound the film myself and would have noticed if it had been suspiciously easy. I was using a SLR (Canon FTb) so it's not like the lens cap was on the whole time either.

In terms of development process, what might have caused this? A few factors:

1) My 'darkroom' is an interior closet at night, and to human eyes seemed completely dark. And even if there had been light to fog the film, it would have turned out overexposed not completely underexposed, no?

2) I realized afterwards that I got the fixer proportions wrong - I did 1+3 instead of 1+4. That wouldn't have 'stripped' the film would it?

3) After the post-fixer rinse, the water was noticibly blue/purple as it was coming out. Is that normal? I was also agitating during the rinse, but looking at other instructions it's not clear if you're supposed to or not.

Film was Kodak T-Max 100, developed in Ilfosol S for 8.5 minutes according to the chart here for 8.5 min at 20 C, agitated for 10 seconds every minute (agitated by turning the tank over slowly).

Any suggestions? I'm going to shoot another test roll and try again, but I'd like some idea of what I was doing wrong in the first place (other than the fixer proportions).

Also, if anyone can personally recommend a foolproof tutorial online (I know there are hundreds) that would be great.

Thanks!

Come into the light Carol Anne!!

pearlybob — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 06:44:11 -0800

Help me plan a "Black and White" Fortieth B-day Party.. We are throwing a fortieth birthday for a friend with a "Black and White" theme. Basically, if you are over 40, you have made it in to the club and should wear white. Everyone under 40 is still "in the dark" and should wear black. The birthday boy is wearing red.

Aside from the obvious ideas, B&W balloons, B&W photos, etc. what else could we do to decorate and play on our theme? Looking for music (Other than Michael Jackson's Black or White), decor, food ideas, favors, any idea and brain storming is appreciated.

Thanks all!!

How can I achieve high contrast B&W film photographs?

cranberrymonger — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 14:35:52 -0800

How can I achieve high contrast B&W film photographs? I am a beginner hobbyist photographer and take various indoor and outdoor pictures. I understand aperture and shutter speed well and know the basics of developing film and paper. I have a darkroom set up in my apartment and my paper and chemicals are in good shape.

I took a couple rolls of B&W film using a Canon 35mm camera and 400-speed film. I used a B&W enlarger to make prints but they turned out really muddy and low-contrast. I want them to contain proper whites and blacks.

I guess have two-point-five questions.

1. In the future, what are some tips for taking high-contrast pictures?

2a. Presently I have some medium contrast negatives so how can I make the best of them?

2b. How do colour filters work with the enlarger? Which one should I use? I have a set that are numbered 0.0, 0.5, 1.0... 5.0.

Thanks!

Where to find cheap photocopies in San Francisco?

roxie110 — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 14:53:54 -0800

Where can I get cheap photocopies in San Francisco? Is there anywhere in the city cheaper than Kinkos or OfficeMax? I need to make about 1,000 copies for a class I'm teaching--a 40-page workbook plus a bunch of handouts, black/white, single-sided.

In Berkeley there's a 3- or 4-cent copy place, but I haven't found any in San Francisco. Help! And thanks!

Help me find this photo!

Spyder's Game — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 10:58:14 -0800

Help me find a cool poster! A cool image that a (long ago) ex-girlfriend used to have on her wall... The image was a photograph of a man and a woman. You couldn't see the man's face, as he had medium length blond hair that hung over his face. They seemed to be in a train station or bus station. He was sitting on a suitcase and so was she (I think) and they were holding hands and looking down. It almost looked like they were praying. They also looked like they were saying goodbye. The whole photograph (B+W) seemed to have a period feel from the 40's or 50's, but not quite, as the man's hair would've been too contemporary for that time. But the suitcase he was sitting on was definitely vintage.

The photographer was Sheila Rock - a photographer who has now gone on to do much more spiritual and deeper work...which I'm not interested in! All of my googling comes up with her shots of monastery life or horses. I would love to get a print of this image, but I can't even find it anywhere. It was popular in the mid-late 80's or 90's. It had no "title" on it, just the name of the photographer. Halp!

ID this photo or the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man will be very, very angry

taz — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 02:47:23 -0800

Can you ID this wonderful vintage photo? Any info appreciated... Photographer, year, background story. I found it at a photodump site and there was no information attached. I would guess that it's the aftermath of a storm (or else the float is just grounded for normal reasons) during a Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade, but I have no idea. I'd love to see more photos from the photographer, though.

What do the numbers in this manga refer to?

mumblelard — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 03:55:56 -0800

In the manga Black & White (Tekkon Kinkreet) by Taiyo Matsumoto what is the significance of the "96" shirt worn by Black and the "46" shirt worn by White? Black's shirt says Love on the front and White's shirt says Peace on the front. The characters are frequently associated with these numbers in promotional materials and toys. The "96" on Black's shirt is even depicted in a highly stylized script that resembles some sort of calligraphic character. Are these numbers some weird pun visual or otherwise? Do these shirts exist in the real world or are they a recognizable reference to some Japanese shirts?

The Christmas special which might have been

wsp — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 00:27:14 -0800

NameThatMovieFilter: I need help remembering the name of an old black-and-white Christmas special from the BBC. Problem: it may not have been a Christmas special, or from the BBC! A few years back I watched what I remember to be an old black-and-white BBC Christmas special. It is somewhat famous, but I remember so little of it that my Googling has turned up nothing.

Here's what I remember:

-It was British, probably from the BBC, in black and white.
-There was a butler/butlers serving dinner to an elderly woman or women.
-Alcohol featured prominently - everyone ended up drunk.
-Relied heavily on slapstick comedy, but was funny nonetheless.
-It was Christmas.
-The entire movie was shot with one set, a dining room.
-There was a twist ending.
-It was short. (Half-hour maybe.)

The thing is that I have a really bad memory and thus any or all of the above could be wrong. In fact, the more I think about it, the more I'm convinced that the entire thing is just a figment of my imagination. I remember it being introduced to me as pretty famous and as one of the better-known Christmas specials, so - if it does exist - I'm hoping a fellow MeFite has heard of it. Any help would be greatly appreciated - this is driving me insane!

What to do about bad data appearing in scans of old photos?

Jupiter Jones — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 16:21:24 -0800

I'm scanning old family photos and the scanner appears to be adding colored pixels to black and white photos. What do I do now? I'm trying to archive old photos dating back as far as 1912. Most of the ones I'm scanning are 30s and 40s right now. I'm trying for archival quality so that we can keep these photos at this quality level forever. After all, the photos aren't going to get any better with time, right?

I'm scanning at 600 dpi into uncompressed tiff files. Looking at these files closely I'm noticing that the somewhat older scanner I'm using is inserting colored pixels here and there, and sometimes in horizontal lines. I suspect the thing is just old and dying, but I was almost done when I discovered this and I dread going back and doing this all again.

I was also trying to scan the images without taking them out of their mounts - the less handling with old photos the better, right? I figure that there may have been some stray light getting into the sensors, but that wouldn't explain whole lines of color would it? I figure that this points towards the scanner head messing up.

I've put up an example on Flickr here. Take a look at the foliage to the left of the knee of the girl holding the dog.

Do I need to rescan all of these images? I figure that maybe some of them are ok - how can I pull up a color palette in Photoshop so that I can see what colors exist in a picture? I've got Photoshop CS3, not that I know how to use it very well. Any advice on how to proceed?

I realize that this is a lot of questions. I feel overwhealmed with the idea of re-doing all of this scanning, particularly now at Christmas. I was supposed to have all of this done for my Aunt by now, and I feel like I'm letting my family down.

4-Strip Black and White, please.

god hates math — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 07:35:22 -0800

I'm looking for a photobooth in the Philadelphia area. I'm going to be up in the Philly suburbs this weekend, specifically in the Montgomery County area. As part of celebrating 1 year of wedded bliss with Mrs. GHM, we'd like to do some photobooth pictures (we had a photobooth at our wedding reception).

I know of a few in the city (found through Photobooth.net and google), but I'm not dying to go into the city, as we have better things to do. So does anyone know of one in the Lansdale/Harleysville/Quakertown area? I'm thinking maybe Plymouth Meeting Mall, Montgomery Mall, or King of Prussia Mall? Some out of the way restaurant that has one in the corner? We'll also be spending some time in Media, PA, if anyone happens to know of one around there. Driving a little bit isn't that big a deal, so it can be within half an hour of any of the above locales.

Film in the refrigerator, I know, I know it's serious

matildaben — Thu, 14 Sep 2006 15:19:21 -0800

Would black-and-white negative film still be good if it were stored in a refrigerator for over 3 years? What about printing paper? I've had some B&W film (mostly Ilford 100 and 400) in the fridge for about 3 and a half years. Could I still use it? Would I need to alter the development time or temperature? (I will be developing it myself.) I also have the same questions regarding 3/4 of a 100-sheet box of resin-coated Ilford paper that has been stored in the same place for a similar amount of time.

Online photo printing with archival borders?

aladfar — Sat, 20 May 2006 14:36:19 -0800

A number of online photo printing services have been mentioned here on AskMeFi, but a search hasn't revealed one that will print to my liking. I'm looking for a top notch black and white print with archival borders - 8x10 image on 11x14 paper. I'm working with high quality scans of black and white negatives. Suggestions?

Photographic effect

devilsbrigade — Sat, 29 Apr 2006 12:48:01 -0800

I love this photograph (I don't remember where I found it, unfortunately). How would I go about taking similar photos with a 35mm and/or digital camera? What kind of lense/lighting/setup would have been used for something like this? Is there a name for this kind of effect? Is there a good way to duplicate this effect in digital post-processing?

Costco Film Developing?

Tacodog — Wed, 10 Nov 2004 10:48:26 -0800

Has anyone used Costco's film lab to print black and white? I develop my own b&w film but don't have a darkroom. Was thinking of getting a scanner and, after scanning and editing the negs, having the prints done at Costco. I drive 20 minutes once a week and rent a darkroom at an art studio but that's getting old fast.

Also, was considering getting a medium format and 35mm film scanner but the good ones start at around $2k so I'll probably go with a higher end flatbed, like an epson 4870 or canon 9950F. The biggest print I see myself making is 8x11 so I don't think a $2k scanner justifies such humble requirements.

Where can I find public-domain images of hot air balloons?

Tlogmer — Thu, 23 Sep 2004 15:36:02 -0800

Where can I find public-domain images of hot air balloons? (Preferably black-and-white line-drawings, like the ones in The 21 Balloons.)