MEGASTUDIO 21-10-22

Red light printing - Workshop

Participants: Pongie, Paula, Benni, Angelina and Andrea.

Starting from 18:00, we started printing materials on the plastic sheets to be enlarged and printed in the darkroom.

(A4) The design I prepared for the Printing session. I collected mostly drawings from the Habitat Archive. Please note that you should print in Black and White to get better results. The ink won't probably get dry, so you should handle with care the sheet. Illustrations inside are from Pongie, Ilo, Linus and an unknown author.

Ways to work with the enlarger

1. drawing with markers, pen or other drawing tools on the acetate sheet.
2. printing designs with laser printer, usually A4 (don't forget to print the negative version, in case of a picture) on the negative sheet. The designs can fit the enlarger frame (5x5cm) to be enlarged or fit into the preferred size for a contact print (printing ratio 1:1)
3. working with objects, liquids, shapes, and other materials to make contact print – silhouette drawing
4. using a developed black and white film

Chemicals

1. 1l of Developing solution: 1/10 Bellini BX100 + 9/10 water.
2. 1l of Fixing solution: 1/10 Bellini FB100 + 9/10 water.

The temperature of the water was around 15 degrees. We used water from the sink.

Tools

1. A completely dark space, preferably with a sink.
2. A red light
3. An Enlarger. In Cà de Monti we use a Durst M601.
4. n.2 trays (one for the developer, one for the fixer)
5. Measuring vessels for making the solutions.
6. n.2 clamps
7. paper

Papers

We tried two different expired papers:

• ILFORD
• Bellini

Since they expired; we experienced a white, blurry vignette in all the prints. Bellini's paper needed more time than expected. We had to increase the light up to the maximum and tried with different time settings. The best results with the Bellini (Pau, Angelina) came up with exposure between 20 and 25 seconds.