I processed the three 5×8″ film slides today in a darkroom session. I also learnt how to load a medium format roll, which I actually found more straightforward than the large format clip frame. Although this developing session was mainly a refresher for myself, I had never previously worked with large format negatives. They proved to be very difficult to load in the dark, causing all sorts of problems like the frames falling out of the cage, or not going into the clips. However, it all pretty much worked out, and although we lost a few frames in the developer solution, (which we fished out) the overall outcome of all our negatives was generally successful.
I have at least one negative that I am fairly certain will provide a decent print. Although this first shoot was a test, I am adamant to achieve good results from the start. Therefore, I treated the whole process with a degree of lightheartedness, but also with a large dose of perfectionism.
Tomorrow, we are making prints from the negatives. I am looking forward to really pushing the capabilities of large format.
J.
