Re: 5x7 Camera Project

["Paul A. Lehman" <palehman@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Brian Reynolds wrote:

> I had thought about taking the pictures during the day, developing
> them at night in the hotel bathroom, and making contact prints the
> next day.  I didn't think I'd have time to do proper mounting with all
> that going on (and going to the dance).  If I do this I want to avoid
> having to mail the final results.

A recent discussion on the Alt-Photo group relates to this
approach. The suggestion was to use RC paper in the camera.
Develop for 30sec, fix for 30 secs, rinse for 30 secs. Squeege
off the water (does not need to be dry), tack the print onto a
board and make a 1:1 copy onto a second sheet of RC paper in the
camera for the positive. Develop and fix the same way (or longer
if desired). Rinse, squeege and dry.

This has three draw-backs 1) in-camera paper has an ASA of about
5 so you need a lot of light and/or a long exposure, 2) the paper
is not processed to archival standards (but still good for 5-10
yrs), 3) the final positive is not quite as sharp as the original
(depending on the lens used of course).

However, its quick and relatively cheap, a long exposure makes it
more like an "old-time" photo, and if warm-tone paper used (or
toned) it would have a classic look. You only need two trays for
dev and fix, then wash in the bathtub.

A bit harder would be to use the RC paper in-camera then reverse
process it into a positive. But, more chemicals to carry around.
This is getting closer to the "tin-type" approach. Speaking of
which, there is a company that sells a tin-type kit (Rockland?).
It comes with plates, emulsion and developer. Your apply the
emulsion at an earlier time. It is not the actual original
ferrotype process (which used potasium cyanide as a developer)
but close enough.

I've done the reverse process on in-camera paper before with
pretty good results, but they were all full sun outdoor scenes.
 
> Oops.  Make that:
>         <URL:http://www.panix.com/~reynolds/5x7.html>

Looks like its in really good shape! Good find.

Paul A. Lehman