Lesson video

Hello, my name is Mrs. Tipping, and I'm really looking forward to learning with you today about darkroom processes, using an enlarger and developing a print.

We're going to do lots of thinking, talking, and exploring together in today's lesson.

So shall we get started? Let's go.

By the end of today's lesson, you'll be able to understand how to develop a contact sheet and a print in a darkroom using an enlarger.

Before we start, I would like to introduce you to some keywords we'll be using in the lesson.

Darkroom is a room for developing photographs in which normal light is excluded.

An enlarger is a device used to project an image from a negative onto light-sensitive paper.

Exposure is the act of allowing light to reach photographic paper during printing.

And develop refers to the process of combining exposed prints with chemicals to produce an image.

Pause the video here to make a note of these keywords, and when you're ready to continue, press play.

These are the learning cycles we'll be working through together in today's lesson: setting up your equipment, creating a contact sheet, and developing a print.

In this first learning cycle, we're going to take a look at setting up your equipment.

What sort of room is this? Pause the video here and have a quick discussion with your partner, and press play when you're ready to continue.

What did you think? That's right, it's a darkroom.

Now creating a photograph uses materials such as photographic film, paper, or sensors that react to light.

When developing pictures taken on photographic film, much of the work is done in a darkroom.

A darkroom is a room with no natural light, and this gives us a controlled environment in which to work.

When working in a darkroom, it's important to be considerate of others and keep to the rules of the space as even a small amount of light can ruin someone else's work.

You will be sharing a space, as well as equipment, with others, so it is important that you can help everyone to be successful.

You'll need to work well as a team with those around you and be able to communicate clearly and help each other keep to the rules.

Let's take a moment to pause and check our understanding.

What must you do to make sure everyone's work is a success? Communicate clearly with others.

Communicate clearly with others.

Keep doors open at all times.

Make sure you have all the shared equipment at your workspace.

Pause the video here and give yourself a moment to think about the answer to this question, and press play when you're ready to continue.

If you said we need to communicate clearly with others, you're absolutely right.

Well done.

Some key equipment in the darkroom.

An enlarger uses light to print onto photographic paper.

There's an enlarger here.

Negatives are taken from your film camera and processed, ready to use with your enlarger.

You can see some film here.

And photographic paper is light-sensitive paper used to print.

Black card is used when creating test strips.

The safelight is a red light that allows you to see in the darkroom without ruining your prints.

Developer, stop, and fix are the chemicals used to develop prints after it has been exposed on the enlarger.

And trays are used to hold the chemicals.

To avoid touching the chemicals, your prints can be moved between them using tongs.

Let's take a moment to pause and check our understanding.

The chemicals used in the darkroom are called developer, stock, and stick, processor, stop, and fast, processor, stock, and mix, developer, stop, and fix.

Pause the video here and give yourself a moment to think about the answer to this question, and press play when you're ready to continue.

If you said the chemicals used in the darkroom are called developer, stop, and fix, you're right.

Well done.

This now brings us to our first learning task, where I'd like you to prepare the darkroom.

So do the following.

Make sure your enlarger is plugged in and working.

Have your paper next to your enlarger, but do not remove it from its light-proof packaging.

Mix your chemicals.

Turn on your safelight.

Close all doors and make sure anyone outside the darkroom is aware that you are about to print.

Then turn the main lights off, leaving just the safelight on.

So pause the video here and have a go at preparing the darkroom, and press play when you're ready to continue.

How did you get on? Were you able to follow each step? Well, Sofia says, "Lucas and I are sharing our equipment.

Once the lights are off, we'll take out our paper one sheet at a time." And Lucas says, "I also put a sign on the door to warn people outside not to come in.

The checklist really helped." So well done for having a go at preparing the darkroom.

This brings us to the second part of our lesson, where we're going to be creating a test strip and contact sheets.

Contact sheets are a great way of seeing all your photos from a single roll of film.

Contact sheets are a great way of seeing all your photos from a single roll of film together.

They are called contact sheets as film is laid directly on top of the paper.

This creates a series of small photographs that can help you decide which photographs you want to print at full size.

Let's take a moment to pause and check our understanding.

By making a contact sheet, you can easily see all of your pictures on one sheet, you can browse digital copies of your photos, you can see how your pictures will look at different sizes.

So pause the video here and give yourself a moment to think about how you would finish this sentence, and press play when you're ready to continue.

If you said by making a contact sheet, you can easily see all of your pictures on one sheet, you're right.

Well done.

Test strips are used to determine how long you should expose your photographic paper when printing your photographs.

Longer exposures will create darker prints.

Shorter exposures will create lighter prints.

And test strips are created by exposing different parts of your photos for different amounts of time.

You can then look at the results and decide which amount of exposure is best.

Let's take a moment to pause and check our understanding.

What are test strips used for? To decide which photograph you want to print.

To decide how large you want to print.

To decide how long to expose your print.

Pause the video here and give yourself a moment to think, and press play when you're ready to continue.

If you said that test strips are used to decide how long to expose your print, you're right.

Well done.

This brings us to our second learning task.

I'd like you to create a contact sheet and discuss the results.

Do the following.

Cut your film into strips, and these should be no longer than the width of an A4 sheet of paper.

So that's around six photos per strip.

And be careful not to cut through any of your photographs.

Adjust the height of your enlarger so that it will expose an entire sheet of your photographic paper.

And within your enlarger exposure area, lay your strips onto a sheet of paper.

And you are now ready to make a contact sheet.

So pause the video here and go through each of these steps, and press play when you're ready to continue.

How did you find that? Well, we're now going to have a look at the next part of this learning task.

To create a test strip of your contact sheet, you need to do the following.

Hold your black card over most of your contact sheet, leaving around 1/8 to 1/6 of the paper and film exposed to the light of the enlarger.

Turn on your enlarger for four seconds.

And repeat your four-second exposure six to eight times, moving your black card each time to expose more of the contact sheet.

So pause the video here and have a go at creating a test strip, and press play when you're ready to continue.

Okay, so let's take a look at the next step.

Next, you'll need to use the chemicals to develop your contact sheet.

Now, next, you'll need to use the chemicals to develop your contact sheet.

Using your tongs, place your images into the chemicals with the following timings.

Developer: 90 seconds.

You should see your image appearing as it develops.

Stop: 30 seconds.

This halts the development process.

Fix: two minutes.

This removes unwanted chemicals and makes the image permanent.

Now once printing is complete, leave under running water for five minutes, then hang up to dry.

So pause the video here and give yourself enough time to have a go at using the chemicals to develop your contact sheet, and press play when you're ready to continue.

How did you find that? Well, once you've created your test contact sheet, I'd like you to choose the best timings from your four second intervals and repeat the process, exposing your whole contact sheet for the required amount of time.

So pause the video here to go through this final step of the learning task, and press play when you're ready to continue.

How did that go? Well, hopefully you were able to create a contact sheet.

Andeep says, "My sheet looks like my digital prints when I chose the contact sheet option.

Is this where the name comes from?" Izzy says, "It's great to see all my photos together.

Some of them look really different on paper." So well done for creating your contact sheet and for discussing the results with your peers.

This now brings us to the final part of our lesson, where we're going to take a look at developing a print.

Now that you have your contact sheet, you need to decide which photograph from your roll of film you want to pick to print.

How long do you need to expose it on the enlarger? Look at your contact sheet and decide based on your experiments in Task B.

Next, you'll be mounting your chosen negative into the head of your enlarger.

This is made up of the light source at the top, the carrier that holds the negative, the lens that can be adjusted for focus, and the head can be raised or lowered to make the print larger or smaller.

Let's take a moment to pause and check our understanding.

Which part of the enlarger can be used to adjust the focus of an image? The light source, the negative carrier, the lens, or the height adjuster? Pause the video here and give yourself a moment to think about the answer to this question, and press play when you're ready to continue.

If you said that the lens can be used to adjust the focus of an image, you're absolutely right.

Now you may have discovered that the chemicals cause your image to appear on light-sensitive paper after it has been exposed to light.

Let's learn more about what these chemicals do.

So the first chemical you use is developer.

You'll need to leave your print in the developer for between one and two minutes, depending on the paper you are using and the dilution of your chemicals.

Lucas says, "The developer reacts with the light-sensitive photographic paper to create the image you have exposed." The next chemical is the stop bath.

You only need to leave your photo in this tray for around 30 seconds.

The stop halts the development process, stopping the chemical reaction of the developer.

Finally, you place your photo in the fix for around two minutes.

The fix removes silver halide from the paper, completing the process of making them light resistant.

Let's take a moment to pause and check our understanding.

How long should you leave your photograph in the stop bath? Between one and two minutes, 90 seconds, three minutes, or 30 seconds.

Pause the video here and give yourself a moment to think about the answer to this question, and press play when you're ready to continue.

If you said you should leave your photograph in the stop bath for 30 seconds, you're absolutely right.

Well done.

So this brings us to our final learning task.

I'd like you to print your first photograph and discuss the results.

Load your chosen negative into the head of your enlarger and turn it on.

Adjust the head height so that the image is the size you want.

And adjust the lens to ensure the image is in focus.

Start by creating a test strip, like you did in the last task.

Lay a piece of paper, a strip of photographic paper, on your enlarger.

And this can be an offcut and doesn't need to cover the whole print area.

Lay your black card over most of your paper, leaving around 1/8 to 1/6 to be exposed.

Turn on your enlarger for four seconds.

And repeat your exposure as you did in the last task.

And then develop your test strip in the chemical trays.

Then once you've worked out how long you need to expose your paper for, expose the full image under the enlarger for the required time and develop using the chemicals as before.

As long as you have the paper, you can repeat this as many times as you'd like, trying out different photographs from your roll of film.

So pause the video here and work through those steps to develop your print, and press play when you're ready to continue.

How did you find that? Well, Lucas says, "I really enjoyed seeing my pictures appear on the paper like magic." And Andeep says, "It took ages just to print two photos, but it was satisfying to work through the processes to get the perfect result." So well done for developing your first print and discussing the results with your peers.

Before we finish this lesson, let's summarise what you've learned about darkroom processes, using an enlarger and developing a print.

In film photography, darkrooms are used to develop pictures that are taken on a physical roll of film.

Photographs are produced using light-sensitive paper that is exposed to light that passes through the negative.

Chemicals are then used to develop the image.

And contact sheets can be used to easily see all of the pictures on a roll of film, while test strips are used to measure how much exposure each picture should have.

Thank you for joining me in this lesson today.

I hope to see you in the next.

See you next time.