Photographic Paper as a cheap "Film"

When I was younger, every bus or railway station, airport, Woolworths, Boots, shopping centers and department stores all had a Photo booth.  These booths allowed the sitter to have 4 pictures taken, in return for a suitable deposit of coins, followed by the actual silver gelatin black and white photographs in a strip about 1.5 inches wide and 5 inches long.  The pictures were accepted by the passport office and were of great quality.

I used these machines to have my photo taken and the little strips of photos were prized treasures.

How did the booth work though? Well they used photographic paper and reversal processed it to produce the positive image. This process lends itself to automation and is consistent in finished photographs,

1. Expose photographic paper in camera,
2. Develop paper as a normal negative in B&W chems
3. Rinse paper
4. Bleach paper to remove negative
5. Rinse paper
6. Fog paper with light
7. Develop paper in B&W chems
8. Rinse paper
9. Fix paper
10. Final Rinse

I still have many of the photos that I had taken in a Photo booth and they are as fresh today as they always were.

So roll on 40 years or so and I now have a 4x5 camera.

Film for any camera is great when you have the time to give to it's shooting, development, scanning and loading film holders.  Large format is even better, beautiful negatives at 4x5 are a wonder to behold.

But what if you want to do a quick shoot to try something or you just don't have time to do the faffing about with film.  Well paper negatives are a cheaper method of shooting 4x5.  The Photographic Enlarging paper is sensitized like film, just with a much, much slower emulsion. The emulsion is also Orthochromatic rather than Panchromatic, which means that you can develop under safe light and see what goes on.

Paper negatives are cheaper but you are still left with a problem in that you still have to scan the neg or contact print to make a positive.

Hence the recollection about Photo Booths.  How did they work?  They were fast, great quality and produced a positive image all automatically.

A bit of googling produced some information and so I set to producing an old style positive photograph by hand.

Stuff you need

• Black and White Photo Paper (Ilford Multigrade Resin Coated)
• Black and white paper developer (Ilford PQ Universal)
• Potassium Permanganate
• Sodium Bisulphate
• Sodium Metabisulphite
• Rapid Fixer

Bleach

• 4g of Potassium Permanganate in 1 liter of water (part A), bottle for use
• 34.5g of Sodium Bisulphate in 1 liter of water (Part B), bottle for use

The bleach has a really short working life, so mix 500ml of bleach using 250ml of Part A and 250 ml of Part B just prior to starting the development work

Clearing Solution

The clearing solution removes the yellow and red tint added by the bleach.

• 30g of sodium Metabisulphite in 1 liter of water, bottle for use.

Use 500 ml per developing session.

Method

1. Expose photographic paper in camera, using ISO 1 as a base line for exposure
2. Develop paper as a normal negative in B&W chems. 2 minutes in Ilford PQ Universal 1+9
3. Rinse paper, 2 Minutes
4. Bleach paper to remove negative, 1 minute always use fresh bleach never reuse.
5. Rinse paper, 2 Minutes
6. Immerse paper into clearing solution, 30 seconds.
7. Fog paper with light, 1 minute
8. Develop paper in B&W chems, 2 minutes
9. Rinse paper, 2 Minutes
10. Fix paper, 2 Minutes
11. Final Rinse

I manage to do several exposures in series, so that when the first one is being rinsed the second one is in the developer.

The quality of photograph that is produced is as good as film and the speed with which a positive image can be produced is pretty fast.  You end up with a one of a kind, hand processed photo for which no negative exists.  A unique physical item.

Roll film

If I am to be brutally honest I think out of all the formats that are available for film photography, the one that I am drawn to is the roll film, known as 120 film due to a quirk in Kodak numbering schemes in the past.

When I was about 11 I went to camp on the Isle Of Wight with a boys organization. My Dad gave me his old Kodak Duaflex 620 TLR camera. I loaded a roll of 620 Kodak film and was astounded at the resulting pictures.

This might be where my love of medium format film started.  I kept that camera and used it regularly until 620 became unavailable. My next medium format camera was a Holga 120 S. The Holga came with a 6x4.5 mask and the selector on the back was glued to 16 pictures (newer ones come with both 6x6 and 6x4.5 masks with the selector unglued).

The best bit about roll film is that it supports a number of frame formats

• 6x4.5 centimeter, 16 pictures per roll, numbered on backing paper
• 6x6 centimeter, 12 pictures per roll, numbered on backing paper
• 6x7 centimeter, 10 pictures per roll
• 6x8 centimeter, 9 pictures per roll
• 6x9 centimeter, 8 pictures per roll, numbered on backing paper
• 6x12 centimeter, 6 pictures per roll
• 6x17 centimeter, 4 pictures per roll

I myself have a Chroma Camera Snapshot 4x5 camera that I couple with a 6x9 rollfilm back.  The larger frame size is wonderful. 

I find 4x5 sheet film a bit of a pain to process, if I'm honest. I use a mod54 sheet holder for a Paterson Tank. It needs a full litre of chemicals to process even one sheet of film. And while sheet film is capable of capturing great detail I'm not convinced that I'm able to make best use of it.

Whereas roll film, being more economic to use and a single roll has enough exposures to keep photography part of a walk without constantly snapping away. It's great I can talk to my girlfriend and take a few photos with her feeling left out. I can also nip out for an hour and shoot a quick roll of film while the weather holds.

Another advantage of roll film that shouldn't be overlooked is the fact that you can load more film while out if you need to. Sheet film is limited to the number of holders you can carry, whereas roll film is easier to carry.

I also have a Holga 120 GN (Glass Lens) in which I prefer to use the 6x4.5 mask. The 16 pictures per roll is great for walking around and the negative size is large enough for cute contact prints.

I have a Zero 2000 pinhole camera that shoots 6x6 format images.

I also have a Chroma Camera 679 with a Mamiya Pro S 6x7 back. so I'm covered with roll film. 

I can process them all in the same chemicals, even in the same tank. At the moment I'm using D76H, which is a simplification of the Kodak D76 formula.

I have hankered after a 6x12 roll film back for my snapshot, however they are ridiculously expensive and the 6x17 backs are extortionate. So they will have to wait for another day when my boat comes in.