1. Wire or plastic reels
2. steel or plastic canisters and tops (if using plastic remember to insert center column)
3. scissors
4. can opener
5. Changing bag (if dark room is unavailable)
6. Ilford Ilfosol 3 film developer (1+9 chemistry to water)  Ilfosol3 factsheet
7. Ilford Ilfostop (1+19 chemistry to water) ilfostop factsheet
8. Ilford Rapid Fixer (1+4 chemistry to water) Ilford Rapid fixer factsheet
9. LFN Wetting Agent
10. thermometer
11. graduated beakers
12. rubber gloves
13. goggles
14. film squeegee
15. film clips or clothes pins

Developer mix ratio
Mixture should be 9 parts water and one part chemistry which is 10 total parts. If I want my total mixture to equal 500ml, I divide the 500ml by 10 and find that 50ml is equal to one part and that is the amount of developer I need. One part is 50 and the other 9 parts are 9 x 50 =450ml. If I want 1000ml total, I need to divide by 10. One part is 100 and the other 9 parts are 9 x 100 or 900 ml.

Developer Summary:
total | water | chemistry
500ml=450ml+50ml
1000ml=900ml+100ml

Stop mix ratio
Mixture should be 19 parts water and one part chemistry. So I have 20 total parts. So if I want my total mixture to equal 500ml, I need to divide 500 by 2o which gets me 25ml. I can multiply the other 19 parts by 25ml or subtract the 25ml from the 500ml which gives me 475ml. For 1000ml, I divide by 20 to get 50ml of chemistry and subtract from 1000ml to get 950.

Stop Summary
total | water | chemistry
500ml=475ml + 25ml
1000ml=950ml + 50ml

Fixer mix ratio
Mixture should be 4 parts water and 1 part chemistry. So I have 5 total parts. So if I want my total mixture to equal 500ml, I need to divide 500 by 5 which gets me 100ml. I can multiply the other 4 parts by 100ml or subtract the 100ml from the 500ml which gives me 400ml. For 1000ml, I divide by 5 to get 200ml of chemistry and subtract from 1000ml to get 800.

Fixer Summary
total | water | chemistry
500ml=400ml + 100ml
1000ml=800ml + 200ml

Wet part steps:

1. Three minute warm water soak.
2. Recommended Development times for film
   400TX at 68°F = Seven and a half minutes, (8-9 for higher contrast negatives)
   HP5 Plus 400 at 68°F = six and a half minutes ( I go at least 7.5 minutes)
3. Recommended  Stop Bath times for film
   10 to 30 seconds (fill the canister, gently agitate and pour out)
4. Recommended Fixer times for film
   2-5 minutes depending on film
5. Recommending Washing times for film
6. 5-10 minutes running water ( 7 1/2 is good for student work)When ILFORD RAPID FIXER has been used for spiral tank processing the following method of washing is recommended.
   This method of washing is faster, uses less water yet still gives negatives suitable for long term storage.After fixing, fill the spiral tank with water at the same temperature, +/-5°C (9°F), as the processing solutions and invert it five times. Drain the water away and refill. Invert the tank ten times. Once more drain the water away and refill. Finally, invert the tank twenty times and drain the water away.
7. Photoflo or LFN Wetting Agent
   Drop two to three drops in canister filled with water and agitate gently 30 seconds. Rinse until suds disperse.

In my previous studio in the Carter Building in Downtown Raleigh I blocked out all my windows with black foam so I could also use it as a darkroom. In the middle of one of the south facing windows, I cut a little circle out of the foam core and then stuck in an old metal film canister open on each end. When I developed old-fashioned prints, and I needed it to be dark, I just pluged the hole.

On bright days, when I turned out all of the lights and unpluged the hole, the room was transformed into a camera obscura and I could see a dim upside-down image of the the intersection of Hillsborough Street and Glenwood Avenue spread over the entire room. (In Latin camera means chamber and obscura means dark. The very first cameras were called camera obscuras, but it was eventually shortened to camera.)

I took this photograph with my digital camera mounted on a tripod. (It has been inverted and rotated 180 degrees.) In order to get a better image, I set up a white piece of foam core on an easel. I tried several different settings on my camera to try to get the best image. Eventually I decided on an ISO of 100 at F/4. I chose the 100 ISO in order to keep noise to a minimum and f/4 because I was too impatient to hold the shutter button down for longer than half a minute.

For this shot, I put the shutter speed on “bulb” and held down the shutter button for around 30 seconds.

The original image was much dimmer. I probably needed at least another 30 seconds of exposure. I have brightened things up, punched the color and increased the contrast and some of the sharpness in Photoshop . The image is pretty acceptable considering that it is a fairly wide hole and no lens is being used. Here is a large view of the above image, and here is a large view of the original image without any rotation, flipping or Photoshop adjustments.

While I was holding the button, I was not able to clearly see what was being recorded, so I was quite amazed to see the automobile in the enhanced image. I figured the road would look deserted due to the constant movement of cars. I must have timed it so that he was sitting still during most of the exposure time.

But the light is green, so that does not seem to make sense. Regardless, it is what it is. Let me know if you can offer any explanation.

Ablelardo Morell is a photographer who has a large body of work recording camera obscura images.

• The Pencil of Nature (out of print)
• Eugene Atget (Aperture)
• Julia Margaret Cameron (Phaidon 55s)
• Alfred Stieglitz (Aperture Masters of Photography)
• James Vanderzee (Phaidon 55s)
• Henri Cartier-Bresson (Photofile)
• Walker Evans (Photofile)
• Koudelka
• Don McCullin (Photofile)
• Sabastian Salgado (Photofile)
  
• Witness in our Time: Working Lives of Documentary Photographers
• Magnum Stories
• Black and White Photography: A Basic Manual
• Photo Idea Index
  
• The Photoshop book for Digital Photographers
  
• Digital Negatives: Using Photoshop to Create Digital Negatives for Silver and Alternative Process Printing
• Geometry of Design: Studies in Proportion and Composition
  
• Introduction to Two-Dimensional Design:Understanding Form and Function

The Basingstoke Canal is located southwest of London. It was created in 1787 by an act of Parliament to serve as a waterway to connect the area of North East Hampshire with the London markets. The tow-path was originally used by draft horses to pull the barges to and from market. Now it serves as a walking and biking trail. When I stopped to frame up the shot, I saw a bike coming down the path, and was hopeful that I could capture him in the frame. Henri Cartier Bresson’s term “decisive moment” best describes shots that come together like this. Often, success in photography is finding a good setup and waiting for the decisive moment. He said, “To me, photography is the simultaneous recognition, in a fraction of a second, of the significance of an event as well as of a precise organization of forms that give that event its proper expression.”

The Basingstoke Canal

Henri Cartier Bresson

In the picture at right I have overlaid a golden section spiral over one of my photographs illustrating the connection with the 35mm viewfinder. If you measure a 35mm negative you will find that it is actually 36mm x 24 mm, which is a 3:2 aspect ratio. Notice also that the golden section rectangle enclosing the golden spiral is not exactly 3:2. The important thing to understand about using the golden section ratio in composition is not to obsess about exactitude. As pleasing ratios go, our brains don’t mind things being a little off–but not too far off. A German study regarding facial attractiveness seems to give credence to this assertion, at least as it pertains to perfect symmetry.

Because action and faces are both visual magnets, the focal point of the image has to be the open mouth of the rooster on the left. An open mouth that is also the nexus of three golden section rectangles makes for a very strong focal point. As I was moving my camera and framing the shot I really was not consciously visualizing this geometric overlay. When I was happy with the total composition, I released the shutter. When viewing the negative later, I instantly realized that the composition was related to the golden section. This is really not that difficult to do because you need only to visualize a square from top to bottom tangent to one side or the other; that line is roughly a golden section ratio. Also, notice that the rooster’s mouth falls exactly where three major rectangles converge. This area is known as a sweet spot and is also related to the rule of thirds compositional framing method. Since a golden rectangle can be flipped and tucked in any corner of the frame, the result is that there are four sweet spots in a 35mm picture frame.