Dry Plate Emulsion Updates on the Lightfarm.com

[Kirk Keyes]

At the risk of double posting, I thought I would repost Denise Ross' announcement to her "Light Farm" website. She's made some really good and informative additions to the site and they deserve to be posted in their own thread... Denise's post follows:

I've finally got the Dry Plate Photography section posted on The Light Farm. I was so full of great ideas after our party, I went back into the darkroom and into the field instead of sitting down at my computer. I realized (all over again) a couple of weeks ago, that this stuff is never 'finished'. There are just too many great paths to follow. So, I've written down the current state of things. I have more ready to go whenever I can stand the sight of my keyboard again. And, hopefully, there will be more than just my work. Anytime someone has something they'd like to post on TLF, just let me know.

http://www.thelightfarm.com/Map/DryPlate/MapTopic.htm

d

[Photo Engineer]

Two comments:

1. The script font used is very very hard to read.

2. Denise does not specify an ISO rating for her plates. Mine are ISO 40 Ortho. Of course, due to #1 above, maybe I missed that information.

Notwithstanding, this is great work to nit-pick over. Congrats Denise.

Ron

[don7x17]

At the risk of double posting, I thought I would repost Denise Ross' announcement to her "Light Farm" website. She's made some really good and informative additions to the site and they deserve to be posted in their own thread... Denise's post follows:

I've finally got the Dry Plate Photography section posted on The Light Farm. I was so full of great ideas after our party, I went back into the darkroom and into the field instead of sitting down at my computer. I realized (all over again) a couple of weeks ago, that this stuff is never 'finished'. There are just too many great paths to follow. So, I've written down the current state of things. I have more ready to go whenever I can stand the sight of my keyboard again. And, hopefully, there will be more than just my work. Anytime someone has something they'd like to post on TLF, just let me know.

http://www.thelightfarm.com/Map/DryPlate/MapTopic.htm


d

Thanks, Kirk, for the heads up. There is certainly some good information on the Lightfarm website

[Jerevan]

I concur with the comment about the font style. Sometimes a traditional approach is better, even when trying to make something new.

Otherwise, it is a great knowledge base and an inspiration. I may not get around to doing things like emulsions in the near future, but hats off to your dedication, Denise!

[dwross]

Thank you, Kirk. Starting a new thread was probably a great idea. And thanks to you all for the nice words.

Ron: I've addressed emulsion 'speed'. Hopefully, you will be able to wade through the text to find my comments.

About font: I've decided that there really isn't a perfect solution. I've had people comment positively and negatively on every font I tried out on my personal website, dwrphotos.com. The font I'm typing now in the reply box is probably the best, but I'm afraid typing black Ariel on a white screen for long would drive me around the bend of boredom! I polled friends and family and checked three browsers to make the selection I chose for TLF. There are actually four fonts used, but I'm assuming you have the most concerns with the Comic font. Comic in 'parchment' on a dark gray background is actually the easiest for me to look at for hours at a time. (I have horrible vision). I hope it isn't a stumbling block for too many people.

On my To-Do list of additions and refinements for the near future is a printable pdf of the recipes. They will be Ariel or Georgia, black on white.

Jerevan, I know you've been interested in emulsions for a long time. I hope you'll get a chance to give homebrew a try. You'll have a lot of fun!

Denise

[wildbillbugman]

Hi All,
Regarding "difficult to read" fonts, howcome so very many "visual artists" are half-blinde? I guess for the same reason that many "vocal artists" are tone-deaf.
Chears,
Bill

[John Bartley]

To make these pages easier to read you can disable the page styling in your browser. I don't know about IE, but in FireFox click on "view", then on "Page Style", then on "no style", and you'll get a plain page with no styling at all.

cheers

[Kirk Keyes]

Having spent some time with Denise, I see her choice of font as representing the side of her that thinks outside of the box - the one that most of the rest of us confrom to. Regardless of anyone's thoughts on this subject, I think we need to respect her choice.

As PE says, it's great work that she has done there and that's what our comments should be on.

[wildbillbugman]

Kirk,
To clarify: By "half-blinde" I was reffering not to Denise, but to those who had trouble reading "The Light Farm". It is perfectly clear to me. More clear than APUG.
Bill

[Thomas Bertilsson]

That was definitely interesting reading. I found the contact print to be the most appealing - by a landslide.

I love how you have worked out your own method of getting from A to B. For me - I like to have an idea of how to do it, but I would never actually pursue it in reality. Too little time. If film was to become unavailable I might reconsider. Thank you for sharing all your work with us!

(The font - well, there are type fonts made specifically for viewing on the web. Boredom? For me, with a problem with parallel lines, I actually had to import the text into Word and change the font before I could read it successfully. Try Verdana. Beautiful, simple, and extremely easy to read on the web. Sorry to keep ranting on it from this off topic standpoint. I thought I could help a bit.)

Thanks again,

- Thomas