What's your coolest trick?

[David Hall]

Jorge,

Uh, yeaaaah. Autofocus and maybe some kind of AE would be perfect on the 8x10. Then I could have 30x40 grainless, tack sharp enlargements of birthday parties, graduations, all the things I use the point and shoot for.

dgh

[David A. Goldfarb]

Clearly, you need this back:

http://www.graflex.org/articles/auto-focus.html

[David Hall]

That's fantastic. You should start a thread with that on April first of this year!

dgh

[Robert]

The vintage 4x5 graflex holders I bought came with numbers. All the older gentlemen did was glue in these little plastic numbers into the holders. When you expose the film the number ends up on the negative. It's up to you to keep track of what each number was used for but it's a simple little thing.

[David A. Goldfarb]

Yes, Grafmatics also have a space for that, and it's mentioned in the instructions, but then the number reduces the image area. I like the idea of the slot routed in the flap, because it enlarges the image area to make room for the data.

[inthedark]

</span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (dnmilikan @ Feb 25 2003, 05:59 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> * If it isn&#39;t Aggie having a nude photograph taken in her younger days, then....* </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'>
How about one taken of me a month or two ago. The main person trying to get me to open the shop to photographers had a gallery exhibit and needed models. He usually either covers up the head with something artistic, or cuts it out of the shot, so I felt I could help out and not be "compromised". He did really well, and wow for a 42 year old (me), he did a great job of making me look good and everything. Seeing the results took ten years off my attitude. LOL

[fhovie]

I don&#39;t think I saw this one yet. I keep a laser pointer in my bag and in low light, I place a dot where I want the focus to be. It is easy to focus the bright dot.
Frank

[Thilo Schmid]

</span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (fhovie @ May 8 2003, 06:37 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'>I don&#39;t think I saw this one yet. I keep a laser pointer in my bag and in low light, I place a dot where I want the focus to be. It is easy to focus the bright dot.
</td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'>
Good idea Frank. I occasionally used a small Maglite with removed head for that purpose. A laser pointer might be a better choice if you cannot place a lamp on the scene or have no one to hold a lamp. However, I think the Maglite is brighter, which is an advantage when focusing WA-Lenses on the edges of a ground glass.

[Ed Sukach]

</span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Darkroom ChromaCrafts @ May 7 2003, 07:55 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> </span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (dnmilikan @ Feb 25 2003, 05:59 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> * If it isn&#39;t Aggie having a nude photograph taken in her younger days, then....* </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'>
How about one taken of me a month or two ago. The main person trying to get me to open the shop to photographers had a gallery exhibit and needed models. He usually either covers up the head with something artistic, or cuts it out of the shot, so I felt I could help out and not be &quot;compromised&quot;. He did really well, and wow for a 42 year old (me), he did a great job of making me look good and everything. Seeing the results took ten years off my attitude. LOL </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'>
Hah&#33;&#33; I&#39;ve learned NOT to lose my cool.

Oh. Interesting.

So ... why is my lower lip bleeding?

[inthedark]

Okay, back to the topic. . .(blushing in spite of myself) . . .my best trick is to always mix developers, especially color developers, with distilled water. I find that the local water seems to interfere with the chemistry and fluctuates at that. When I switched to distilled, with or without additional corrections, I get very consistent and predictable results. For &#036;0.67 per gallon it is a huge saving in time and frustration.

Also a voltage meter on the enlarger lights helped a lot. I am in an old industrial park and I noticed that when I printed off hours, my exposures were about half what they are during the day. (I may shoot the same three rolls of aerial film two or three times a week, giving me very accurate comparisons). A voltage regulator cleared that up so now I don&#39;t have to peek my head out to listen to how many machines I hear. LOL.