'Darkroom' photography - some (possibly) basic questions

[David Freed]

Hello all. After years of shoot digital, I have started using a pinhole camera. But instead of shooting with film, I'm using 4x5" sheets of Harman Direct Positive paper, which produces a 'positive' (not a negative) image. This means I don't need to develop a piece of film first and then print onto photo paper (as a contact print or an enlargement).

Another way to use the camera is to use regular photo paper (not the direct positive paper) which in essence creates a paper negative. This can then be used to create a positive image as you would a film negative. So far so good.

The question I have is about exposure times for the 'regular' photo paper: I'm using Arista VC RC pearl. Using the Harman direct positive paper an exposure on a sunny day might be 20 seconds to one minute. I assumed (perhaps incorrectly) that the Arista photo paper is much faster, so I did a 13 second test image. When developed, it is very, very dark (the features can barely be seen). I assume that if I then used this as a negative, my resulting print would be almost entire white or washed out.

So, is my exposure time (in camera) for the 'regular' photo paper too long or too short? Should it have been closer to 3 seconds or closer to 20-30 seconds instead on 13 seconds? Would it be closer to the exposure time for the Harmen Direct Positive paper?

Thanks all.

 

[Ralph Turner]

Hi David, welcome to the group. Using paper as the negative (or positive) I find intriguing but not something I've tried myself. However, just yesterday I watched an excellent vlog by Martin Henson on this very topic. Worth a watch

 

[David Freed]

Hi David, welcome to the group. Using paper as the negative (or positive) I find intriguing but not something I've tried myself. However, just yesterday I watched an excellent vlog by Martin Henson on this very topic. Worth a watch

Thank you! He also has a video about shoot with photo paper in his home made pinhole which is very interesting, and I've emailed him my question.

 

[Tony Warren]

Hi David - I used to shoot 8x10 on Ilford Multigrade and I used an ISO of 3 for that. Don't know if your paper is exactly the same but I would guess it is somewhere around that setting.

 

[David Freed]

Hi David - I used to shoot 8x10 on Ilford Multigrade and I used an ISO of 3 for that. Don't know if your paper is exactly the same but I would guess it is somewhere around that setting.

Thanks. I have an app for determining exposure times for pinhole photography. It has a preset for the Harman Direct Positive paper, which I mainly use. It has no other presets for photo paper, though it does have presents for ASA (same as ISO as I understand it), including ASA 2.5 and 3.2 (and lots of others). I'll try test out these presets and see what I happens.

Best, David.

 

[Pete Askew]

Welcome to RPF, David.

 

[Tony Warren]

Thanks. I have an app for determining exposure times for pinhole photography. It has a preset for the Harman Direct Positive paper, which I mainly use. It has no other presets for photo paper, though it does have presents for ASA (same as ISO as I understand it), including ASA 2.5 and 3.2 (and lots of others). I'll try test out these presets and see what I happens.

Best, David.

You should be in ball park David so I hope it helps. Tony.