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Contact sheets are a great way to review and record your images. They allow you to view all the negatives on a roll of film before deciding which ones you want to print and how you may want to crop them. They also provide a permanent record of those negatives for filing purposes.
How to make a contact sheet
To make a contact sheet we recommend using ILFORD MULTIGRADE RC DELUXE
Set the enlarger head to a height that gives a 40cm (16in) wide rectangle of light on the baseboard
Put a MULTIGRADE fil...
Silver halide has been used in photographic film and paper for over 150 years and remains a vital ingredient found in all high-quality products. Silver halide crystals in gelatin form part of an emulsion which is used to coat the paper or film. On exposure to light (i.e. in a camera or darkroom), the crystals react turning into silver and forming the image.
Silver halide prints
There are many ways to produce black & white prints with options varying in quality. Traditional black & white silver ha...
General health and safety advice
This section provides advice to our customers on the safe handling, use and storage of our photochemical solutions, best practice for waste disposal and specific advice to women who are pregnant or breastfeeding a child.
If you are looking for information on the chemical safety of HARMAN photochemistry solutions, please refer to the Safety Data Sheets (known as SDS or MSDS)
24 HOUR OHES emergency line for advice on chemical incidents
Safe working practices
It is essen...
Photographic prints are intended to be viewed and when looked after can remain in excellent condition for over a century. However, as they are paper-based they are prone to damage if mishandled.
Caring for a print
A print intended to have a long life should be processed by methods recommended for long-term stability. If necessary it can be retouched to eliminate blemishes. Prints that are going to be displayed should be mounted, framed and glazed to complement the image and protect it from deteriorat...
A black border often enhances a print and does not involve any sort of mounting or overlay.
Ink or tape borders
The easiest way to produce narrow black borders is to rule them with a pen directly onto your finished print: an India-ink pen gives the most solid line, but most permanent (all surface) spirit based markers are much less expensive and will do the job.
For slightly wider black borders, narrow, self-adhesive strips are available from graphic arts suppliers. Supplied in dispensers, of various w...
Mounting your Prints
Even the most stunning print can look better when it has been properly mounted. Mounted prints are also better protected as they are kept flat with the image separated from the immediate surroundings by unobtrusive margins.
There are no hard and fast rules about mounting prints; the most suitable results will depend on individual preference, the nature of the image, the intended use and other circumstances.
It is recommended that only boards and other materials intended for the p...
Testing your Safelights
Safelights are an essential component in any darkroom set up. We recommend testing them annually, as ageing can change the transmission characteristics of the filters. This can cause visible fogging of the print or, more likely, a subtle but noticeable drop in contrast.
When setting up your safelights always read the instructions and don't exceed the recommended bulb wattage. Fitting a brighter bulb or mounting your safelight too close to your developing dishes, may cause degra...
What is the luminogram process?
The Luminogram process is light, directed onto photo paper in the darkroom. About as basic as ‘photography’ can get. It has been with us for a long while. László Moholy-Nagy (1895-1946) started using it in 1922, while Gottfried Jäger described it as "the result of pure light design; the rudimentary expression of an interaction of light and photosensitive material… a kind of self-representation of light."
And yet it has always seemed to sit on the sideline...
1992 - How I met Masterji
Soon after leaving my staff photographer’s position on the local newspaper where I’d been employed for the previous 5 years and with the luxury of in-house film processing no longer a convenient option I began using my local city centre professional colour lab, in Coventry.
During the accumulating hours I spent in that lab waiting for my 35mm films to process, watching small colour prints dropping from the conveyor belt from the end of the machine, I very watched a short In...
A lifelong hobby
One of my lifelong hobbies is photography. I have been taking photographs since I was about 10 years old when I was given an old Kodak folding pocket camera that had belonged to an uncle, Bertrand Perrett, who was a professional photographer and painter in England. I learned to develop and print black-and-white film at school when I was a teenager back in the 1970s.
The Slower Pace
When digital photography came along I moved to that medium, but recently I’ve come back to film aga...