Postcards printing and a giveaway - Darkroom Diaries

This weekend I was printing postcards. Well, more like postcard sized prints. The choice of darkroom paper is still limited exclusively to Fuji Crystal Color, which also has started getting rumours of being discontinued. The smalles paper size is also 8x10'', which meant figuring out how to expose 2 prints at once on a single piece of paper.

You might say, why not pre-cut the paper and expose the usual way? Well, in color printing I'm relying on a unique print processing machine, which are rare and almost non-existend in public darkrooms. This machine develops the exposed print, but also easily chokes on smaller sized prints. When that happens, everything stops, you call the lab technician, and start figuring out where that piece of photographic paper went. Not great, Bob.

This was my first attempt at figuring out how to get two prints in the dark on the same piece of paper. The idea is to set the borders exactly right, expose one shot, then rotate the paper 180 degrees in complete darkness, and expose another. Most importantly, you have to load the paper the "correct" way - which changes, of course, from shot to shot. This example above was not it.

And this is more like it. 1/4'' borders for postcards should do perfectly, since I don't think anyone is going to frame these. The lighthouse is from Mull of Galloway, the southernmost point of Scotland I believe. Amazing location, we should go back there some time.

This seal from the Isle of Arran is a crop from a 6x7 Mamiya RB67 negative. The aspect ratios I was getting when splitting 8x10'' paper in half were another challenge. Most of my negatives are either 6x6 or 6x7, and for these I'd almost need something panoramic. Good news though, some shots are perfect for re-framing.

Accidental Interstellar shot - especially if I'd figure to print one of these with no middle border. Maybe next time? This one is from Glencoe Valley, shot on Hasselblad.

And that's the whole day of printing at Stills of Edinburgh.

If you'd like any of the postcards - this post is also a giveaway. Mail me your address, and a pick to hello@alba.pictures - I've got limited quantities of each card. I'll do my best to mail it - Royal Mail delivers almost to every country in the world!