I am not going deep into silver gelatin emulsion chemistry and theory just to collect old formulas or satisfy technical curiosity. I am going deep because my vision demands it. The body of work I want to make is not built around modern sharpness, technical perfection, or speed. I am drawn instead to photographs thatContinue reading “From Precipitation to Chemical Ripening: How a Silver Gelatin Emulsion Gets Its Character”
Category Archives: Darkroom Diary
Basic Silver Gelatin Emulsion Chemistry Primer
In this series, I have been building a simple foundation for understanding silver gelatin emulsions. This article is the next step.
A silver gelatin emulsion may look mysterious at first, but the basic chemistry is not as complicated as it seems. At its core, you are creating light-sensitive silver halide crystals in gelatin.
What Each Ingredient Does in an Ordinary Silver Gelatin Emulsion
In the first article in this series, I introduced the basic idea behind an ordinary silver gelatin emulsion. In this article, I want to take the next step and make the ingredients easier to understand.
Making an Ordinary Silver Gelatin Emulsion – A Simple Introduction to the Basics
Most photographers never think about what an emulsion really is.
They buy film, paper, or plates and get to work. But underneath all of those materials is the same basic idea. A silver gelatin emulsion is a layer of light-sensitive silver halide crystals held in gelatin and coated onto a support. That support might be paper for paper negatives, or glass for silver gelatin dry plates.
Why I Am Going Deeper Into Silver Gelatin Emulsions for Paper Negatives
We live in a time when billions of new images are made every day. Most of them appear for a moment and are gone just as fast. They are seen, scrolled past, and forgotten. That alone raises an honest question. Why do we still make photographs at all in a world already overflowing with images?
The Bromide + Carbonate Shelf Trick
If you want more control in your prints without changing paper or gear, keep two things on your shelf: 10% potassium bromide, and Sodium carbonate solutions.
D-23 Film Developer Formula
There are a lot of film developers I could use, but D-23 remains a staple in my darkroom for one simple reason: it does exactly what I need it to do without unnecessary complexity.
Photography Is Over. I’m Still Here.
Photography is dead in the way most people knew it in the 20th century. But my photography is alive because it still requires a human eye, a real camera, real light, and a physical print you can hold.
Video – Dry vs Wet Scan of 4×5 Large Format Kodak Ektar Film
In this video, I share how different the results are when scanning film using the dry vs. wet mount methods.
Video – How to Meter for Black and White Film Using the Zone System
In this video, I share how the zone system all fits together and how it is applied to make exceptional black and white photographs optimized for the scanning process.