About the service
You send me exposed black and white film, and I take it from the cassette to a finished print you can hold. The first step is development: I mix working solutions fresh, bring them to the temperature the film asks for, and hold that temperature through the whole cycle with a water bath. Agitation is counted, not guessed, and the timer runs the process rather than my patience. After the stop and the fixer the film gets a long running wash and a wetting agent, then hangs in still air behind a closed door so nothing settles on the emulsion while it dries. Dust caught at this stage is dust you fight in every print afterwards, so drying is done slowly and left alone.
When the negatives are dry I cut and sleeve them and make a contact sheet of the whole roll at one exposure. That sheet is how we choose together: it shows which frames carry the moment and which ones only looked good through the viewfinder. For the chosen frame I set the enlarger, focus wide open on the grain with a focus finder, then close down and decide the crop on the easel. Contrast comes from multigrade filters matched to the negative, not from pushing the paper, and the base exposure is found on a test strip in measured steps rather than by eye. From there I print: holding back a face with my hands, burning a bright sky down a little, walking the print toward what the negative actually contains. Each print is developed to completion, fixed, washed to archival standard, and dried flat or glazed to a gloss if you want the surface.
I work with ventilation running and gloves on whenever solutions are mixed or handled, and spent chemistry is collected rather than poured away. What you receive: developed and sleeved negatives, a contact sheet of the roll, and finished fibre or resin-coated prints in the format we agree, each signed on the back in soft pencil with the frame reference and date. Tell me the number of rolls and the sizes you want and I will give you an exact schedule; a single roll with a handful of prints is usually ready inside nine days.
When the negatives are dry I cut and sleeve them and make a contact sheet of the whole roll at one exposure. That sheet is how we choose together: it shows which frames carry the moment and which ones only looked good through the viewfinder. For the chosen frame I set the enlarger, focus wide open on the grain with a focus finder, then close down and decide the crop on the easel. Contrast comes from multigrade filters matched to the negative, not from pushing the paper, and the base exposure is found on a test strip in measured steps rather than by eye. From there I print: holding back a face with my hands, burning a bright sky down a little, walking the print toward what the negative actually contains. Each print is developed to completion, fixed, washed to archival standard, and dried flat or glazed to a gloss if you want the surface.
I work with ventilation running and gloves on whenever solutions are mixed or handled, and spent chemistry is collected rather than poured away. What you receive: developed and sleeved negatives, a contact sheet of the roll, and finished fibre or resin-coated prints in the format we agree, each signed on the back in soft pencil with the frame reference and date. Tell me the number of rolls and the sizes you want and I will give you an exact schedule; a single roll with a handful of prints is usually ready inside nine days.
