Posts on Ian's Blog

Ian's Smooth-Brained Guide to Film Development

Sat, 14 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000

My goals for film development

There are a ton of people out there who love the expression that film development offers. They find creative control and satisfaction in the diversity of results that can be achieved by finding the exact right combintion of film stock, developer, and development coctail for their taste. I am not one of those people. I enjoy the process of shooting film for reasons I can’t really explain, and I don’t often share my photos with anybody. I prioritize flexibility of results and the room for some slack in my process. I want to be able to shoot in a variety of conditions and still know I’m going to get some kind of result, and I have a backlog of undeveloped film from the last couple years that I have zero notes about. When it comes down to brass tacks, there are really two things I care about when it care about when it comes to the film I develop, which are film grain and punchy contrast – the rest can be ironed out at scan time.

With all that in mind, I need a development process that more-or-less gets out of my way. Something with a lot of latitude, which allows me to be somewhat imprecise and still enjoy the results. That process should also be inexpensive if possible and involve keeping as few chemicals around as is reasonable. For me, the approach which most closly matches thes criteria is semi-stand development.

What is (semi) stand development?

Semi-stand development is a method of black-and-white development which trades time for simplicity. It involves using an extremely diluted solution of rodinal (1 part per 100!) for an extended amount of time to achieve a result which is much more forgiving than standard development. The full process takes about an hour, and it can result in well-exposed negative somewhat independently of the actual exposure settings of the camera at the time of exposure. Of course there is a limit to this, you do have to be at least somewhat sane with you camera settings, but in a lot of cases stand development can save your images when shooting in wacky conditions or when you have to prioritize shutter speed over getting a full exposure. As someone who like to take a lot of photos indoors, that kind of situation pops up pretty frequently.

So how does this work, and what’s the catch? Well, the catch is that you don’t get as much control over your final negative. There is a bit of a look to stand developed photos, which can involve lowered contrast and exaggerated grain. This is related to the physical realities that allow stand development to work the way it does in the first place. For the sake of this discussion, you can look at film development as a process by which silver halide crystals brighten portions of the emulsion through physical contact. By diluting the concentration of the developer and waiting longer, you are giving the developer more time to develop details in the shadowy parts of your photo, saving your underexposed shots. However, since you do not agitate the tank like you do in a standard development, the crystals that have built up in the brighter areas actually block new crystals from landing on that part of the emulsion, preventing your bright areas from blowing out. The resulting image will have more shadow detail and more controlled highlight, which ultimately means a lower contrast image.

But wait a minute, wasn’t punchy contrast one of the goals for my film process? Yes, it is. Sometimes that really is what I’m going for, although sometimes I do go for flatter images depending on what I’m trying to do. But there are a few factors that allow me to get the results I want from this process anyway. For one, I use semi-stand development, which involves agitating the tank one time in the middle of the process. This lessens the idiosyncratic look of stand development while maintaining most of the benefits and also reducing the risk of bromide drag. Another factor is that if I’m going for something dramatic (and I usually am if punchy contrast and black shadows is a goal), 90% of the time those scenes are naturally low key or dimly lit anyway. By biasing toward underexposure in these scenarios, I can get the grainy falloff-into-black I’m looking for even with semi-stand development. Past a certain point, if there’s no detail in the shadows, not even stand development will bring that back. That, combined with the extra detail recovery in the lighter (but still under-exposed) areas, means you can get some really unique effects with dramatic shadows if you’re willing to play around a bit with your settings – and you can do it on the same roll as other normally exposed photos in the same camera!

Since learning to develop this way, I’ve found that the focus of the photographic process has been shifted toward the actual process of taking the photos. I’m able to treat the actual development as a low-stress and meditative act, so I’m able to do it more often despite it taking longer. I no longer need to do any calculations or worry about temperature control, and I have a few more avenues for getting the results I’m looking for without taking excessive notes on what I was going for with each roll. It may not be for everyone, but for me semi-stand development has been the missing piece to make analog photography really make sense for me.

Required Materials

Paterson tank / reel
Rodinal
Distilled water
Fixer (ilford rapid fixer is what I use)
Photo flo (technically optional, but come on)

Pre-Dev Prep

Dilute rodinal 1:100 with distilled water
Dilute rapid fixer 1:4 with distilled water
Dilute photo flo 1:100 with water

Development Process

Load film onto reel
Pour in Rodinal, invert tank 3 times and tap
Wait 30m, invert 3 times and tap
Wait 30m
Wash in stop bath (tap water) for 3m
Pour in fixer, agitate for 30s
Leaving fixer in, agitate every minute for 5m
Rinse tank several times to remove fixer
Do final rinse with photo flo
Hang reels to dry

Tips for good results

Inversions are largely to distribute the chemicals into the parallel rolls of the film in the reel, keep that in mind
Always tap your tank against the table after inverting to prevent bubbles from ruining your negatives
You can leave your fixer in for a lot longer than 5m if needed
- If you suspect your development process is not being sufficiently fixed, you can extend this time
Hold on to your fixer, you can use the same fixer for 20 rolls (not 20 developments, if you’re doing more than one roll per run)
Dump your rodinal after each run

Notes From a Money Fast

Sat, 07 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Embark!

Reasoning

After finally finishing my 2023 taxes – a year late due to issues at my accountant’s office – I’ve found myself on a bit of a personal finance kick. Faced with a full year of uncategorized transactions to play with and no reconciled data to screw up, I’ve been spending a lot of time working on beancount workflows, reflecting on money saved (or not saved), and generally just taking a long, hard look at my finances. The end of the year is always a time of reflection for me, and I’ve caught myself thinking about all the things I could be doing with my time other than selling it to someone else. I’ve decided that my most important goal is to find a way to live a life that makes sense to me without working 40 hours a week, and to get there before I get too old.

Of course, I have a ton of other wants and needs that conflict with that goal, but at this point I’ve set myself up in such a way that I have plenty of runway to work on those things without additional spending. Even so, switching to a pattern of saving will require a sea change in my outlook on spending. The last two years have been very expensive. I bought a house about two years ago, spent what was left of my savings renovating it, and have since spent each paycheck on one project or another that I never had space for in the past. For the first time in my working life, I’ve neglected to actually set up an IRA or save anything for my future during this time. To the contrary, I currently have a little over 10k in credit card debt just from a failed furnace and a tree removal. I also don’t have enough equity for a lower rate HELOC loan, at least until I get the house re-appraised, and even if I do that the loan will potentially require thousands in closing costs.

Faced with a total debt that defies comprehension, more expenses on the horizon, and rampant inflation, it’s not surprising that I’ve fallen into a lot of bad spending habits in my day-to-day routine. I’ve slipped into a mindset that encourages me to spend without thinking. I’m hoping that by doing a somewhat extreme period of abstinence I can change my outlook on spending and re-calibrate my understanding of my budget and what it’s possible to save. I’m starting by weeding out subscriptions and recurring payments I don’t need anymore, and am thinking the sparcity of transactions should shed light on what’s really going on and give me a clearer view of the big picture.

Supplies

I’m starting with a full tank of gas and no shortage of the medical supplies I need for the week. I haven’t done any special grocery shopping, but I should have plenty in the pantry when I need to eat. I’ve also decided to start the money fast at the same time as I start a 60 hour dietary fast. This should make it much easier to refrain from spending while also providing the illusion of things getting easier rather than harder as I go into the fast. Currently in my fridge and pantry I have plenty of slices of cheese, a ton of dry / canned goods, a lot of fermented products, a little milk and kefir, some bread, and even a few fresh vegetables and mushrooms (which won’t be so fresh after 60 hours, but I can still cook with them). I also have enough tea to last me for months, some electrolytes for the fasting days, and in general am well equipped for a period of depravation.

All in all, I expect to eat well during this time. I hope to keep up the habit of eating through my pantry storage for the rest of the month if I can. I’ve also recently paid my mortgage and should have enough in my checking account to avoid looking at it at all during this period. I’m not counting bill payments as part of this experiment, but since all of my bills auto-debit from my checking account it will still psychologically feel like a total freeze on spending.

I’m going to document every time that I would have normally spent money in this post, as well as the outcome of not spending, in order to encourage mindfulness.

Day 1

The Boxes

I’ve been in a long-term process of organizing all my spaces with a box-and-label system and am kind of kicking myself for not stocking up on boxes before starting this project. These are plastic sterilite boxes I’m talking about, and are mostly replacing much more haphazard piles stored in too-large bins or cardboard boxes. It would have been the perfect time to really make a big push for organization. I did find, however, that I was able to find enough extra boxes I’d forgotten about to store the things that were causing problems today.

The Post Office

I have a few synth modules that I wanted to get boxed up and ready to post on reverb today. I found out that the cardboard shipping boxes at USPS are free, and went to pick some up. It’s one of the few times I’ve gone to town to run an errand, spent no money, and then returned home, which felt weirder than it should have.

Paperwork for IRA

Our company’s IRA requires us to use printed and scanned paperwork to set up an account. Luckily, I printed the paperwork at fedEx before swearing off spending. Normally I would have gone there to scan it to a USB drive as well, but since scanning is not free at fedEx I just used an app on my phone to convert it to PDF. I’m not crazy about scanning sensitive paperwork into an app, but it seemed trustworthy enough. I’m on the fence as to whether this was a net positive or not.

The Weed Whacker Cord

Went downstairs to grab the weed whacker and found the cord was short from overuse. This is one of those times I normally would have driven to the hardware store without a second thought to buy a new cord, which I was convinced were about a foot long. On further examination though, the cord seems to be a much longer, wound cord that can be pulled out farther, and I in fact did not even need a new cord. Crazy.

The Lemonade

I have all the electrolytes I need for a fast, but ran out of zero-calorie powdered lemonade to mix it with. Rough. After scraping around though, I found some powdered gatorade zero in the back of the pantry, which I was able to use instead.

The Finance App

My beancount setup is pretty far from ready. I’ve been watching personal finance videos in the backround of what I’ve been up to lately, and decided to give rocket money a chance to see how it works for general financial awareness. It seems pretty ok, although their ’negotiation on your behalf’ feature is sketchy. Overall, it has useful visualizations and a budgeting tool that isn’t as good as ynab, but also doesn’t require reconciliation, which I’m so far behind on in ynab that I’m not sure what to do at this point.

Day 2

The Boxes Again

I have no boxes and I must box. I ended up re-purposing some of my old boxes after re-thinking my organization scheme though, and it’s actually a huge improvement that freed up a few boxes that could then be assigned. Overall it’s way better that I took the time to do this instead of buying more boxes right now.

The Lemonade Again

I was about to run out of the gatorade zero, when I found a box of zero-calorie powdered lemonade in my closet! What?

The ‘Spend Later’ List

I went ahead and made a ‘spend later’ list. It kept occurring to me to buy various things, some of which I do actually need, and writing it down helped me move on from that thought. It’ll be nice to judge this list against my budget at the end of the month instead of just spending as things come up for once. I added the plastic boxes, a trash can for the back yard, and a corded leaf blower to the list. Back yard trash is something I always think I’ll handle later but never do, so I’m looking forward to that one.

Recurring Van Fantasy Expands the List

Lately I’ve been back in the headspace of badly wanting to convert a van into a camper. I actually started on this plan back around 2016 and even bought a van, but it didn’t work out. I’ve been coping by preparing simple, small meals in a rice cooker out of shelf-stable ingredients to build skills to one day make that move when I can afford it. At any rate, these items on the list won’t be purchased any time soon, but it’s good to dump the things that are taking up space onto paper so you can move on. Here I added a reasonable camp pan and a portable propane stove to the list.

Breaking the dietary fast

I broke the food fast about 10 hours early today, making it a total of 50 hours. I was just feeling kind of obsessed with food and decided to call it quits.

Day 3

A day of few wants!

I think fasting at the start of this was a good move. I felt very satisfied by my rice cooker macaroni recipe (which is getting pretty good!) and the canned fish products I’d already had stocked up. I also made an intersting snack using some chunkier parts of a broth I made and some dehydrated shallots I’d put in a can and forgotten about.

The ‘Spend Later’ List expands a bit

I had been planning to send my synthesizer off to Greece for repair, but upon examining it today I noticed I’d been providing it with 9v current (or at best 12) when it requires 15. That’s a weird standard, and I don’t have the plug, so it’s on the ‘spend later’ list. I also learned about a really cool small, cheap flash unit made by flashQ which can be detached from the camera and still fired remotely.

Day 4 (Technical End of Money Fast)

Today I went to watch a movie at a friends house, and we all went to the liquor store to get some snacks beforehand. I decided to pick up a six pack, technically breaking the fast. I did remember that I wasn’t supposed to be spending money just before going to the counter, but in the moment it seemed like the right move. I felt some regret afterward though, and on reflection felt that the effects of the money fast were beneficial enough that I wanted to continue the experiment anyway. I don’t think it’s totally against the spirit of the exercise to call this an exception and continue, but either way I’m gonna try to make it the rest of the way to day 7.

Day 5

This is the first time I’ve bartered for something in years, maybe I should do it more often! I only drank two of the beers from the movie night, so I traded the rest to my roommate and told him to bring back a case of sparkling water from the grocery store. Sparkling water is the only thing I’ve run out of so far that I’ve felt truly tempted to just go buy more of, surprisingly.

Day 6

There’s less and less to report as this becomes more and more normal. I feel like my brain has been drained of an addictive substance. I added nothing to the spend-later list today. I’ve also been spending my time a little more thoughtfully and learning new skills that don’t cost anything. Lots of time spent learning to use darktable and keeping up the house. I almost broke down and went to the corner store today to get some caffiene due to work stress, but decided that getting energy drinks from the corner store is one of my absolute worst habits and didn’t want to end it on that note. Instead I’ll probably end my spending freeze tomorrow with a trip to the coffee shop, which adds a lot of value to my Saturday for me. It’ll also allow me to finally pick up some god damn boxes this weekend.

Assessment of finances so far

Checking on rocket money, I’m surprised to see my savings for the month aren’t that much more than this time last month

Spending is $162 below last month
Expenses so far:
- PMI premium ($66)
- Prime subscription ($16)
- Beer ($14)
- Uber subscription ($10) (cancelled after noticing)
- OpenAI subscription ($20)
- Linode services ($5)
- DigitalOcean services ($22)
- Around $100 of late cleared transactions from outside the fast period

Thoughts on this info:

I’m not sure what I’m currently running on linode and DO. Those things can probably be eliminated or paused
Not sure if I need the $20 openAI subscription
Probably keeping the prime subscription, need to ask the bank if I’m at the point where I can cancel PMI
All in all, ‘amount-spent-month-to-date-this-month-vs-mtd-this-day-last-month’ is a bizarre metric and probably not very useful, but it’s the metric I have ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Takeaways

During the money fast I found it easier to:

Take time to tend to my environment (leaf blowing, putting things away, re-organizing things)
Take inventory of what I have
Eat diverse meals
Plan long-term
Get things done in general

If you’re saying ’no’ to eating out or taking the path of least resistance for the night, it begins to feel ‘weird’ to doomscroll or just veg out and do nothing

This led to more productivity and mindful use of my time

I felt:

More self-sufficient
More creative
Empowered by the things I already have

I experienced:

A sense of cleanness from the dropping of the addictive behavior of purchasing
A better understanding of how I should be spending my days
A mindset shift away from stress at work caused by:
- A sense of direction towards more stability and a purpose for the money I am earning
- A sense of increased control from choosing to go without
I want to continue:
- Eating primarily out of my pantry until I run out of food
- Keeping a ‘spend later’ list and organizing my wants
- Grocery shopping way less, maybe at aldi
Things I might add
- A system for organizing my wants by cost

Were there any negatives?

Not really. But I do really need to go buy some boxes.

Initial Commit

Mon, 25 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Well, not really.

The truth is that I created the setup and deployment workflow for this website over a year ago, and I have nearly 100 not-even-close-to-finished drafts of posts on various topics or projects which themselves are half-finished at best. I haven’t been doing a great job of keeping track of what I’m up to or what I’ve been learning, and at this point it’s probably time to just bite the bullet and finally make a damn post to my damn blog.

If you’d asked me what my goal was at the time I first conceived of this site, I would have said something like “I want to keep a blog as a form of documentation and a way of sharing the things I’ve done.” Which is a noble sentiment, but it really puts a lot of pressure on things to be as accurate and cut-and-dry as possible. Looking at my drafts, I was never going to reach the level of detail and accuracy I was looking for (and even if I did, it would have been a bit of a slog to read through). Instead, I think I’m going to look at this as a place to reflect on what I’m doing, keep track of advances I make on projects or in personal endeavours, and maybe create a paper trail of things I care about for future reference as a sort of side-effect.

Lately I’ve been exploring a similar practice by posting interesting synth patches I come across on mastodon, and have been surprised how much that has paid off for me in terms of creative satisfaction. I’m easily able to share those links with my friends (even if they’re not on mastodon) and have developed a satisfying workflow for quickly capturing audio and video as a result. I’m able to look back on my week and see sparks of creativity and intrigue which I can re-visit, and I’m hoping that eventually I can use the community as a forum for help on projects I’m struggling with. All of these things may seem like basic aspects of online life, but because I’ve mostly refrained from participation in social platforms in the past these things are refreshing and invigorating to me. Here at the end of 2024, I feel like I may finally be finding a combination of outlets which suit my personality and can be used constructively to compliment my efforts.

Despite my positive experiences so far, I think making this a long-term change will be a challenge for me because I have always had an adversarial relationship with my own output. Even as I type this, I catch myself over-proofreading and restructuring my paragraphs too much. I find myself concerned that I haven’t ironed out per-post images yet, or that the ‘movies’, ‘ferments’, and ’notes’ section are not in a coherent state, or that I’d really like to have more than one post before I publish this website. But at a certain point the time comes to shitpost or get off the pot. Maybe the winds are blowing differently for me these days. I’m looking forward to seeing where this takes me.