Developing and Printing Black and white Photographs

When I was assigned to Colegio de San Juan de Letran in Intramuros, Manila from 1994 up to 2006, I taught Basic Photography to students taking up Communication Arts. I started taking pictures when one of my uncles gave me his SLR camera in 1985 – that was after my Novitiate year. I would take photos of events in the seminary – feast day masses, La Naval Processions, sports festivals, vestition rites, religious professions and ordinations. Beside Santo Domingo Church is a Fuji YKL laboratory. This is where photographers go to have their pictures processed. At that time, there was already “one hour processing”, that means pictures can be developed and printed within an hour.

I did not take up lessons in photography. It was probably my artistic inclination – drawing and painting that helped me develop an eye for photography. I also tried to read books and articles on photography to enhance my skills in taking pictures. Since the camera I had was an old one, its light meter was not functioning. The light meter helps the photographer to take good pictures by giving information about lighting situation, since photography literally means “to write with light”. Because of this, I learned to develop the skill of calculating the shutter speed and the aperture opening by merely judging the situation provided by natural lighting. I seldom used flash when taking pictures, it makes the photograph unnatural.
Part of the Basic Photography subject that I taught is shooting and processing in black and white film. I learned to process pictures in black and white through a friend of mine who gave me his old enlarger. An enlarger is like a projector, where a film negative is placed and exposed to light to be able to print an image on photographic paper. An exposed film or one that has been used to shoot pictures is developed by transferring it to a spool in total darkness or with the help of a black bag. Chemicals known as developer and acid fixer are used to develop the film into a negative.

The most exciting part of black and white photography is actually printing the pictures inside the darkroom. The photo paper is sensitive to light, such that it can be damaged by exposing it to light. Red light is the only kind of light that the photo paper can be exposed to before printing. That is why inside the darkroom one of the important elements is the red light. In order to print a picture, the negative should be exposed on paper by means of a light, according to a specific opening of the enlarger’s lens. To be able to find out how many seconds the negative should be exposed to light, a test print should be made. The test print will determine the exposure time for the negative, usually by a few seconds only. Once the image on the negative is ready for exposure, and the size and exposure time has been determined, the picture is ready for printing.

A picture is printed on paper after it has been exposed to the enlarger’s light and soaked in two chemicals in a tray – the developer and the acid fixer. With the aid of only a dim red light, the image can be seen slowly appearing on the paper when it is soaked in the developer. When the picture has been developed on paper, it is then soaked in another tray with acid fixer, to make the picture last longer. And the final stage in the printing of a black and white photo is washing it with water and hanging it on a line to dry.
Everything is done manually in developing and printing of black and white photographs. There is a different kind of satisfaction that I get in printing black and white photos because of its meticulous process. It’s an entirely different kind of art in itself.