Jonathan's blog

While in Sicily last year, I found out where the Internet actually is. It’s halfway up a mountain in Taormina.

The Internet

I hadn’t realised how important it is to calibrate a monitor correctly.

My former method of “calibration” was simply to set the monitor’s contrast to maximum, and set the monitor’s brightness to a value that looked comfortable to me. I didn’t bother changing any settings in software.

But I got caught out.

Last night I took some photos and tweaked them on my PC so they looked OK. I published them and thought nothing of it. But several of my friends commented that they looked a bit dark, and when I checked the pictures out on two of the computers at work, they were indeed too dark.

My badly-calibrated monitors at home caused me to wrongly edit an image. So I read up on how to calibrate a monitor. There are many ways, but the method I’m writing about here is nice and simple.

• If you have TFTs, they are sensitive to the angle you look at them. Tilt them so they face directly at you.
• Turn the lights off in the room you are working in.
• On the monitor, set the colour temperature to 6500K
• On the monitor, set the contrast to 100%
• Look at the gamma black chart below. Adjust the brightness on the monitor until:
  • Bar A is just visible at the bottom
  • Bar B is visible from the bottom to about halfway up the chart


Gamma black chart

• Absolute black on your monitor is now calibrated.
• Find how to adjust the gamma on your computer. For example, I am running the proprietary nVidia X driver on Fedora and it comes with a convenient control panel. You can use Adobe Photo Shop to adjust the gamma, or xgamma under X Windows on Unix/Linux systems.
• Now look at the gamma chart below. Sit as far as possible from the monitor and squint so the lines blur together.


Gamma chart

• Adjust the gamma on your computer so the shade of grey completely across the gamma column is the same at 2.2.
• The monitor is now calibrated.

References

• http://www.normankoren.com/makingfineprints1A.html
• http://www.johncon.com/john/gamma/

I don’t use Windows much, except on my home media centre. For a while I’ve been running Vista and I’ve generally been impressed with the Media Center application.

I read about Windows 7 and was pleased to hear about the Ultimate Steal protomotion for students (and those with .ac.uk email addresses). The high prices of Vista and of Windows 7 off-the-shelf were a real off-putter for me, but the Ultimate Steal price of £30 for an upgrade seems a reasonable price to me. I’m prepared to pay £30 for a product I will use most days.

So I downloaded the 64-bit upgrade for Windows 7 Home Premium. Unfortunately, I hadn’t bothered to read that it’s not possible to upgrade a 32-bit Vista to a 64-bit Windows 7.

So I converted my DigitalRiver upgrade package to a bootable ISO by following this guide. Booting the Windows 7 installer worked fine – however it rejected my product key. It didn’t give a reason, but I assumed it was because my key covered upgrades only, and not clean installs.

Well, my only choice for using my product key legitimately was to “obtain” a copy of 64-bit Vista from somewhere. I installed Vista Home Premium x64, choosing not to enter a product key and not to activate. I immediately ran the Windows 7 upgrade tool and my product key was accepted. The upgrade took a while but was successful.

What a nuisance!

As my interest in photography progressed, it was only natural I’d one day end up wanting to develop film. I developed my first roll last night by following this guide. It was extremely helpful – but there were a few points it didn’t cover. I made notes while I was developing, and so here’s a modified version of the guide, including my advice.

If you’re interested in seeing what I was able to achieve, some samples are here.

What you’ll need

These are the items in my inventory. I’ve bought “proper” gear where necessary but most of the kitchen-type items came from a supermarket for pennies. I bought the developing tank from eBay, and the same seller was also offering a kit with all the chemicals, listed as Ilford Black & White Film Developer’s pack

• Developer
• Stop bath
• Fixer
• Wetting agent (cheap washing up liquid will do)
• A developing tank
• 3 water bottles – preferably one litre
• 3 plastic jugs – at least one litre
• Funnel
• Kitchen timer (get one with a mechanical knob rather than a digital one)
• Clothes pegs
• A place to hang the negatives sufficiently high that they won’t touch the ground
• A dim light. Colour doesn’t matter- perhaps a torch with half-flat batteries.
• Scissors
• Bottle opener
• Something to stir the chemicals with. I used old picnic cutlery!
• A storage box for all of the above, with a lid.
• Room thermometer

Preparation

If this is your first time developing a film, there are some things you should do first. You should probably do them before every time you develop a film, even if you’ve been doing it for years

1. Familiarise yourself with how to mix each of the chemicals – how much concentrate to how much water, how much you want to end up with, etc.
2. Make a note of how much of each chemical your tank requires you to use.
3. Calculate and make a note of how long each of the three phases should take.
4. Label each of your empty bottles and jugs with a permanent pen so you know which chemical belongs in which jug.

Loading the film

5. Take film, bottle opener, scissors, developing tank and reels into a lightproof room.
6. Organize the materials on a table. You’ll need to know where each item is in the darkness.
7. Turn off the light.
8. Open the film canister at either end with the bottle opener.
9. Take the film out of the canister and cut off the leading tab at the end to create a straight edge.
10. Load the film onto your tank’s spool. The method varies depending upon your tank, but I found my Paterson System 4 tank easy to use.
11. Pull or cut the end of the film off the spool and remove the tape.
12. Drop the loaded reel into the developing tank and secure the lid.
13. Turn the light back on.

Developing the Film

14. Mix chemicals according to directions.
15. Put the right amount of each chemical into the three jugs.
16. Put any leftover chemicals into the plastic bottles for storage.
17. Technically with a good tank you should be safe to have the light on, but it never hurts to be cautious, so at this point I switched the main light off and worked by the light of a dim torch, pointing at the ceiling to softly illuminate the whole room. If you wait a minute or two, your eyes will get accustomed to the low light.
18. Take the top off the developing tank.
19. Pour the pre-measured developer into the top of the tank.
20. Tap the tank against the counter to dislodge bubbles.
21. Agitate the tank by slowly inverting it and turning it back over for the first 15 seconds.
22. Repeat every 30 seconds for the recommended time (usually 5 to 10 minutes).
23. Pour the developer back into the jug.
24. Pour stop bath into the now-empty developing tank.
25. Agitate the stop bath and let stand for 1 minute.
26. Pour out the stop bath and replace with fixer.
27. Agitate the fixer for 15 seconds and then for 15 seconds once every minute for the allotted time.
28. Pour the fixer back into its jug.
29. Remove the lid of the tank and run water into the tank for 15 minutes.
30. Add wetting agent to the water to expedite drying. If you are using washing up liquid, add a tiny drop to the water in the tank and let it sit for a minute.
31. Remove the film from the tank.
32. Gently pull the film off the reel.
33. Attach a clip to the top of the film and hang it up. I hung mine from a clothes horse in the bath.
34. Attach another 2 or 3 clips at the bottom, to prevent the film from curling as it dries.
35. Hang the film in a dry, dust-free area.
36. I don’t know how long it really takes them to dry, because I went to bed at this point. When I woke up, the film was dry and straight.
37. Cut the film into appropriate length chunks for your scanner / envelopes / etc.
38. Store dry negatives in plastic negative sleeves.

Afterwards

39. You can usually re-use the developer several times (although it takes longer each time). Store it in a clearly labelled bottle.
40. You can re-use the fixer. Store it in a clearly labelled bottle.
41. Rinse all of the “dirty” components in warm water and dry them thoroughly before putting them away in a clean place.

Tips & warnings

• The optimal temperature for most developers is 20°C. Processing at a significantly higher or lower temperature will result in soft, easily damaged film or flat negatives. Some developers have a chart on the packaging to give the time correction if your room temperature is different from this.
• Do not remove the top of the developing tank to look at the film until after the fixing stage.
• Use storage bottles that are just the right size for the amount of developer you are mixing. Label a chemical with its name, date and dilution.
• Begin timing each step as you pour chemicals into the developing tank, and start draining chemicals 10 seconds before the time is up.

Anyone who has cycled around a city before will not be surprised by the findings of this research.

Pedestrians are probably the most dangerous element of my daily commute through central Bristol. They may be lighter than cars, but they stop more suddenly and change direction more unpredictably.

On a regular basis, pedestrians who have looked directly at me still fail to see me, and walk into the road anyway. As often as not, these people are using mobile phones or iPods.

I could go on forever about unobservant or careless people, but I won’t. Today.

If you read my blog, you’ll have seen my recent review of my RSP Asteri 2 bike lights. I talked about making a bottle battery, and now I have.

Unfortunately I forgot to take photos after the first couple of steps but never mind.

What you’ll need

I used the following parts, but you can use whatever you like.

A note on batteries

• It doesn’t matter what kind of rechargeable batteries you use – NiCd, NiMH and Li-Ion are all fine.
• It doesn’t matter what size of batteries you use. If you wanted to make a smaller “pouch” of batteries you could use C type.
• You must have precisely 4 batteries in each series loop, but there’s nothing to stop you using 8 batteries and having two series loops in parallel.
• The capacity (measured in mAh) is an indicator of how long the batteries might last.
  • The batteries that come with the RSP Asteri 2 are AA NiMH batteries; 1600 mAh each. The manufacturer reckons you can get 1-2 hours on full power and 6 hours on flashing.
  • Inexpensive D type batteries might give you around 3000 mAh, which immediately doubles your battery life.
  • My D type batteries give a claimed 8000mAh. Scaling up the manufacturer’s estimate, I might be able to get 5-10 hours on full power, or 30 hours flashing. This basically gives me the ability to do a week’s commuting on full power without recharging until the weekend.

Building it

I cable-tied the battery holders back-to-back as they happened to have holes in the right place. A pair of D batteries just about fitted through the neck of the bottle if I squeezed the bottle. I attached the batteries in two pairs so they could sit on top of each other.

I soldered the battery holders together in series using the single-core wire. I used fairly long stretches of wire (about 8″) between the upper and lower pairs of batteries, to make it easier to feed the batteries into the bottle.

Wiring diagram

I taped up the exposed solder with insulating tape so there was no chance it could make a short circuit if the batteries moved around once in the bottle. I packed the batteries into place with bubble wrap so they wouldn’t rattle and risk damaging the solder.

At the neck of the bottle, I terminated the two single cored with a terminal block and connected the twin-core cable to the other side. I threaded it through the spout of the bottle and screwed the cap on. The terminal block also allows you to easily reverse the polarity of the circuit if you accidentally wire it back to front for your LEDs.

I measured the trailing cable to make sure I had the right length, before trimming it and soldering the DC power connector on the end.

The screw cap seemed tight and waterproof so I left it alone, but I plugged the gap around the cable through the spout with hot-melt glue gun.

The batteries I bought claim to come fully charged so I was able to test it immediately. Which brings us on to our next section.

Recharging

Obviously it’s going to be a bit of a pain to remove the batteries to recharge them, so we will charge them through the neck cable. Buy a female DC socket to match the plug you bought for the bottle battery. Also buy a female connector to match the RSP charger’s plug. Solder them together and ta-da! You have an adapter cable to connect your battery to the charger. Watch the polarity here, or you might set fire to your house.

If you don’t want to take the risk of breaking your original RSP charger, any DC power supply capable of supplying 7.5V with at least 300mA should do the trick.

Considerations

The original RSP battery had a warning LED for low battery. You don’t, so be careful you don’t over-discharge the bottle battery or you might damage the NiMH cells. As soon as the LEDs start to go dim, switch them off. You would, of course, be wise to keep a regular battery light in your bag in case of emergencies. I keep a Cat Eye HL-EL510 for situations like these.

The original RSP battery had automatic charging shutoff when it was full. You don’t, so be careful not to overcharge the batteries. Probably 12-18 hours will be enough. Check the instructions that came with your batteries.

You can get around both of these considerations if you pilfer or copy the PCB in the top of the original RSP battery pack. Again, depends if you are willing to sacrifice your original battery pack, and if you can be bothered with the effort.

In the past, I’ve enjoyed reading Photoshop Disasters. Today I was delighted to spot my own Photoshop Disaster in Dorothy Perkins.

Looks to me as though they’ve just chopped her fingers off to resemble pockets.

I have a secondary current account with Halifax, which I use for paying bills and rent.Today I received a letter from them. Here’s an extract:

From 6th December 2009 we’ll no longer be paying the 0.1% AER/gross interest we pay you on the balance in your account, or charging you debit interest on any overdraft you use. Instead, we’re introducing new, simple and easy-to-manage overdraft fees.

• If you use an arranged overdraft up to £2,500, we’ll charge you £1 a day
• If you use an arranged overdraft over £2,500, we’ll charge you £2 a day
• If you use an unarranged overdraft, we’ll charge you £5 a day
• We won’t charge you any interest on an overdraft, whether it’s arranged or unarranged.

I’m no financial expert and I’m sure Halifax have their reasons for implementing this policy. But to your man off the street, the expected way that banking works is quite simple.

• You are rewarded for saving with a bank
• You are penalised for borrowing from a bank

By these rules, it seems that Halifax have increased their penalties and totally stopped their reward. So there is now no incentive to have a current account with Halifax. My account is almost never in overdraft but I don’t wish to be charged £5 every time my broadband company sends a larger-than-expected bill. I also don’t wish to go without my 0.1% interest, as a matter of principle.

Surely they realise that people will flock away from such a proposal? I for one plan to close my account immediately and move it to a different bank. No doubt a run on the bank will cause them to collapse, and demand a bail-out from the government, but oh well.

I’ve now written several Nagios plugins and submitted them all to MonitoringExchange.

Here’s a quick summary:

• check_temper for monitoring the temperature with a TEMPer USB thermometer
• check_kernel for checking that the currently running kernel on an RPM-based system is the most recent installed kernel (not necessarily the latest available kernel in the repository)
• check_aql_balance for monitoring the number of SMS text message credits on your AQL account^[1]
• check_k8temp for monitoring the temperature of an AMD K8 (e.g. Athlon or Sempron) CPU

Since I started playing with 35mm photography a few weeks ago, I’ve been using Snappy Snaps near Clifton Down shopping centre. It came with the recommendation of a friend.

I’ve simply been asking them to develop the film into negatives and then I’ve been scanning the negatives myself. But I noticed that the first few rolls had scratches and dirt on them. Today when I went to pick up the latest roll, they were still finishing with it when I turned up, so I was able to watch.

The film came snaking out of the machine, and the guy working there yanked it out, treating it with all the care you’d think more appropriate for a roll of toilet paper. He put his fingers all over the film, making no attempt to handle it by the edges.

When he came to cut the film into strips, again he handled the film by touching it all over and cut it roughly. I noticed that one of his cuts went diagonally and took thin strips off the edges of two frames.

I’m no expert on film, but it seems pretty common sense to me that you should handle something as delicate as film with care, and not put fingerprints all over it. It’s not like it’s difficult to hold it by the edges, either.

Accredited professional photographer Glen Smith recommends treating negatives in the following way:

Negatives are particularly subject to damage. The smallest spot of dust, scratch or finger print will be enlarged many times when the negative is printed. Always handle negatives by the edges. A finger print on a negative can ruin a print. Negatives can be gently wiped to remove fingerprints but then there is the risk of scratches. Clean white cotton gloves are ideal if not always practical.

This is exactly what anyone with common sense would suggest as a sensible way of caring for negatives, too.

So now I know how my films get damaged during processing, and I think it’s safe to say I won’t be going to Snappy Snaps at Clifton Down again.

Update: There is an example of a scratched negative here on my photo blog.