Why are photos sometimes ?

[Raggedyanne]

grainy and how can I prevent this? I am trying to learn all I can about photography and I really love it. However I have noticed that my photographs are sometimes grainy. What causes this? How can I fix or prevent it?
I am using a cheap point and shoot camera. My ISO varies because I change it depending on the picture but I think I may have it set to high, which is probably the problem so never mind.

 

[lilyj]

You have to adjust the focus on the enlarger to get rid of this graininess. What your school/darkroom should have is a magnifying glass-looking think that you can use with the lights off while your negative is in the enlarger. Your picture will be shinning on the table and what you do is place the magnifying glass overtop of the image and simply adjust the focus on the enlarger (while looking through the glass) until the grain is completely gone and you have a clean image.

The focus on the enlarger is different on each enlarger so I can't tell you exactly how to do it, but if you're in school and have a teacher/instructor to help you, you can ask where the focus is located on that specific enlarger. (There should really only be two adjustments i think on the enlarger though: the focus and the amount of light exposed [aperture]) The aperture is a number like 2 or 4.5 or 8. The focus shouldn't have a number.

Good luck and I hope this helps! Doing your own black and white photography take a bit of getting used to but it's well worth it! Great hobby!

lilyj

 

[Beatrix Kiddo]

Well, the quality and resolution of your camera is most likely the problem. Also a high ISO will produce grain. If you're shooting during the day, or even at dawn or dusk, you'll never need an ISO higher than 80....maybe 100 if it's a little dark. At night an ISO of 200 or 400 should do the trick if there's at least some ambient light to work with. If you have to use an ISO higher than that....you might as well wait for better lighting conditions.