How many people print wet rather than digital?

[Rayt]

I still use my enlarger for b&w prints. Sometimes I do fiber prints for others. It keeps me in practice. Printing a beautiful b&w fiber print in the darkroom is very rewarding. I stopped wet printing color after the demise of cibachrome. Twenty years ago I tried inkjet printing but found it hard to keep the nozzles clean without pissing thru a lot of expensive ink. I simply did not print enough color work to make it worth while. Color prints get sent out for the few color prints I want.

Cleaning the nozzle during start up uses up a lot of ink and the last print when there’s only enough ink to print half of it was also a waste. Looking at my wet room prints I am reminded why hard work pays.

 

[38Deardorff]

Well-made silver gelatin prints are much more durable.

gelatin silver print (summar 50mm f2) leica lll

Churchilllaan, Amsterdam 2022
View attachment 4876280

Durability isn't one of my concerns when i'm in the darkroom....

 

[mrtoml]

I have a selection of monochrome darkroom and digital prints on my walls (RC, Fibre, matt and glossy). I very much doubt that anyone could tell which were which. I don't have a darkroom any longer, but there are things I can do with digital monochrome prints that would be impossible with more tradtional methods (at least with my level of darkroom proficiency).

The only process I miss from my darkroom days is lith printing which has particularly unique aspects. But it is getting increasingly difficult these days to find suitable papers and chemistry for that process.

I have been using monochrome inksets in Epson printers for the last 25 years including the very first system from Jon Cone and never been disappointed with the final results.

 

[DennisM]

Gave away my enlarger, timers, safe lights, trays, etc a short time ago. Had a hard time even doing that. My local high school and community college didn't want the equipment. Good luck to anyone trying to sell darkroom equipment. Re: printers: I currently develop B&W film and scan my negatives (Epson V600). Results are outstanding IMO. It's very easy to eliminate dust spots, and other imperfections in negatives using Lightroom as well as to adjust contrast, highlights shadows, etc; not so easy with wet printing; No issues whatsoever with Canon printers; Canon Customer Service in my experience is excellent and print quality is excellent as well; hard for me to tell the difference between a darkroom print and a digital print.

 

[Formerly presspass]

An occasional digital print, usually color with an HP laser printer. After a hiatus of eight months, I'm getting my darkroom back up - new developer, replenisher, and fixer for film and, once that's done, refill my slot processor for printing. I have two decent enlargers, a Leitz V35 and an LPL 4x5, both with split image modules. Now I have to make myself take the first steps to return to the darkroom. Once underway, I like it, but I can procrastinate with the best of them.

 

[Harry the K]

both with split image modules.

You mean the Heiland system?

 

[Formerly presspass]

Yes. Sorry I wasn't specific. Both are the older versions, not the more recent LED ones.The only problem I have is they do not list some of the more recently available papers such as those from Foma.

 

[Erik van Straten]

gelatin silver print (color skopar 50mm f2.5) leica m2

P.H. 2010, Amsterdam

 

[WoodallP]

I would love the space to have a darkroom like when I was a teenager 40 years ago!

 

[skucera]

Being a gadgeteer, I used to have all my rolls printed so I could look at the prints. Then my local camera shop had their one minilab that could develop and print 110 film and 16mm break down, and since then I haven't shot a lot of 110 film. Why 110? Not because of picture quality. 😉 Like I said, I'm a gadgeteer. Since then, I've shot a few rolls of 35mm per year, but it is less common than in the past. That may change, because I've bought some new 35mm SLR's lately, and a neat rangefinder too.

Who knows... I may even get my darkroom together and try some B/W developing again....

Scott

 

[x-ray]

I still have a full dedicated wet darkroom with a 35 Focomat, Omega D5XL with Ilford B&W head and a Durst 5x7 Laborator. Unfortunately I don’t use it enough. I keep promising myself I’ll get back in there and print some negs I’ve never printed but I just never seem to do it. I’m guessing it’s been 7-8 years sing I’ve printed and I have no excuse. I have a fridge full of film and fiber Agfa and Ilford paper and a closet full of chemicals. I just need to get off my behind and get in there.

As far as digital, I have a 24” and a 17” Epson that has mainly been used for gallery prints and an occasional set of color prints for myself.

I used to turn my nose up at digital prints but in reality in a gallery environment under good lighting matted and under glass I can’t see any real difference. I fact the digital may look a little better.

There’s just something I enjoy about fine wet prints. The level of skill required to make fine silver prints makes them special.

 

[filmtwit]

I ahven't wet printed in a few years, but then again I haven't really made many digital prints since my walls are kind of covered already

 

[Harry the K]

Yes. Sorry I wasn't specific. Both are the older versions, not the more recent LED ones.The only problem I have is they do not list some of the more recently available papers such as those from Foma.

Have you never updated? Heiland provides updates on their website, and they feed new papers into the system.

 

[Mcary]

Currently doing alternate prints from digital negatives, but thinking of picking up an enlarger and experimenting with making darkroom contact prints from digital negatives.

 

[Freakscene]

Currently doing alternate prints from digital negatives, but thinking of picking up an enlarger and experimenting with making darkroom contact prints from digital negatives.

This is what I do. On Adox Lupex or other extinct (mostly) chloride contact printing papers, the effect is amazing. Carbon on rag paper from inkjet will last much longer, but nothing looks quite as nice as air dried glossy paper.

 

[Formerly presspass]

Harry,
I have never updated. The early updates were MSDOS and all I've had since 1984 are Macs. The other issue is the connector. Both my controllers are so old they have the SCSI connector, not one of the USB sizes.

 

[ChrisPlatt]

In college I built a darkroom in my parents basement. I shot a couple rolls of film each week then and really enjoyed making wet prints.
The Queens College Anthropology department had a terrific darkroom as well: 6 Beseler 23CII-XL enlargers, plus fresh chemicals always. 🙂

Now that I'm retired I hope/plan to construct adaptations to allow my bathroom to be used as a temporary darkroom for occasional use.

Chris

 

[Harry the K]

Harry,
I have never updated. The early updates were MSDOS and all I've had since 1984 are Macs. The other issue is the connector. Both my controllers are so old they have the SCSI connector, not one of the USB sizes.

My controller is old, too. There are dirt cheap SCSI-USB adaptors, and they work, as I know from experience. Would be a pity if you don't get those wonderful machines to work properly.

 

[Sanug]

I am very happy to have my darkroom re-installed since a few years. Wet printing is such a joy for me, compared to digital postprocessing.

 

[JeffS7444]

I sometimes daydream about shooting 5x7 film and contact-printing the results like Edward Weston did: I loved viewing his works at very close range (almost touching my nose), because the detail seemed almost infinite, whereas with digital printing techniques, the dots can only be so small. But that's an extreme example. Although I've seen nothing that quite replicates the luster of air-dried glossy FB paper, my circa 2015 Canon Pixma Pro can produce whatever b&w tonality I need without a hint of oily sheen or unwanted tint.

But would I consider an all-analog setup again? You bet, but for grins, I might want to try a much smaller, more narrowly-focused arrangement than my previous one. Such as 35 mm and smaller formats only, b&w only, and no prints larger than 5x7.