How Chriscrawfordphoto does it...

kbg32 said:
Priceless Chris! Goes to show, with knowledge, patience, it really does not matter if it is a darkroom or lightroom print. What matters is attention to one's technique and soul.

Bravo.
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Thanks, Keith. I began digital printing back in 2003. 11 years ago...ancient times by digital standards, and I had a Hell of a time learning this stuff. I had done darkroom printing since I was 15, and I was VERY good. The learning curve for scanning, photoshop editing, and getting good quality black and white prints was enormous. The tutorials I've written and made videos for are designed to help others start out doing it right without the frustration, trial and error, and lengthy research I had to do.
 
Chris.. It was fun to see how you process your film. Your free use of water reminds me how the California drought has changed my water use. I also now know that someone in your household plays croquet... I think. I've enjoyed your contribution to RF over the years... thanks..
 
bwcolor said:
Chris.. It was fun to see how you process your film. Your free use of water reminds me how the California drought has changed my water use. I also now know that someone in your household plays croquet... I think. I've enjoyed your contribution to RF over the years... thanks..
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Water is plentiful in the Midwest. Fort Wayne has three rivers and about 50 small streams that flow into them! Our water comes from one of the rivers. It looks like a lot of water is used, but I think running my clothes washer or taking a shower takes more water than film developing does.

The junk in the basement is all crap my family has stored there for decades. This used to be my grandparents house. A lot of the stuff belongs to my parents (despite them having a much larger house!), my sister, and my uncle, as well as stuff my grandmother hoarded. Before I moved in, my mother (its her parents house) threw away a whole dumpster full of empty egg cartons, empty kleenex boxes, etc. The basement was full of crap like that. I think the croquet set belongs to my grandma. We used to play with it when I was a kid, but no one, not even my grandparents, knew how to actually play the game. Don't know why they bought it or when, but its been there at least 40 years.
 
I had a patient a few weeks ago that plays croquet professionally. I didn't realize that such a profession existed. Maybe your grandmother was on to something.
 
Chriscrawfordphoto said:
I had done darkroom printing since I was 15, and I was VERY good.
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You were, or are you still?
I like how you're so confident in your ability. From what I've seen you ARE really good and the confidence to say it is great to see. I feel like most people have trouble claiming something that's true. No reason to be modest if you are great, right?

I haven't even looked yet, but can already tell this is going to be great. Thankfully I don't have to get up early tomorrow morning, because I think I'll be watching/reading a lot from about 30 seconds from now.
 
People seem not willing to follow instructions. They want to screw around with stand developing, push processing, old film, etc. This is a precision project and you need to use a film, calibrate to it, and do exactly the same thing time after time. Want the same result, do it the same way.

I have not read Chris methods, but I will guarantee he fully exposes and used proper developing. Only way.
 
Tijmendal said:
You were, or are you still?
I like how you're so confident in your ability. From what I've seen you ARE really good and the confidence to say it is great to see. I feel like most people have trouble claiming something that's true. No reason to be modest if you are great, right?

I haven't even looked yet, but can already tell this is going to be great. Thankfully I don't have to get up early tomorrow morning, because I think I'll be watching/reading a lot from about 30 seconds from now.
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I still develop my own film, but I scan the negs instead of printing in the darkroom. I've suffered from serious health problems most of my life, most recently I had a minor stroke a year ago! I had to stop darkroom printing because the chemicals were causing me severe respiratory problems, even though I had a very good ventilation system. That was 10 years ago!

I would like to do a video showing printing. I teach private lessons in Fort Wayne for people who want to work directly with me to learn, and I have had a couple of people recently who wanted to learn darkroom work. Both were high school art teachers who were told they needed to teach darkroom (both were young teachers who had only done digital), so I met them at their schools and taught them. It had been years since I'd done it, but its like riding a bicycle, you never forget! I miss it, but don't miss getting sick. I didn't spend enough time in the darkrooms to affect me badly when I was teaching these teachers, but if I had my darkroom working again I know I'd end up spending all day in there.

I'd like to do a video of darkroom printing, but I'd have to find someone willing to let me use theirs.
 
Ronald M said:
People seem not willing to follow instructions. They want to screw around with stand developing, push processing, old film, etc. This is a precision project and you need to use a film, calibrate to it, and do exactly the same thing time after time. Want the same result, do it the same way.

I have not read Chris methods, but I will guarantee he fully exposes and used proper developing. Only way.
Click to expand...


Ronald,

I agree with you. I think some of it, like esoteric developing methods such as stand developing, represents the perpetual quest for a "Magic Bullet" some photographers spend a lifetime chasing.

Pushing is useful in some types of work, like photojournalism, where getting a shot is so important that you can sacrifice absolute quality (example, if the film you have isn't fast enough, you can push to 'get a picture' even if the picture sucks..its better than no picture).

Using old film is just tightfistedness. I know some people who do it genuinely don't have much money, but RFF is full of men who make more than 95% of the population of the USA or the EU, who own $30,000 worth of Leica gear, and then quibble over spending $6 a roll for film. Dumb, dumb, dumb.
 
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