Is silver-halide printing over?

Cost wise it's never been cheaper for equipment. I got almost a whole darkroom of equipment for free. I have seen equipment on Craigslist for practally nothing. It's a great time to start printing.
 
I can't imagine having to make prints with an ink-jet printer. Man those cartridges are annoying, capitol A. And they are so expensive!
 
What gets me is how so many ink-jet printers are still trying to emulate what they could get in a darkroom using tools that won't become obsolete in two or three years.
 
Every few weeks or so I'll get an itch and shoot some 120 film then mix up some chemicals and spend hours in my darkroom making a bunch of prints.

Maybe my wife is just humoring me, but she then wants to frame and hang them on the wall.

and to think all those bad things I thought about wives some time ago
 
gb hill said:
Cost wise it's never been cheaper for equipment. I got almost a whole darkroom of equipment for free. I have seen equipment on Craigslist for practally nothing. It's a great time to start printing.
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Agree, in my new darkroom I got my 6ft sink with stand for free as well as a prehung door for $10, among other great deals.
 
I can't believe that people can slap themselves on the back for getting an enlarger etc for next to nothing (yes I'm jealous) but can also consider that silver printing is not in serious decline. You can't have a glut of virtually give away darkroom equipment unless there is a good reason ... the reason being of course that no one wants to use it any more!

I'm not spelling doom and gloom for wet print darkrooms because I would love to have one some day ... I'm just not prepared to look at my hobby through a romanticised rose coloured pair of glasses.
 
Keith said:
I can't believe that people can slap themselves on the back for getting an enlarger etc for next to nothing (yes I'm jealous) but can also consider that silver printing is not in serious decline. You can't have a glut of virtually give away darkroom equipment unless there is a good reason ... the reason being of course that no one wants to use it any more!

I'm not spelling doom and gloom for wet print darkrooms because I would love to have one some day ... I'm just not prepared to look at my hobby through a romanticised rose coloured pair of glasses.
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We know it's in serious decline but for those of us that still hold on to it it is not and if we can benefit from those going over to digital and reap the benefits of that so be it. Their loss and our gain.
 
Riaz Mesbah said:
I love working in a darkroom but the thing I have noticed, and what has ultimately driven me to digital output, is that the prices of raw materials have gone up a lot in the last 5 years. Chemicals, paper, and film all cost more and this is where traditional process is going to get tripped up i think. I think that if you take the collective cost increases in wet processes you will get to a point where it just doesn't make sense financially for most of us to print wet process anymore. There will always be someone printing fiber base silver but they will be the people who regularly sell prints at $3000+. My guess is the point when things get REALLY expensive is about 8-10 years off. When that happens even schools like RIT will move away from silver because of the cost, and learning how to print traditional processes will be taught in a class much like platinum/palladium printing is now. In other words, Silver dies not when it's manufacture ceases but when the cost of printing becomes to great to get new photographers to take up the art. If you need an example look at brass casting, It was an industry tied to an art. Those who knew how to pour brass had a job where ever they went because every large town had a brasserie, and so many artists who produced some of the greatest sculpture of the 19th and 20th century also had a means to support themselves. Technology, in this case plastics, supplanted the economic need for brass casting. because of decreased demand the raw inputs to the process went up in cost and you now have a situation today where this art form is about to be lost because there are less than 100 people in the world who know both the technical and artistic side of things.
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This is pretty much how things will turn out and you've done a good job explaining the underlying economic forces at work. As an economist friend once told me, We will never run out of oil. It will just get too expensive to use and we'll switch to something else.

/T
 
I've just started printing this year too and am loving it. Now I have a fairly permanent darkroom in the 3rd bedroom of my house and will get to print in there tonight. I can hardly wait; but I do have a good deal of work ahead of me to crank out 4 presentation-worthy prints by Friday morning.

Wish me luck!

Oh...and usagisakana....I sure wish I could borrow that print dryer from you tonight. C'est la vie!
 
Keith said:
You can't have a glut of virtually give away darkroom equipment unless there is a good reason ... the reason being of course that no one wants to use it any more!
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I prefer to think about it as "changing hands" :)

Of course since the user base has shrunk from *all* to *some* professionals/hobbyist, a lot of these fine enlargers would end up rusting in the landfills. But I think it's more reason for us to not let this worthy craft to fade away into history.

This is a call to preserve an art form, not to put on rose-tinted glasses as you mentioned -- which, is actually bad because I'd then only see my prints as having way more contrast than it actually does :p :p
 
Ha...the blotter book. Yes, I just got one last Friday and noticed that it said on the cover "not for glossy papers". Wanna guess exactly what type paper I have to print on?

So, I used the local community college darkroom to print Monday night and put the prints into the blotter book following the directions printed on the cover- "squeeze off excess water from print side onto blotter page, then turn picture over, letting the wax paper sit on top, and then compress with heavy weight and leave in a warm room to fully dry".

Checked the prints the next morning and all 6 had the wax paper stuck to the photo. All ruined.

Good thing the prints were fairly disposable (except for one......) since I didn't have enough developer in the tray for even development. Tonight must be successful.

Thanks for the oven tip...that might just be the way to go. Set the temp at it's lowest setting?
 
blw said:
Ha...the blotter book. Yes, I just got one last Friday and noticed that it said on the cover "not for glossy papers". Wanna guess exactly what type paper I have to print on?

So, I used the local community college darkroom to print Monday night and put the prints into the blotter book following the directions printed on the cover- "squeeze off excess water from print side onto blotter page, then turn picture over, letting the wax paper sit on top, and then compress with heavy weight and leave in a warm room to fully dry".

Checked the prints the next morning and all 6 had the wax paper stuck to the photo. All ruined.

Good thing the prints were fairly disposable (except for one......) since I didn't have enough developer in the tray for even development. Tonight must be successful.

Thanks for the oven tip...that might just be the way to go. Set the temp at it's lowest setting?
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Why not just drip dry on a line of string?
 
shadowfox said:
I prefer to think about it as "changing hands" :)

Of course since the user base has shrunk from *all* to *some* professionals/hobbyist, a lot of these fine enlargers would end up rusting in the landfills. But I think it's more reason for us to not let this worthy craft to fade away into history.

This is a call to preserve an art form, not to put on rose-tinted glasses as you mentioned -- which, is actually bad because I'd then only see my prints as having way more contrast than it actually does :p :p
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I have been frustrated in several attempts to get an enlarger. They don't seem to crop up on eBay in Oz too often and when they do they are never in Brisbane and no one seems to offer anything other than local pick up!

An old photographer (80+) who lives locally approached me a while ago to let me know he had a Focomat V35 for sale which was in virtually new condition but wanted far too much for it ... based of course on what he had paid for it back whenever. No matter how much I tried to convince him it was virtually valueless he didn't want to know about it and subsequently became offended and now won't talk to me any more! :p

I'm not giving up though and want to experience that feelng of watching an image materialise in the developing tray before my eyes ... I used to spend time in my mother's darkroom as a child and was totally amazed the fist time she allowed me into her haven to see the phenomenon!

The whirring and clacking of my Epson R2400 just doesn't make me feel the least bit romantic I'm afraid ... perhaps I need rose coloured ear plugs! :p
 
You might be able to find a place that rents out darkroom time. I live in an apartment so creating my own darkroom is impractical, but there are several places in LA where you can rent darkroom time by the hour.
 
pesphoto,

I do drip dry at first, but I only have a tile shower to hang them in and only a couple places to anchor a line. At best I can get 5 on there, although the way it's currently set up, I only have room for 3. There's also no more available counter space in the darkroom for the drier prints either.

I know, I know.....wah.
 
A great day in the darkroom yesterday, prints for a little exhibit. Such a relaxing way to spend 6 hours.

I dry on screens with a small fan running. Usually can get dry prints overnight, but when it's rainy weather it takes longer. My screens are regular aluminum frame fiberglass window screens stacked up, with some spacers every three screens.
 
Built a darkroom in my attic a couple of years ago and I still love it. Recently finished digital course which was Ok but it doesn't give me the buzz of the room that gurgles.

Today I've used D76 for the first time with some 6X9 's and I am about to do some contacts....man negatives are so beautiful.

Just glad they invented digital so I could afford to buy all this amazing gear at long last.:D
 
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