Please help me with getting prints

[zwarte_kat]

Hi, beginner here, stalking this forum quite a bit recently, you guys are great!

I have recently been shooting 35mm in BW and color. improving bit by bit.
I like to shoot a lot. In the last month I have shot, scanned and uploaded over 250 useable shots to flickr. Since I spend a lot of time already shooting and scanning, I always pay to have my negatives made and I am content with the results.

Now I haven't seen any of those shots printed yet 🙁

I want to start seeing some prints! But I am not sure how to approach this. I live in a small guesthouse room with shared... well shared everything except my bedroom. I also move about once a year on average. I have no option for my own darkroom.

However, I don't mind investing a little bit. I have no big costs (see the guesthouse) and can spend nice amounts on photography. I often convert money and prices to rolls of film in my head!

Anyway, how can I approach this? Should I first have a bunch printed by the store to get an idea of basic quality? Then maybe have a couple done more expensively on nice paper etc.
Then I could decide to rent a darkroom. But should I stick to either only color or BW? Lately I like to shoot color, but is it more difficult to print?

Or should I just focus on shooting and have my prints done for me? What are the biggest reasons you print yourself, besides that it is cheaper or maybe more fun?

My goal for this year is to have a little exhibition in a cafe or something somewhere, or maybe make a book for myself. No need to make money with it.

I know, a lot of questions. but even if you could answer one I'd be happy.
Cheers!

 

[Chris101]

If you are located near a community college, check to see if they offer a darkroom photography course. This is often a great way to have access to not only a darkroom with all the trimmings, but also the possibility of expert guidance and peer critique of your work.

 

[Roger Hicks]

Wet colour printing is quite a lot more hassle. Not really difficult, just time consuming. Although my wife and I have a purpose-built darkroom, and colour heads for our enlargers, we no longer wet print colour: scan, or digital. Wet B+W is much easier and, in the views of many, gives much superior results to digital/inkjet/whatever. Yes, I'd try for darkroom rental if I were you.

Cheers,

R.

 

[kully]

As Roger and Chris have already said, use some communal facilities first to get a feel. You'll get hints and tips from others and you'll learn better with the extra space.

However, until last year I lived in a tiny two-up, two-down Victorian terrace and managed to set up a darkroom in a very small space in the loft. I never measured it, but it was something like 5ft square and too low for me to stand up in - I sat on a small stool. It was fun, but too hot in the summer and too cold in the winter. I would have found it frustrating if I hadn't learnt the basics from on a photo school at the local college.

 

[Ronald M]

Commercial prints will never ever be done with the required care unless you opt for super expensive professional custom processing.

 

[Ronald M]

Maybe someone here could volunteer a few prints.

 

[Haigh]

I have never been a great fan of the darkroom for B&W but I always print my own B&W since I only know what I want when I get it. I can't expect a commercial lab to do this. Good suggestions by the members: share a darkroom, start with RC prints say, 5x4 so you are not burning through money. Keep your "mistakes", I even keep my test strips.
Good luck and lots of happy printing.

 

[skibeerr]

Where do you live,
Belgium or the Netherlands?

 

[zwarte_kat]

Thanks for all the replies. I will get some simple prints made, and start from there.
I live in Tokyo. I found a darkroom there that offers a one day course for a good price (exceptional price, actually, I think they are looking for more customers). I guess I will go there later and try out some BW printing.
After I see my scanned images, how will I know which ones will look good printed? They need to have good spread out levels right? Anything else I can look for? I want to make at least A4 sizes, don't care about smaller sizes, then I might as well look at them on my screen.