Poll: Isn't Printing the Greatest Thing?

Poll: Isn't Printing the Greatest Thing?

  • Absolutely !!!!

    Votes: 461 76.6%

  • It's okay, but I hate the chemicals.

    Votes: 41 6.8%

  • No, it's just something you have to do.

    Votes: 26 4.3%

  • Forget about it -- I'm all-digital now.

    Votes: 74 12.3%
  • Total voters
    602
This is my method as well- tho I jump right to the fiber paper after my proofsheets (miss that single weight paper). I print up things that look promising, and then edit from these.
 
Hmmnnn . . . I have been debating going straight from the contact to fiber, however, I notice, that I really cannot read my contacts or negs as well as i think I should be able to. Sometimes an image on the contact looks great, but when enlarged, it is not as exciting as i was hoping for it to be, or vice versa.

Also, if I started with Fiber first, it is such a long process, the printing, making it the values fall where you wan them to, dodging and burning, and then the processing times, and the final procedures for washing. by the time I done I probably would only be able to see about 20 different images, and I might have missed an image or two otherwise.

Since RC is quicker for the intial proofs, I generally start here then proceed to Fiber.

I am curious to know if you think you have ever missed an image by going from your contacts to your fiber?

Another reason why I start with RC is because I like to use these prints for dummy books as well, and I can write notes on the back, if an idea comes to mind.

Just a thought . . .
 
sepiareverb said:
I've got RA4 chemistry & color paper on the way! I print b&w 2x a week minimum, but I haven't printed color since 1983- this is going to be a blast!
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I was born in 1983. I think you should send me one of those color prints because of that. 😀
 
If you were here in the NW

If you were here in the NW

I might have had a job for you. As much as I love the DR, I found I lost a lot of money in the darkroom vs. in the field shooting. Now that I am semi-retired, I tend to scan and print in the computer light-room.

ChrisPlatt said:
I definitely enjoy printing more than picture taking.

Chris
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Back to basics for me. Touch wood for luck, i'll be back to printing my own negs again, when i move house. It's been years, and have i've forgotten a lot of techniques and such. However, i am sure that i will have the same wonder and joy i had the first time i saw an image of mine appear like magic!!

Sisyphus, that is something i was taught on my HND course. We'd use RC papers for project ideas, enlarging the image before final "judgement" and then use Fibre paper for the final image, display etc. In my interview, i had a scrap book of ideas collected, and few portfolio images. Others had just portfolio shots. My lecturer later told me that it was this book that got me a place because it showed my thought processes, and that's what they were interested in.
 
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Ok.. I voted "I'm all digital now"

Even though that is not true.

I like printing and I think that I can handle my own at printing, but for me (someone who started with digital)... i find that shooting film, scanning it, and then doing all of my work with the digital printing aspect (photoshop) i can get every bit of detail and look that i want out of my prints.

Thus, I would rather do my prints in photoshop rather than the darkroom. I feel limited by the darkroom wet printing. Especially when it comes to 35mm.
 
I usually do my darkroom work with a friend of mine who is much more into that than I am, he enjoys it very much when he get's to guess the exposures and use multigrade papers with filters. And he's prints are much better than mine. But still I enjoy the feeling there, just relaxing and listening to some music with a good friend. I'm trying to get better at printing. 🙂
 
sepiareverb said:
Not me. I spend enough time sitting here for job and for diversion that to sit here for photogrpahy would just put me over the edge.
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Ditto! I just wish I was a better printer (and there's probably only one way to get there; print more! 🙂)
 
I hope to get into the darkroom this weekend. It's been about a month for me. This time will be especially nice as

1) I've gotten speakers for my ipod, so no more humming to myself, and
2) I'm itching to try the new samples of AGFA MCC paper that arrived in the mail from Adox this weekend 😀
 
Yes, printing is a truely amazing thing. But nothing, utterly nothing, comes close to that first neg coming out of the fixer... The print, while important for sharing, is irrelevant at that point; what matters is the negative.

William
 
BW darkroom printing is the best, I could spend days doing it, however colour darkroom printing is just not my bag. Dont know how others feel about it?
 
My 'wet' darkroom is my hermitage for contemplation, It is the place where I can exclude the world, and bringing in the only part the film is bearing and were the thoughts can be unleashed.
Working in the dark room is just more than 'printing' it is thinking to, thinking about other things than just photography, or precisely 'about' photography.
The dry darkroom just takes away the possibilities to think about anything else but P.S., I feel it as a prison for the free thoughts.
This is, to my humble opinion, why the results of my wet prints are better, the atmosphere has an important influence.
 
sepiareverb said:
I've got RA4 chemistry & color paper on the way! I print b&w 2x a week minimum, but I haven't printed color since 1983- this is going to be a blast!
Click to expand...

Where are you getting your RA-4 chemistry from? Are you paying a HazMat charge?
 
Printing (as in a darkroom)

Printing (as in a darkroom)

This discussion will go on as long as there is still film available to develop and the paper and chemicals with which to print image thereon. I compare the discussion to the nuanced differences between listening to music from a 33-1/3 LP and the same music from a digital CD. THERE IS A DIFFERENCE, serious audiophiles will tell you. There is a richness in tonal range in the LP that is often lacking in the os and 1s reproduction of sound in the digital world. I believe this also applies to photography. I've been a shooter for more than 40 years and while I do all of my professional work with a digital system today (I own a newspaper and am its photographer/editor). I still love to shoot film with my Leica M4-P, process the film, and either wet print or scan the results. Digital is certainly faster and more convenient for the purpose I use it for, but film, like that LP sound, has a nuance to it that I do not find in digital.
 
I teach conventional, chemical-base printing techniques plus inkjet printing in two totally different classes at Los Angeles City College, CA, and I can assure readers that most students still enjoy the results they get in a traditional darkroom. Furthermore, they become far more proficient in digital photography once they've mastered the basic printing skills in what now is referred to as an analog darkroom.
 
...it's just magical.

...it's just magical.

yes, printing is the greatest thing. why? ...it's just magical.

it is both a coninuing challenge & a continuing learning experience. maybe one of these days i'll get the hang of it. 😛

the seeds we plant today are the harvest of today's and tomorrow's children of the world.

kenneth
NEVER FORGET BESLAN
www.neverforgetbeslan.org
www.neverforgetbeslan.com
neverforgetbeslan@gmail.com (thank you mike g in jerusalem)
 
I love being in the darkroom. Black and white or colour, it is the most satisfying process.
Except when you get dust in the equation. It drives me so mad!
 
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