![]() There may be more than ten or so distinct dodging and burning steps in making a print. Sometimes I spend hours and more than a dozen sheets of paper getting the process just right.ĭodging and burning alone can be quite complex. This is the part of the process that consumes the most time. For the most part this involves changing the exposure time, contrast filter, as well as dodging a burning. The next step is experimenting to change the overall look and tonality of the photo. It probably could have benefited from another half stop of exposure but it still gives me all the information I need to know. In this form the image seems fairly flat and underexposed. The print was exposed with a #4 (higher contrast) filter at an aperture of f/8 for 24 seconds. Finding the right aperture and exposure time is a process of trial and error that is greatly aided by experience.Ībove is the straight print of James printed on Ilford warmtone glossy fiber-based paper. The printer can also vary how long the paper is exposed. Like a camera, the aperture of the enlarger lens change be changed. The other variable involved is the amount of light to which the paper is exposed. When making a straight print, I typically try and keep the contrast fairly flat to be able to better evaluate the negative. In darkroom printing, you can control contrast through the grade of the paper selected, or more easily by using paper that allows contrast to be controlled through the use of different filters placed under the enlarger lens. ![]() Is it acceptably sharp? Are the highlights blown out or is shadow detail missing? Is the photograph worth taking the time to print well? This allows you to evaluate the negative and all the information it contains. ![]() A straight print is a print made directly from the negative with no manipulation. The next step is taking the negative and making a straight print in the darkroom. The developer choice as well as the development time and temperature influences the negative contrast and sharpness. ![]() It was developed for 10 minutes at 70 degrees Fahrenheit in a 2:2:400 solution of Pyrocat HD film developer. This is the actual negative from which the final print was made. After development, this resulted in a crisp 6 cm x 6 cm film negative. This image was taken in a studio with a Hasselblad 501cm and a 150mm lens using medium format Ilford HP5+ film. The Film Negativeįor this example we’ll start with a picture of James. Developing the negative is an art in and of itself, but for now we’ll focus on making an actual print, assuming you are starting with an acceptable negative. The film you choose can have a big effect on the final print, from the grain structure and sharpness, to the overall tonality of the image. What can be done in Photoshop in a few minutes might take all day in a darkroom. It’s not about clicking a button to see what happens but rather more about looking deeper and imagining what can be. It’s the difficulty and painstaking nature of the craft that ultimately makes it so rewarding. The nuances of creating a print can only be learned through hard work and experience. Nothing is ever exact and no two prints are ever the same. Making a print in the darkroom involves intuition and guess work. Unlike Photoshop, you can’t quickly make changes and see the results. It takes hours upon hours to learn how to make a competent print in the darkroom. You can’t step into a darkroom for the first time and emerge a few hours later with an acceptable print. The learning curve with darkroom printing is very steep. Making a print in the darkroom is not that simple. Not only that, Photoshop allows you to experiment and see your changes in real time. While you can spend a lifetime learning the intricacies of Photoshop, you can learn the basics fairly quickly. With Photoshop, the rudiments of editing a photograph is fairly straightforward. I wanted to follow up that post with a similar article on traditional darkroom printing where I show the process of taking an image from the original film negative to the final print. Starting with the original photograph straight from the camera, I showed how the image changed during each step of the process. I recently posted an article showing an example where I edited a digital image in Adobe Photoshop.
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