This is the straight print. The right foreground is much less brightly illuminated than the rest of the photo so I thought this needed more work. In the end I am not entirely convinced it was worth it. Ironically, I have another photo taken about 2 minutes later of exactly the same thing but taken on Rollei IR film and there is no haze! If I had used multigrade paper I could have printed the different sections at different contrasts but maybe another time.
The print as printed without any dodging or burning:
So I did 2 dodge/burns. During the dodge the remaining part of the print gets more exposure:
The print after these dodges/burns is the gallery post photo.
It's a nice print, but I think it could be made stronger, by cropping a lot of the grass out of the foreground. Then burn the left and right sides about +25%. This adds interest and draws the eye to the mountains in the distance, which is the presumed focal point.
Add density to the top of the frame, and don't forget to add with a high filter grade to make the sky pop.
The masks you made work decently, but there's a bit of a problem in the adjacency of dark bottom and bright top along the diagonal. I say for that diagonal burn you made, you could use a bent straight edge and move it up and down, but never below that tree line. The mountains on the left are too dark at the bottom, and too bright at the top. Like this you will actually reverse that relationship and make the 'valley' brighter, creating a natural line for the eye to follow into the distance. (In addition you might consider dodging that lighter gray shape on the mountainside to the left. If you look at the shape of it and how it continues into the distance along the tree line and up on the mountains in the distance, that is a very classical gesture that is shaped like a hook. I saw that gesture in a lot of the work that Kertesz did, and I found it very effective.
Just some thoughts off the top of my head. I haven't been able to print in the darkroom for a long time due to school. It's nice to see the efforts of others who make prints. Thanks so much for sharing.
Thomas. This is not multigrade paper. It is fixed grade paper. Having said that, I could try another time with multigrade.
I agree that some of the foreground grass could be cropped out but it was taken from the top of a mountain (The Haunolköpfl) so for personal reasons I wanted to keep it much as I saw it with my eyes at the time.
The masks were kept moving but look at the actually gallery post and not the picture in the discussion thread. The picture in the discussion thread shows that distinct diagonal line between bright and dark and that is the straight print with no dodging or burning. The finished print shows the trees on that diagonal got a bit too much exposure.
Due to the mist and haze I don't think there will ever be much detail in the far side of the valley or the distant peaks.
Happy to share! Thank you for your interest. I will have another play around when I am next in the darkroom.
There is a difference between what you remember it looked like, and what you would like it to look like. I find that graded paper will give you an idea of what it looked like, but Multigrade will allow you to create the idealized version of the scene. I would print your negative as Thomas pointed out, on Multigrade, and make sky and mountains pop. But I have some rolls exposed around Neuschwanstein in Summer - and that`s what they look like: crisp in front and hazy mountains fading in the background.
I tried to "improve" the homely tones of my negatives with Multigrade, but couldn`t get the print I envisioned.
I guess each place has its light, and some are tougher than others to fine-tune according to our visual standards.
Hello Peter. Yes, I may have a go but I'm not really sure that this is going to pop with any amount of playing around. There is probably just too much haze. Clearly there is very little contrast in the left hand mountain or the central, distant mountains and this would need a high grade but I don't think the sky warrants a high grade as well. It will certainly challenge and probably considerably exceed my printing skills.
It is difficult to choose between the picture being close to what was actually seen and what might be considered ideal. I usually take a picture on my mobile phone as an aide memoire that also gives me the date taken and the exact location. I am reading "Way Beyond Monochrome" at the moment. Many of the pictures are very beautiful and undoubtedly magnificent but to my mind some of them are a long way from reality.
Before I go back to this print I am tempted to print the same scene taken on Rollei IR, with the same camera, about 5 minutes later. The IR has cut right through the haze (which is exactly what I intended).