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A/NZ Print Exchange Round #2 - Sign-up

My prints arrived today, what a lovely set. I do feel embarrassed my quality control was poor. But now having such excellent prints to look over gives me something once again to aim for. Last few months I have gone off my photography. Manly due to having vision issues. Now we are in a new year I can get myself some new glasses & I can see fine detail again. Everyone thank you for such excellent prints.
 
Prints arrived today, they look wonderful! Every one is awesome in it's own way, I am very pleased I took part in this exchange!

Thanks everyone!
 
My Group 1 prints arrived a day or two ago but I was interstate on busines and have only just had a chance to look at them. Some preliminary comments follow:

Overall: Again, a fine selection of work. True, there are some that I like more than others, but there's not one print that I think is "bad" or sub-standard. My thanks to all contributors.

Some comments on individual prints:

SM Booth - Trentham Falls: Lovely shot, Shane. Until I read your notes I hadn't twigged that this was a pinhole shot! (Yes, my wife also reckons I'm blind). But that explains the attractive "softness" around the corners. I like the composition with the foreground leading my eye into the main falls. A 4min exposure on Fomapan must mean you were deep into reciprocity failure territory. Do you recall what the metered exposure was?

Wyno - Lyndsey: Lovely, tasteful nude. Nicely printed given the level of burning you've indicated. Was it really all on the RHS as you've indicated or some LHS burning as well?

munz6869 - Not the tourist bit - Vienna, Austria: Another nice crisp architectural study. I'm beginning to detect a theme here, Marc! Interesting contrast between the tall, light toned building on the LHS and the squat dark-toned building on the RHS. Also interesting to see that Rodinal is 3 from 3 as developer of choice so far this round! (And I empathise with your comments about dust).

Kevin Caulfield - Funny Face: Lovely casual portrait that it will be fun to pull out at the appropriate time in the future (first date, wedding etc). Clearly you had to drug the poor wee bairn to get a sharp shot at 1/15th second - and that may also explain the pupils. You can probably expect a call from DOCS soon...

Nige - Companions: Dont really know what to say about this one. The physical proximity of the couple suggests shared lives/experiences/friendship.

Fleath - Thomas, 2007: Alex, nothing at all offensive about this. Despite your misgivings, I quite like it. We can be our own harshest critic - though that's not necessarily a bad thing if it means we continually strive to improve.

Fleath - Ground #3: This one, I really do like! Truly the silver lining to the cloud of delay! One of my personal "picks of the round". Thanks for sharing.

Chris Neilsen - Railway: Nice moody shot. I like the combination of extremely limited depth of field and lots of grain - and great to see that at least one person from across the ditch accepted the invitation to participate.

Hoffy - All The Boys And Girls Have Gone To Bed: My immediate thought was: "Toy Story 3 - the Even Darker Side". Further to your comments, I think the picture needs the patch of tiles - they balance the composition, and help add a bit of context. I keep wondering: what happened next?

Tomalophicon - Their First Match: Evoked strong memories of Saturday mornings at the park watching my lad play cricket as he grew up. Thanks.

Seabird - Trees: Not much to say about this one.

Unknown - Untitled Postcard of stone passageway: Another favourite. The warm image colour complements the subject matter.

Well, they took a while to arrive, but the results were worth the wait. Again, thank you to all in Group 1.

Carey Bird
http://members.iinet.net.au/~cbird/index.html
 
I must pick up prints this weekend from Tim.
Carey, I recorded and metered reading of 1/2sec at f22. Take that out to 1min for f290 which the pinhole is, then added some more for reciprocity. I think Foma recommend more like 13min as to my 4 min but it didn't seem to matter going by the result.
 
Hi my prints too have arrived. Brilliant, all of them. Will note some comments after I catch up with the kids since being away for most of last week.

Also there was a postcard with nothing sent along with it, whose would that be?
 
I got my prints yesterday (thanks Tim) they were supposed to be redirected but still went to the old address. Luckily my neighbour was good and took nthem nto the local post office and told them about it. I've had a quick look and am very impressed. I have to have a really good look at them tomorrow and make some comments. Thanks you to everyone for taking the time to do this. Unfortunately, until I get myself set up and get into a darkroom, I won't be producing anything very soon, so I won't be able to take part in the nest round(s).
Mike
 
AndrewK - Jorja, Thank for including me in this shot Andrew, inspiring shot with a nice combination of blends. Look great on the glossy paper

Wyno - Lyndsey: Nicely lit and classic pose. Almost abstract in a way without the eye contact

munz6869 - Not the tourist bit - That obvious, there's no people.. Great collection of geometric shapes which form a complete picture

Kevin Caulfield - Funny Face: Any shoot of your kids sitting still is a winner. Its a beautiful print in terms of tonal range a print quality

Nige - Companions: It nice to have somebody to sit next to, but the space beyond them still suggests a loneliness.

Fleath - Both great images, I like handmade print that show the hand of the maker.

Chris Neilsen - Railway: Choice image Bro. Lik the lit it the top of the image eh. Sweeet The tracks seem to go on as long as my mother in law..

Hoffy - All The Boys And Girls Have Gone To Bed:What and the kid don't wake up screaming....

Tomalophicon - First up I like the paper. Showing a typical weekend for a lot of Aussies, got a lovely depth to it too.

Seabid - Trees: Not feeling ripped at all, the light trees are in stark contrast to the surrounding bush, then the winding track add a whole different dimension on that side allow the eyes to look behind


Unknown - Untitled Postcard of stone passageway: Liking to natural light bouncing off the walls all the way done the hall, toning works really well.

Thanks to all

Shane
 
Okay guys, I know this thread has been a little quiet, but I really wanted to report back on my thoughts on the prints I received. I loved them all, I think they all had some very fantastic elements to them.

Round 2 photo review.

Postcard:

I love 'simple' scenes like this, where the casual observer would think 'nice picture of an old corridor', but the photographer would think 'wow, great job keeping nice tones in the shadows without blowing everything out'. Very well captured, and VERY well printed... I love the lingering tourist (?) at the far end too.


Michael W - Monk:

I love the idea of printing from old negs. I know for myself I often try to plan out the whole image from snapping to printing right while I'm photographing it, so jumping in after the initial decisions have been made is fantastic. The 'ruined' left side of the image is great, whether there was something pertinent there or not, I don't know, but I think you've managed to make it add, rather than subtract from the image. Very well printed, I love the big wide border too. I use Dektol 1:3 as one of my two main developers, it's really nice to see how it works on other papers, I like the tone of this paper with the touch of selenium to it.


Andrew (Oxleyroad) - Mallee Water Tank

I just love the texture watercolour papers bring to these Van Dyke Browns. I was amazed when I saw (the other) Andrew's one in the first round, and yours is keeping the desire alive to give it a go myself. One thing I wondered, looking at your print, was how this negative would print 'normally'? Looking at this print, I wondered if it was a very dense negative with not much in the shadow areas, or is this just the way it prints as a VDB? I find it amazing how one negative could print in so many completely different ways using different processes. As to the actual image, I love it!


Scott (W9cae)- SMBooth In Action

That Viradon is absolutely beautiful! Mike (Wyno) gave me a set of Sepia before he left, seeing the tones you've gotten here make me want to get it out and have at it! I like the way you've grabbed the image too, the foreground leaves give it a very 'hunting bigfoot' kind of feel, I like it. I love how you've managed to keep tonality throughout all of the snow too, very well done.


Andrew K - Jorja-aged 7

Something different is always fun! The image itself is very interesting, I have always liked the 'where does one end and the next begin' kind of thing, whether in visual art, music, or family gathering lunches/dinners. The way you've printed it is what I really like, the way the image is bigger than the film, so the film itself becomes part of the image. When I first saw a print like that I thought it was the most incredible thing, in the case of your image, I really like the way the colour of the frame numbers add a warmth to the image. If they weren't there, or were plain white, I think it would give the print a much cooler feel, and perhaps change the whole mood away from the playful feel it has (to me). There's one thing I wonder about with this print (and this is not a criticism in any way, just something I'd want to try if it were my print), how would it look (and is it possible) to make the white areas (film edge & sprocket holes) black along with the background? I just wonder if that would change the print from 'here is a print of a strip of film with pictures on it' to 'here is a print of an image made up of film'... does that make any sense? Just something I'd be curious about, but how you've done it, absolutely fantastic.


Tony E - Luna Park

That reflection is absolutely amazing! I wonder the same thing that was asked before, did you know the area and knew there was a dip there, or did you just get 'lucky'? I like the slight blur you've gotten in the ferris wheel, just enough to make it a 'static image that shows movement' without letting it turn into a whirling grey mass. I have to say, two things on your printing, I'm very surprised by the tone of the paper, not nearly as cool toned as I would have expected from that paper, the face almost even looks a touch warm (probably in comparison to the rest of the picture). The second thing... AMAZINGLY STRAIGHT BORDERS!!!


Mick F - Kilcunda Rocks

Amazing tone in your rocks Mick. If it weren't for the shadows thrown by the few overhanging bits of rock, I would not have guessed how harsh the sunlight must have been. You've done a fantastic job getting such nice (and consistent) tones across the whole image, from wet to dry areas of rock, very well done.


Jeff (Trotkiller) - Untitled

Maybe it's just from sitting in the post-pack for a while, but I think it's plenty flat enough. I really like the way you've placed your tones here, keeping the brightest areas of the boats perhaps a couple stops below paper-white, I think it gives them a fantastic tonality, and the dark areas in the sand look nice and smooth too. I really like this one.


Steve Frizza

I like these 'colour checker' sort of still-life setups, I used to like piling up all the gear in my Dads darkroom when I was a kid and photographing it similarly to this. The grittiness of this film (or just the print?) though, is absolutely fantastic!


Tim K - Mini-Everest

The sense of scale in Mini-Everest is very disorienting! I think you've done a great job balancing the tones so none of the shadows disappear, but the snow still looks tangible with definite texture, even in the brightest areas. For a first B&W snow image, I think you've done really well.



Michael's picture of the monk gave me an idea, it'll probably get lost here down the bottom of this thread, but I wanted to get it 'out there' while it was still fresh in my mind. I have no idea about how the logistics of this would work, but I could imagine a 'Negative Exchange' of some sorts. The thought behind it being that when I take a photo, I am thinking of the entire process in my head, imagining how I will crop and print it in the darkroom while I'm photographing it. It would be really interesting to see how someone else would interpret what I have captured in my negative, and how they would print it. I think it could be a very insightful exercise... maybe one for a new thread, one day...
 

I was attending a corporate function at Luna Park and took my Mamiya 7 and a light tripod along. I noticed the puddle mid-afternoon on the way in and thought there might be some possibilities as dusk approached with the eyes and teeth glowing in the reflection. I have seen several similar images over the years. One with more water in the puddle and a wider angle view and one just of the reflection which currently appears on Robert Billington's web site. Yes, also very familiar with the place having photographed it many times at various times in different ways,

As for the print tone it was developed in a warm dilution of LPD and selenium toned which would have tamed some of the coolness. Somewhat shattered that the only feature which made it into capitals was the borders! Nothing more than a decent Saunders easel and the back of some cast off prints with ruled markings on them!

Thanks for taking the time to comment on everyone's prints.

Tony
 
Tony Egan said:
...Somewhat shattered that the only feature which made it into capitals was the borders! Nothing more than a decent Saunders easel and the back of some cast off prints with ruled markings on them!
Click to expand...

I've just never been able to get decent borders from an easel, that's all! At the moment I use masks cut out of light-weight masonite. I only made them in panoramic for 8x10, 11x14 and 16x20, and thun bordered full sheet for 11x14 and 16x20, so any other sizes (including normal full 8x10) I print either full-bleed (as it were) or with lop-sided easel borders... It made my day in the last round when one or two others had borders bout as even as mine. You'll notice the texture of the cut masonite in the borders of my print. I kind of like it actually, but still find a good, straight and true border very impressive!
 

I picked up a 11x14" 4-blade Saunders second hand a few years ago. One of my favourite darkroom tools. I was always staggered by the new price but can appreciate why now. Built like a tank and the multiple paper guide slots are genius.
 
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