I have spent the last few days doing nothing but contact sheets during my first home darkroom session. I had been taking classes at my local junior college and using their top notch darkroom. Its nice to see that the number of B&W classes has gone from 1 a semester to now 3 a semester and filling up fast. Anyway, it was a cheap alternative to use their enlargers, chemicals and learn from some real great photographers and printers at the same time.
In the last 2 months I have found 2 great deals on enlargers, too good to pass up, so it was time to put them to use. I had almost 300+ contact sheets to make as its been almost a year since I had access to an enlarger to make them with. Knocked them out and had some free time to play with. So I quickly scanned through and picked three 35mm negs to enlarge. I took the time to do them the way I was taught. on average it took about 2 hours per final print, in terms of doing test strips, straight work print, trial and error in dodging and burning and so on. I used RC paper as I didnt want to spend a lot of water washing fiber and I was a little afraid of wasting good paper on play prints. Anyway....
A few pre-conceived notions were shattered and opened my eyes.
Myth 1)
I took one of my favorite pictures I have ever done and said I would enlarge it to 11x14. It was from my very first roll of B&W film ever shot and was the very first project from my intro to B&W class. for me back then, it was typical. 2 shots left on the roll, so lets just finish it. My son was with me and really bored and made it perfectly clear to me that he was. so while he was not looking at me I quickly composed the shot and when he glanced my way, took the picture. looking back it was taken as many new to photography people take their or took their shots before they learned not to. Nikon F5 in app priority, matix metering and a zoom lens, albeit a very good zoom lens. I call it my decisive moment picture and it has become what I consider my best picture I have ever taken. this roll was Tri-x developed in D76 1+1. so not exactly a small grain combination. What I learned from this negative and print:
at the 11x14 print size the grain is very small and sharp. not what I expected at all. I was expecting large and ugly grain at that size but was willing to live with it as the image to me is powerful. an 8x10 sheet printing of part of the image that would have been 16x20 had noticeable grain but it was in no ways objectionable. Result. don't judge something till you try it out and find out for yourself.
myth 2)
The next print was taken on rollei retro 80s 35mm and developed in rodinal. this was shot on a nikon F3 and a 50mm 1.8d lens. again, I was expecting grain but not that much based on RR80 being a very fine grained film. I enlarged the picture to 16x20 and had a very hard time finding the grain with the focuser . What I learned:
35mm film is capable if shot right to be enlarged quite a lot. I now feel comfortable carrying a 35mm camera with a few primes and if care is taken, I have the ability to do very large prints. No need to lug around a med format camera on hikes and what not. Some films are very high resolution and not as high contrast as others led me to believe. Again, don't judge until you have done it yourself.
myth 3)
Wide angle enlarger lenses are not good. I used a Leitz V35 with a focomat 40mm lens to do the large prints and I gotta say I was very impressed with it. I made a few prints with my 50mm el-nikkor and feel the focomat is sharper and has less falloff. the el-nikkor is a very good lens by the way. Just because people say wide angle are not as good, don't knock it till you try it.
myth 4)
size does not matter. BS. A 20x24 print of Yosemite looks awesome real big. Yeh its all about how you use it, but the extra size is impressive
myth 5)
RC paper is a waste of time. I bought a large amount to do contact sheets. but added some larger size to play with. washing has become an issue based on water supply, drought and cost to buy a real print washer for fiber. Ilford multigrade pearl looks great and even toned well in selenium. Just because people say RC paper is not as good as fiber, don't judge it till you try it.
I ordered 3 bulk rolls of RR80s based on this session. I noticed that the price had gone up at B&H so I searched and found that it was substantially cheaper buying from maco direct in Germany and paying higher shipping. The bulk rolls with out the VAT were half the price of B&H. so for $140 I got 3 bulk rolls. not bad. I have also started to re-think my whole developer situation and would like to keep it simple, maybe down to 2.
anyway, enough of my ranting. today has been an ah-hah kind of day, and lately I have had few if any of them., so I will cherish it while I can.
So enough of my yapping, get out, shoot and print
These are my views and in no way should they represent anything but being my views. Please try for youself and come to your own conclusions
john
In the last 2 months I have found 2 great deals on enlargers, too good to pass up, so it was time to put them to use. I had almost 300+ contact sheets to make as its been almost a year since I had access to an enlarger to make them with. Knocked them out and had some free time to play with. So I quickly scanned through and picked three 35mm negs to enlarge. I took the time to do them the way I was taught. on average it took about 2 hours per final print, in terms of doing test strips, straight work print, trial and error in dodging and burning and so on. I used RC paper as I didnt want to spend a lot of water washing fiber and I was a little afraid of wasting good paper on play prints. Anyway....
A few pre-conceived notions were shattered and opened my eyes.
Myth 1)
I took one of my favorite pictures I have ever done and said I would enlarge it to 11x14. It was from my very first roll of B&W film ever shot and was the very first project from my intro to B&W class. for me back then, it was typical. 2 shots left on the roll, so lets just finish it. My son was with me and really bored and made it perfectly clear to me that he was. so while he was not looking at me I quickly composed the shot and when he glanced my way, took the picture. looking back it was taken as many new to photography people take their or took their shots before they learned not to. Nikon F5 in app priority, matix metering and a zoom lens, albeit a very good zoom lens. I call it my decisive moment picture and it has become what I consider my best picture I have ever taken. this roll was Tri-x developed in D76 1+1. so not exactly a small grain combination. What I learned from this negative and print:
at the 11x14 print size the grain is very small and sharp. not what I expected at all. I was expecting large and ugly grain at that size but was willing to live with it as the image to me is powerful. an 8x10 sheet printing of part of the image that would have been 16x20 had noticeable grain but it was in no ways objectionable. Result. don't judge something till you try it out and find out for yourself.
myth 2)
The next print was taken on rollei retro 80s 35mm and developed in rodinal. this was shot on a nikon F3 and a 50mm 1.8d lens. again, I was expecting grain but not that much based on RR80 being a very fine grained film. I enlarged the picture to 16x20 and had a very hard time finding the grain with the focuser . What I learned:
35mm film is capable if shot right to be enlarged quite a lot. I now feel comfortable carrying a 35mm camera with a few primes and if care is taken, I have the ability to do very large prints. No need to lug around a med format camera on hikes and what not. Some films are very high resolution and not as high contrast as others led me to believe. Again, don't judge until you have done it yourself.
myth 3)
Wide angle enlarger lenses are not good. I used a Leitz V35 with a focomat 40mm lens to do the large prints and I gotta say I was very impressed with it. I made a few prints with my 50mm el-nikkor and feel the focomat is sharper and has less falloff. the el-nikkor is a very good lens by the way. Just because people say wide angle are not as good, don't knock it till you try it.
myth 4)
size does not matter. BS. A 20x24 print of Yosemite looks awesome real big. Yeh its all about how you use it, but the extra size is impressive
myth 5)
RC paper is a waste of time. I bought a large amount to do contact sheets. but added some larger size to play with. washing has become an issue based on water supply, drought and cost to buy a real print washer for fiber. Ilford multigrade pearl looks great and even toned well in selenium. Just because people say RC paper is not as good as fiber, don't judge it till you try it.
I ordered 3 bulk rolls of RR80s based on this session. I noticed that the price had gone up at B&H so I searched and found that it was substantially cheaper buying from maco direct in Germany and paying higher shipping. The bulk rolls with out the VAT were half the price of B&H. so for $140 I got 3 bulk rolls. not bad. I have also started to re-think my whole developer situation and would like to keep it simple, maybe down to 2.
anyway, enough of my ranting. today has been an ah-hah kind of day, and lately I have had few if any of them., so I will cherish it while I can.
So enough of my yapping, get out, shoot and print
These are my views and in no way should they represent anything but being my views. Please try for youself and come to your own conclusions
john
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