Getting sick of BW

NB23

Member
Joined
Jul 26, 2009
Messages
4,307
Format
35mm
I’ve been living a parallel life in my darkroom for the past 15 years. Especially the past 1.5 year i’ve been printing on average 35 prints a day, every day.

All my prints look like scenes from horror movies. At least that’s all I see.

I’ll have to switch to shooting color for a while.
 

Nicholas Lindan

Advertiser
Advertiser
Joined
Sep 2, 2006
Messages
4,248
Location
Cleveland, Ohio
Format
Multi Format
Yeah, B&W can look pretty funerary at times. I sometimes find myself abandoning it for a year or so.

Printing on warm-tone paper and using the slightest bit of selenium toner would add a bit of life to my prints - giving the light greys an ever so slightly golden tint. Made them look less depressing.
 
Last edited:

cjbecker

Member
Joined
Dec 9, 2010
Messages
1,387
Location
IN
Format
Traditional
Try changing up your style a little. Go for a lower contrast look, smooth beautiful mid-tones. I seem to go threw phases on how my prints look, right now its all about the smoothness.
 

Pioneer

Member
Joined
May 29, 2010
Messages
3,880
Location
Elko, Nevada
Format
Multi Format
Color is terrific. Nothing at all wrong with printing color if you can do it on your equipment.

I am trying out a very high key look on some of my prints lately because I have also been feeling as if my prints are too somber.

BTW, congrats on getting that many prints out in a day. If I get three or four done in a day I feel like I have actually accomplished something.
 

awty

Subscriber
Joined
Jul 24, 2016
Messages
3,652
Location
Australia
Format
Multi Format
Never been fond of straight black and white, so I usually split tone my prints to give them a bit more warmth. Something still work best in straight B&W.
Colour is largely superficial, if Im in a gallery I find my eye is more drawn to mono tones than colour, colour can be overwhelming.
Most people dont do colour well, I find it needs a total different mind set to monos, not so easy to switch between the two.
Having said all that a change is always good, making that many prints per day would tire anyone.
 
OP
OP

NB23

Member
Joined
Jul 26, 2009
Messages
4,307
Format
35mm
Thanks guys. Yes, i’m probably tired. I’ll finish the stuff I have to print, about 3000 sheets to go. But I don’t plan to shoot bw for a while, I’ve added too much already.

I tone all my prints, either in Brown stinking toner (Viradon) or selenium, or a mix of both. All my prints are on the warm side...
 

faberryman

Member
Joined
Jun 4, 2016
Messages
6,048
Location
Wherever
Format
Multi Format
NB23 said:
I’ve been living a parallel life in my darkroom for the past 15 years. Especially the past 1.5 year i’ve been printing on average 35 prints a day, every day.
Click to expand...

I am curious why you are making 35 prints a day. Do you shoot a roll every morning, develop it, and then print every frame? What is your objective?
 

Bill Burk

Subscriber
Joined
Feb 9, 2010
Messages
9,323
Format
4x5 Format
I can’t believe it- because you’re so good at it
 

mshchem

Subscriber
Joined
Nov 26, 2007
Messages
14,727
Location
Iowa City, Iowa USA
Format
Medium Format
I just came up from processing 2 x 120 Portra. Flexicolor C-41RA. Fast . Develop 3'15", Bleach 1 minute, Fixer 2 minutes, running water wash 3 minutes, Final rinse 1 minute. I used a Jobo, but I've done the same thing in a Paterson tank in a water bath.

I've got to contact print next. Color is easier than black and white. I can make a 100 different b&w prints from a single negative. Color is make a few ring around prints to nail filtration, then just adjust exposure time.
 

logan2z

Subscriber
Joined
Jan 11, 2019
Messages
3,722
Location
SF Bay Area, USA
Format
Multi Format
Black and white are the colors of photography. To me they symbolize the alternatives of hope and despair to which mankind is forever subjected.

-- Robert Frank

At the rate you're printing, you're probably just tired in general, rather than tired of black and white. I'm tired after making two or three prints in a day, I can't imagine trying to crank out 35. I have no idea how (or why) you do it...
 

removed account4

Subscriber
Joined
Jun 21, 2003
Messages
29,832
Format
Hybrid
you should be stand developing everything no wonder why everything looks like a horror show
 

warden

Subscriber
Joined
Jul 21, 2009
Messages
3,055
Location
Philadelphia
Format
Medium Format
NB23 said:
All my prints look like scenes from horror movies. At least that’s all I see.

I’ll have to switch to shooting color for a while.
Click to expand...

I’m calling bullshit on all of that. Your work is fantastic, not from horror movies at all. You had better be working on a book and not making all those prints to ferret away in your attic, which is a waste of talent.

As for shooting in color, well I would like to see what you do with color. Some photographers can work with it and others cannot. I cannot, but I sure appreciate the ones who can.
 
OP
OP

NB23

Member
Joined
Jul 26, 2009
Messages
4,307
Format
35mm
Yeah, seems excessive and yet it’s something pushing me. How can it not? On top of myself believing that my stuff is not half bad, I have accumulated a lot of negatives over the years. And papers. And cameras, enlargers...

It has become a catch-22 situation: lose all the papers in which I have invested a fortune (and being a loser for shooting without going all the way to the end), or stand up and print the stuff. To give a sense to it all.

30 years of accumulated negatives, some real jewels hidden all over the pile, images I have really worked hard for. Yeah, Koudelka’s Gypsies are nice but my stuff is just as nice, and so on. And kids... family. No way I’d just let the negatives die, that would be such half-assed and totally loser of me. And so I started 20 years ago and just never can finish. Just like Forrest Gump when he left for a jog.

So I did all my best on 20x24, then added 16x20, then 11x14... then I found out I had 10 boxes of ilford postcards (1000 sheets), and so I decided to reprint all my best stuff from Paris on those postcards, and so I printed through all 1000 in about 3 weeks...
Then, I found that although I had printed my entire “best-of” xpan collection in 10x24 and 8x16, I understood that it was absolutely a stupid idea because You will have to be crazy to open the bags to look at those (fantastic) prints. It’s the equivalent of a whole day at the gym, let me tell you. So I decided to reprint them in a sexier format: 4x10. Took me about 3 intense months...
And right now I’m onto negatives from 2014-2021 that I have never yet seen, except on contact sheets. It just accumulated, really.

But what made me see that my stuff looks like horror is when I realized that no matter where I go in the world, even the most luxurious places, I always come back with gritty images. Miami beach? Nice girls and cars? What do I come up with? Black and white apocalyptic grittiness. My instagram feels very heavy. I ended noticing that my photography is simply put; heavy. It needs a bit of color and air. Or I don’t know maybe that’s what it’s supposed to be.

But yeah, now it’s a huge pile of shit that will need to be managed.

Aren’t we all into a similar situation, to some extent? Who shoots and develops film just to let the negatives die?
 

MattKing

Moderator
Moderator
Joined
Apr 24, 2005
Messages
53,144
Location
Delta, BC Canada
Format
Medium Format
OP
OP

NB23

Member
Joined
Jul 26, 2009
Messages
4,307
Format
35mm
Old Gregg said:
@NB23 Help me understand. How did you see your work during all these years? You never scanned and never printed, just contact sheets?
Click to expand...

All contact sheets. Most of the work from 2014 until today has stayed that way...
 

logan2z

Subscriber
Joined
Jan 11, 2019
Messages
3,722
Location
SF Bay Area, USA
Format
Multi Format
NB23 said:
Who shoots and develops film just to let the negatives die?
Click to expand...

Apologies if I've misunderstood, but are you printing all of your negatives, or just a select few? Because, if my math is correct, at 35 prints a day for the past 1.5 years, you've made over 19,000 prints. If that's the case then maybe you just need to be (a lot) more selective. With tens of thousands of prints, it seems like you're just shifting the problem from your negatives to your prints - the prints will likely 'die' simply because there are far too many for anyone to ever look at.

I've heard many famous photographers say that they will take about 100 great photos in their lifetime - a tiny fraction of the number of photos they've made. You might be talented, but I'm going to go out on a limb and say that you haven't taken 20,000+ great photos. It might be prudent for you to spend time editing your archive and only printing the stuff that will stand the test of time.
 
OP
OP

NB23

Member
Joined
Jul 26, 2009
Messages
4,307
Format
35mm
A select few. Of course, there are doubkes, triples, some are printed on 5x7 all the way up to 20x24.

But as an example, places like Cuba are magical. if you know what you’re doing you will end up having at least 10 True keepers per roll, and with 100 rolls you will have 1000 beautiful images.

Also, I have noticed some artists will shoot 50 rolls, pick 50 keepers and make a book. They will end up having made 25 books in their lifetime. And there are those like me, that print, accumulate, seals everything and stores the prints and moves on... without a single book

I don’t know about the “greats” best 100 images, but one thing is for sure: we probably have not seen their very best work. At one point, shortcuts are taken, masterpieces get burried, lost, ignored, flown over... editing is a task for the savage.

 
OP
OP

NB23

Member
Joined
Jul 26, 2009
Messages
4,307
Format
35mm
OP
OP

NB23

Member
Joined
Jul 26, 2009
Messages
4,307
Format
35mm

thanks!
Yes, I think at some point I wasn’t bad with color. I spent 5 years on kodachrome and 2 extra years on Kodak Hawkeye. Then scanned everything, and then got fed up with editing. So I switched back to BW, leaving the color files on the ice. I’m gonna have to get back to those...
 

Adrian Bacon

Subscriber
Joined
Oct 18, 2016
Messages
2,086
Location
Petaluma, CA.
Format
Multi Format

35 prints a day… man, I’m lucky if I can manage 2-3 hours a week for printing my own work, and in that 2-3 hour block (which includes setup and tear down time) I’m lucky to get two images down to my liking.
 

Adrian Bacon

Subscriber
Joined
Oct 18, 2016
Messages
2,086
Location
Petaluma, CA.
Format
Multi Format
I understand having a backlog. Mines not as extensive as yours, but I have several hundred rolls of BW that I’ve shot over the years that I’m printing through. Most of it is family stuff, documenting home life, family outings, etc. I try to keep it to 24 exposure rolls and a couple rolls a month. I’ll manage 4-5 good photos that I want to print at least 8x12 on a 11x14 sheet per roll, and have to make at least 2-3 copies for family members.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Menu
Log in
Register
Cookies are required to use this site. You must accept them to continue using the site. Learn more…