Good Basic Beginner Printing Video

gone · Mar 7, 2014

I found this enjoyable, and short, basic B&W printing video on youtube, after suffering through a lot of long annoying ones. Will Agar takes people through the steps to make a contact sheet and test strip. Not exactly as I would do it, but it will get someone in the ball park if they're starting out. He follows it w/ a video of making an enlarger print.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohk7AHCDxxc

MDR · Mar 7, 2014

Thank you for the link

MartinP · Mar 7, 2014

Very, very dirty darkroom practice. Just dunk your hands in each of the chemicals and spread it all over the darkroom, wonderful. Has he been sued for causing dermatitis for the students yet?

The general presentation is very wordy and "gentle", but perhaps that is needed for ten year olds - I don't know what age-group a "Community-College" covers. I can't help thinking that most youngsters would just hear blah-blah-blah and then have great difficulty extracting the main points they need to know. Many details are valuable, and I'd more-or-less support a lot of what he said, but too much waffle.

Having come up with those criticisms I have never actually seen a YouTube video on darkroom work which seems safe, without errors and orientated to what adult users need to know. That doesn't necessarily mean that I am about to release a series of instructional videos and an accompanying six-hundred page manual though....

Thank you to the OP for finding and posting the link.

gone · Mar 7, 2014

I wondered about the hands thing, but this is a short, instructional youtube video. It assumes that he gives his students the scoop on chemicals and hands in his classes. One should read a good book or two along w/ watching the video of course. One thing about the video is that it is SO much easier for a beginner to see what is going on, rather than reading it on a book. So I like it a lot.

If you think this is wordy, I assure you that many, many of these videos that I watched were just awful in that regard. Actually, this guy is pretty personable, and has a sense of humor. Most of these things are non stop talking and defacto advertisements for photographers. Will actually cuts to the chase. Three and a half stars. Four if he had worn gloves.

pentaxuser · Mar 7, 2014

To be fair to him he does refer to his students as "kids" so I'd assume they are fairly young but maybe not as young as I'd imagine. As a matter of interest how old might the students be?.

He is a bit like everybody's favourite uncle from a 1950s programme and his style might be a little out-dated now.

I was surprised that the safe-light showed as white. I was expecting red/amber. In fact unless he had mentioned safe-light I'd have assumed it was medium intensity white light used for the purposes of illustration and yet he did the contact sheet under these conditions and developed it.

Anyone explain this?

Thanks

pentaxuser

MartinP · Mar 7, 2014

I think the video camera was one of those with nightsight, nightshot, or whatever it's called - the infra-red filter moves out of the light path so, given suitable i.r. light-sources (perhaps the light stand visible in one shot) one can record in almost darkness.

pentaxuser · Mar 7, 2014

Thanks Martin. You may be right. The only night vision camera I was aware of was the kind that gives an obvious IR-type look to the scene which this one didn't. It certainly gave excellent vision. I almost felt like saying: "Don't open that paper in that light, for goodness sake!"

pentaxuser

pbromaghin · Mar 7, 2014

"Community College" is Minnesota nomenclature for a Jr. College. They are mostly 2-year schools offering general ed for those intending to transfer to 4-year schools and certificate programs such as dental assistant, nursing, or photography. The audience for this video would be mostly 18-year old high school graduates.

David Brown · Mar 7, 2014

pentaxuser said:
I was surprised that the safe-light showed as white. I was expecting red/amber.

Anyone explain this?

Might have something to do with the fact that the video is not in color ...

Maris · Mar 7, 2014

MartinP said:
...Very, very dirty darkroom practice. Just dunk your hands in each of the chemicals and spread it all over the darkroom, wonderful. Has he been sued for causing dermatitis for the students yet?...

I agree. Hands should never go into processing solutions. Not only because of health concerns for vulnerable people but because of cross contamination. Once fixer soaked hands have contaminated switches, dials, enlarger controls, taps, bench edges, door knobs, everything that is touched routinely in the darkroom the devil is let loose. A trace of fixer on the finger tips will leave white fingerprints on the next new sheet of paper you pick up and you won't know until it is exposed and developed.

In the beginning I decided to become really dextrous with tongs; one for the developer and one to go between stop and fix. And dexterity comes easily with practice. Think of millions of Chinese children who perfect chop-sticks technique from an early age.

I'm not so sure about doing proofs either. Photographic materials are precious. They are sensitive to light but they are also sensitive to thought. Every frame should count for a final photograph; or don't make the camera exposure at all.

pentaxuser · Mar 7, 2014

pbromaghin said:
The audience for this video would be mostly 18-year old high school graduates.

Wow! I hadn't realised the "kids" might be 18. In any secondary school in the U.K.(about 11yr olds to 16 yr olds) this use of the word "kids" would have lost the audience at about 12 year old maximum. University students start at 18 and to all intents and purposes an 18 yr old is an adult in the U.K.

pentaxuser

MattKing · Mar 7, 2014

My mother still refers to 57 year old me as one of her "kids".:confused:

pentaxuser · Mar 8, 2014

David Brown said:
Might have something to do with the fact that the video is not in color ...

Quite right, thanks David. I should have got my brain into gear. I must have become too used to seeing moving picture films in colour on TV where the darkroom is always bathed in a red light.

I wonder how a darkroom was portrayed in the days when B&W films ruled the cinema. Difficult to get it to look right, I imagine

pentaxuser

Good Basic Beginner Printing Video

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