How many print do you print in a session?

[ToddB]

Hey guy, I got in the darkroom today and spent about hour in half on one print. It was a print that I wanted to try split grade. Anyway... On average, how many do you print a session? 1,2 or more.

Todd

 

[MattKing]

It really varies a lot.

Sometimes a single print will require more than one session (and some serious up on the wall contemplation).

Sometimes several prints in a single session, especially if they are more of a "record" nature.

 

[Sirius Glass]

It varies. If I want to print a roll, then I will print faster. If I want to select one negative and work for the best possible print, it could take all day.

 

[Ron789]

Varies a lot...... sometimes I'm lucky and the first print is fine, so I'm done with a print in some 20 minutes (using FB paper). But I have a photo that I like a lot and it took me 1 year, some 20 tries, each some 45 minutes, split grade printing, before I had it the way I wanted it.
Now.... does it matter? I love being in the darkroom and working on a print..... pure Zen. I like it when a print turns out fine on the first attempt but I also like working on a print over time with multiple attempts to bring it to perfection.

 

[bvy]

Could be five in one hour, could be one in five hours...

 

[removed account4]

hi toddb

ive done the mini lab- thing and banged out prints either contact prints or projection prints
and done a lot / hour, sometimes 500 in a morning, and more by the end of the day.
i've also had a job where i was printing all day long so i got lots and lots of practice ..
(tray rockers help an awful lot ! )

i've also had problem prints where i burned through half of a box of 11x14 paper
in a 7 hour session and got nothing in return. i do still have all the terrible prints i made
i never had the heart to throw them all out !

 

[nworth]

It varies, but your experience is typical to a little fast. Today I had a two hour session to make two decent prints. Typically, I expect to make two to six prints in a session, and it generally takes four or five sheets of paper to make a print. That said, there are times when it takes three sessions and twenty or more sheets of paper to make a decent print.

 

[ic-racer]

1 to 5 prints in a session that would typically last 2 to 3 hours.

 

[Theo Sulphate]

From midnight to 6am, maybe six prints. If I were lucky, two would be good enough to call "done" and keep. Usually, at the start, I don't have a good idea what the right exposure, contrast, dodging, and burning I'll need until I make a few tests, which I don't count.

 

[mdarnton]

Exactly what jnanian said: somewhere between 1500 prints a day (really, I did that in a commercial setting one summer, one neg = one 8x10 at a time) and none. When it was none, it wasn't because I couldn't make a good print the first time most times--it was because I couldn't decide what I wanted the good print to look like. In a normal situation, though, clicking through familiar territory like portraits or weddings or commercial shots, then 200 prints in a half-day session is not all that difficult. I'm talking B&W in trays, not machine work.

If you are looking for a strategy, getting a good competent print should not be an issue. The first studio I worked in, in high school, the boss stressed making every print look like every other. That requires control of the whole process--no loose cannons. Once you have that, it just becomes decision making. Just like how driving shouldn't be difficult; you just get in and do it. For me, that meant standardizing my exposure process based on a trick I learned from the first studio's owner: you can easily judge print darkness of a positive under a controlled light, right? No problem. Equally, you can, with practice, judge projection density of a negative on a white printing easel in the dark with a standard safelight running for comparison and calibration. Don't say you can't because you can. I learned to make hundreds of perfect prints in a row with no misses by learning what the projected neg should look like on the easel to result in a perfect positive in the light. I kept my timer at five seconds, and completely worked the exposure with the aperture, until the image on the easel looked correct. If you genuinely try to learn this, you will be surprised. You need to be a quick burner and dodger, but that's a separate problem.

Once you get basic exposure out of the way, then you can worry about the real problems.

 

[winger]

Like others above, sometimes I can pop out several prints quickly and sometimes one takes several hours. If I'm making work prints to see where I need to start with something, it can be quick. Once I figure out what I need to do, it might take longer to get a really good print. Sometimes I luck out and have a negative that prints great as a straight print, no dodging or burning.

 

[removed account4]

Exactly what jnanian said: somewhere between 1500 prints a day (really, I did that in a commercial setting one summer, one neg = one 8x10 at a time) and none. When it was none, it wasn't because I couldn't make a good print the first time most times--it was because I couldn't decide what I wanted the good print to look like. In a normal situation, though, clicking through familiar territory like portraits or weddings or commercial shots, then 200 prints in a half-day session is not all that difficult. I'm talking B&W in trays, not machine work.

If you are looking for a strategy, getting a good competent print should not be an issue. The first studio I worked in, in high school, the boss stressed making every print look like every other. That requires control of the whole process--no loose cannons. Once you have that, it just becomes decision making. Just like how driving shouldn't be difficult; you just get in and do it. For me, that meant standardizing my exposure process based on a trick I learned from the first studio's owner: you can easily judge print darkness of a positive under a controlled light, right? No problem. Equally, you can, with practice, judge projection density of a negative on a white printing easel in the dark with a standard safelight running for comparison and calibration. Don't say you can't because you can. I learned to make hundreds of perfect prints in a row with no misses by learning what the projected neg should look like on the easel to result in a perfect positive in the light. I kept my timer at five seconds, and completely worked the exposure with the aperture, until the image on the easel looked correct. If you genuinely try to learn this, you will be surprised. You need to be a quick burner and dodger, but that's a separate problem.

Once you get basic exposure out of the way, then you can worry about the real problems.

YES !

 

[bvy]

Color's different. I both like and hate that there are fewer controls. Once I hit on a color balance and exposure for a given roll, I can usually churn out prints pretty quick.

 

[Doc W]

Like most others, it can vary, from a few minutes (rarely) to a full day (also rare, fortunately). I have been spending quite a bit of time lately on getting my negatives where I want them because I love straight prints. Although that happens rarely, a good negative requires a lot less dancing around (dodging and burning) in the darkroom. Furthermore, if the negative is easier to print, I can make more copies more easily. I can't imagine going through an elaborate dodge/burn for every copy I make. Sometimes that is necessary, but it is not a lot of fun.

 

[NedL]

My last session I made some test strips and a single "work" print to contemplate... I know this one will be difficult ( not difficult to print.. difficult to decide exactly what I want to do with it ) I expect it will take at least two more sessions and maybe more before I'm happy. But this is a negative I care about, want to do well. and there are a lot of choices to make. I'm probably going to end up making a new easel just for it!

Typically I finish one or two prints per session. Sometimes I go on a tear and finish 4 or 5, but not very often. It's also not uncommon for a print to take multiple sessions like this last one.

 

[bence8810]

On an average basis I print 4 frames in a 2 hour session.
Sometimes it's just 1 or even none (keeper) or some other times up to 6 in the same time frame.

I normally don't print for longer than 2 hours.
I always start with a test strip with bracket exposures and once the exposure is sort-of understood, I print a whole sheet to examine it under room light. I then decide on dodging / printing / subtle exposure changes and go for a final print. It works most of the time and it takes 30 minutes on average for a print.

Ben

 

[Ken Nadvornick]

One...

With the local classical music station playing softly in the background. With the outside air ventilation system keeping the room pleasantly cool and dry. With the print washer siphon quietly gurgling in the corner. With a full box of paper, a warmed-up enlarger, and the gentle smell of old-fashioned sodium fixer in the air.

And with the knowledge that I am not at work. There are no deadlines or quotas or returns-on-investment on the line. There is no customer, or manager, or accountant looking over my shoulder. I don't need to do 500 prints in a day. Or in an hour. Or in a minute. Or ever.

It's not an exercise in quantity. It's an exercise in quality. Both results and time spent. It's supposed to be a relaxing experience. I'm supposed to be relieving stress. Not adding to it. I'm supposed to be looking forward to the exercise. Not dreading it. And I'm supposed to be able to finish, in an unhurried manner, before 3:00am in the morning.

Put another way, it's supposed to be Play, not Work.



Ken

 

[MattKing]

Then it is definitely best Ken that you don't enter the postcard exchange!

Although it does mean you miss out on the joys of "batch" printing.

From a postcard exchange round a few years ago:

 

[Slixtiesix]

3-6 fb prints in one afternoon usually

 

[Ken Nadvornick]

Then it is definitely best Ken that you don't enter the postcard exchange!

Although it does mean you miss out on the joys of "batch" printing.

From a postcard exchange round a few years ago:

Yep. That's why I prefer the Blind Print Exchange. One print. To one person. Once or twice a year. An exercise where one can become truly anal over the quality of the final product, and still be able to blame it all on someone else. An exercise tailor made for thoughtful contemplation. And often for large format.

(Sadly, I already did more than my share of commercial batch jobs during my commercial darkroom days. Sometimes over all night long sessions. Couldn't just slide the software control over to '500' and click Print in those days. Believe it or not, some of those jobs were even for Kodak. Now I revel in the peaceful, quiet, unhurried darkroom experience. And software development has taken over the task of providing the stress.)

You know, the (there was a url link here which no longer exists) is just about to close, Matt. Still time to sign up before tomorrow. You wouldn't have to cover the fridge with those 500 prints. A single well-crafted one would do just fine.



Ken

 

[Bob Carnie]

This depends - on what I am working on.

If its portfolio prints I am working fast and want to see variations so on a given day I could go through a box of 50 11 x14 with 8 negs .
I would use two enlargers and split the day between 4 negs morning 4 negs afternoon. With a nice lunch in between.

If its exhibition prints - four negatives a day with 2-3 prints each negative. Remember at this stage I have probably processed the neg, contacted the neg, made a portfolio , so its not my first time at the rodeo so to speak.

Any more forces longer days and for sure an assistant to cover washing of all the work.

 

[Wayne]

I'm rarely in the darkroom more than 2.5 hours, which could be anywhere from zero to 3 finished prints depending on how low my standards are that night.

 

[lauffray]

Depends if I'm starting a new print (that includes all the test strips, comparisons etc) which obviously take longer than re-printing a negative which times I already know.

 

[Jim Jones]

It varies widely. Long ago, printing FB paper with a primitive darkroom set up in a Navy barracks, I'd stop at 32 prints, because that was all I could dry under a sheet and blanket on my bunk. Later, in college, up to 200 RC prints for PR use a night in a somewhat better darkroom with someone else doing the wet work. Sometimes it takes a few hours to get just one important print right. Mdarton gives good advice in post #10, although I adjusted time, not aperture.

 

[miha]

Up to five largish prints (more if I make small prints from 35mm film).