Hybrid Photo Group

OK folks, per Sean's suggestion, I have created this group area and activated the forum features too.

I'm dabbling with digital negatives - though I'm very much in learning mode, and I don't know enough to contribute much yet.

Art, another thanks. At the moment I'm all ears, I know nothing about inkjet negatives but want to learn, especially if the conversation ventures into contrast masks--for analog printing and wet process. I've been thinking about creating laserjet masks on that stuff used for overhead projection, you know, pre-PowerPoint stuff.
-- Terry --

I hope you are not too dishearten, Denise. I believe that some digital talk is ok.

Hi Robert!
You know me. I'm never disheartened by any photo-talk. I'm in. I have high hopes that this place will generate as much art-talk as technical-talk.

Denise

Hi Guys,

As soon as I get some time this weekend I'll get things started with some basics around inkjet negatives printed on the overhead projector (OHP) transparencies. If any of you guys do PT/PD or cyanotype printing, get yourself some OHP and just give it try. Start with a basic B&W image, invert it, print it and try it. See if adding more or less density to the image before the invert gives different results. It's really that easy.

Regards, Art.

Hey Jon,

That image you posted looks fantastic. It really conveys the largesse of the vault and I like the light stream adding to the dramatic of the image. Nicely done.

Regards, Art.

OK, I'll start. I'm mostly a color photographer, I had been for 30 years, learn to print Ciba, type R prints, made internegs and print C prints. I also do diginegs and Van Dyke Brown prints. I had to relearn to color print for use of Photoshop, color management and a scanner. I'm a firm believer of a close loop work flow. Meaning that I fire the shutter, I edit the film and work to get what I want for a print. Most of the photographers I know work this way.
I'm a big advocate for Analog because color film sees the way I see. I like having a chrome on my light table to see and refer to for color and cropping. I also like to have a physical item in my hand that can not be lost by one press of the the delete button. So I use a scanner and an Epson R2400 printer.
My camera is a part of me. It records what I see and eye catching to me. I have spent many of years training my eye to camera to paper to get the results I like. Digital photography is just another tool for me to achieve those results. I have no appreciation for images that are heavily photoshopped or not real. Ducks swimming on hard wood floors or garish colors scenes. In the latest issue of Photo Metro magazine are a series of ads that are so heavy PS'ed I had to quickly turn the page. It's just not my cup of tea.
I use masks, the dodge and burn tool and cropping that's it. Tools that I would have used in my color darkroom in my earlier days.
I'm glad that we have another sub forum here. Thanks to Art and Denise.

For the last 2-1/2 years I have been working almost exclusively with handmade silver gelatin emulsions, both contact printing paper and dry plate. My APUG avatar is a print from a dry plate negative. Besides a digital camera for website postings, the only digital aspect of my current work flow is enlarged diginegs for contact printing on my paper and color separation negatives for color gum prints.

Art is right about OHP. It really is that simple. To his basics, I add a fair amount of the Photoshop CS2 burn and dodge tools. Once you get the baseline density for your process figured out, treat the negative like you would paper under an enlarger. It's both much simpler and much more precise than trying to rely on elaborate canned profiles (and I hope it could go without saying: that's what works for me, so of course, I think that's best )

Art, Thanks. It was originally a postcard from a couple of rounds ago in the Exchange. I wanted to do some cyanotypes, but had no good negatives, so I scanned the postcard and printed a negative on vellum - no curves or anything. In a lesson on why you don't change too many things at once, I was printing with two different papers. I got the exposure right for one paper, then put this one in the UV box. It came out solid blue and gray ... so I bleached it back. I'm not sure I could ever repeat it though!

I can only see one place to post messages - hope this is right. Last time I tried it seemed to go in the wrong place but we'll see...
I'm not using hybrid methods currently - except for web use - but I do want to have a go at digital negs (have had some permajet digital film ready and waiting for quite some time!). I've also used trad methods of enlarging film but would like to experiment. I use 6x7 and no plans to go larger camera-wise as for me it offers the right combination of quality and spontaneity. I'll follow any threads when I can, Art and Denise, I would love to believe enlarging negs is that simple, I have yet to find a good explanation that takes away the mystique - something I've been looking for.
Cate

Cate:
I agree with you about the spontaneity of smaller cameras. I love my big cameras. I love everything about view cameras, but I can see the day coming when smaller will be the only way I'll able to get images 'away from the vehicle'. But, at least, today is not that day.

Re digitally-enlarged negatives: The mind boggles at some of the instructions on making the things. I'm fairly technically-minded but my eyes glaze and my head nods. I'm sure that for the person who does relate to that kind of workflow, some of the techniques are very good. They might save time and materials in the long run. Mostly, though, I think they appeal to the idea that art can be quantified. It might be part of the same notion that leads some people to study and emulate commercially successful photography, whether or not the 'look de jour' is something that resonates from their own gut.

My advice is still this: just go out and buy a pack of Pictorico OHP (or some other brand) and experiment with density, sharpening, curves, and 'burn' and 'dodge', in both the scanner and Photoshop. Print each attempt. The look of a digineg is a little different from a film neg. At least at the outset, you won't be able to judge how well it actually prints. Take really, really good notes at every step. It wouldn't take you long to figure out the workflow that will make your art look like it 'came from Cate'.

The best to you,
d

denise, thank you - good advice.

Greetings. Ken here. Just like somebody else mentioned, I'd rather stay in one place than have to subscribe to a dozen different places.

I'm extensively using film as "Delayed Digital Capture" in wedding/portrait/event photography. Current color axe of choice is Portra 160NC scanned on a Nikon Coolscan V-ED using either Nikon Scan and Vuescan. At the moment, my darkroom is nonexistant as the townhouse I'm living in has no space for one, but I'm working to address that fault as quickly as possible. I shoot a ton of B&W films and my choices there are PanF and Delta400 as they scan well and they work extremely well in the darkroom.

Hybrid, to me, is a practical issue, not a religion. Film? Now that's a religious issue.

Before I moved a year ago, I started experimenting with large digital negs but ran out of time before I could get anywhere close to commercial with it.

Cate,

Near the top of the page under the words "Hybrid Photo Group" there is the word "forum" that is underlined. If you click on the word "forum" it will take you to the Hybrid forum part of the group where you can start and reply to threads just like in the main APUG area. Also, since you are a member of this group these threads will appear to you in the main part of APUG.

Regards, Art

Hi there! Finally I was able to log on.
I have more or less reverted to film, and scan negatives, since I have a developing tank but absolutely no access to a darkroom. So hybrid is the name of the game.

I collect cameras, but unlike in previous times I try to collect only cameras that will be put to good use, not closet queens.
I also like to experiment and always wanted to experiment with developers, now I get both from putting a lot of work into all the intricacies of caffenol developer(s), trying to wrestle an alternative out of household stuff, that will be available long after they have stopped selling D-76, which they already have, to all practical purposes here where I live.

Same as Erik. I can develop as much film as I like, printing is much more challenging, so for anything larger than 35mm or 6x6, scanning will have to do the job, until the 5x4 enlarger for pennies falls into my lap that is...
Digital, as far as it goes is used to laser print internegatives for gum arabic prints.

all good stuff