Let's all print one negative

[Thomas Bertilsson]

I've printed both images. Two different papers and lith for the stream, and a third lith print for the sap bucket.
I am, however, having a heck of a time coming up with a scan that records the gamut of both colors and tones.

I surprised myself with printing these very traditionally. I may try something different yet. If I get good scans when I get home today, I'll post them here.

- Thomas

 

[Thomas Bertilsson]

Prints, batch one

I too opted for a square crop for the bucket...

Stream is printed:
Using Foma Fomatone MG Classic 132, in AristaLith developer, toned in selenium.
Bucket is printed:
Using Forte Polygrade RC, in AristaLith developer - untoned.

I hope that these look OK on your monitors. They tend to look dark without shadow separation on most monitors. I can only look at my own monitor while editing it to look like the print...

Oh well. The Internet is what it is.

- Thomas

 

[Thomas Bertilsson]

On my work monitor the stream picture looks much too green and dark, but the bucket came out OK. I am convinced that some computers are possessed with powers we don't understand...

- Thomas

 

[Cara]

These have been printed for awhile now but I thought I would get back to them and experiment with a two bath developer. Never got to it so here are my first attempts. Although I wasn't totally satisfied with the final prints, this was definitely a learning experience. It was fun to put myself in Jon's shoes and try to imagine what areas of the scene he was wanting to highlight and which areas he saw as secondary, negative space. In short, a lot of fun, but also very frustrating.

I went the opposite way of most and saw the bridge image as a square and I couldn't resist leaving in that beautiful repetition and perspective in the bucket image. Both images were printed on Ilford MG IV Fiber paper, developed in Ilford 2000RT and then selenium toned.

Thanks for letting an amateur printer participate! I would love to see these prints in person. Are we still going to get a traveling portfolio going?

 

[Jon King]

Dedicated gallery and Physical print exchange

Hi all,

I'm sorry for being quiet here - I'm in the middle of changing jobs and it's amazing how busy it can get when you are unemployed!

Sean set up a separate gallery for this thread, and any future threads. I put my scan into it.

The physical print exchange - I would really like to do it with as many people as possible, but there needs to be some deadline so it gets started. The negatives have been out for a good bit, so how about a deadline of May 31 to ship the prints to me?

I'll get them all packed nicely together, and get them going around the world to the people that sent photos to take part. The prints of everyone who sent them by the end of May should reach me by early to mid June. If we commit to send them within a week of when received, we should be done by the end of 2008.

 

[Mick Fagan]

I too have been quiet in the darkroom. I haven't been too well and physical stuff has been quite hard, the good news is, I should be starting to feel and actually be better, in about three weeks.

I did some first prints one evening, after a big session in the darkroom. I had intended to get them printed and scanned about 4 weeks ago, but I couldn't.

I'm hoping I can finish printing them on Saturday.

Mick.

 

[MattKing]

Mine are done, and posted to the gallery.

I'll post them here as well, for the non-subscribers.

Both are printed on Ilford MGIV RC and developed in Polymax T developer. I toned them in Berg RST at 1:20 for 4 minutes.

For Jon's maple syrup bucket negative, I chose a longer, more rectangular horizontal crop. The main exposure was at the equivalent of grade 2 1/2, with a small "bump" at grade 5. I held back the snow for about 20% of the main exposure.

For Jon's river and covered bridge negative, I chose a more rectangular vertical crop. The main exposure was at the equivalent of grade 1 1/2, with a 25% "bump" at grade 5. I held back the brighter parts of the snow for about 20% of the main exposure.

In contrast to some of the other comments here, I've printed lots of other people's negatives over the years, and therefore I am used to the experience. Jon's negatives are quite rewarding to print, unlike some more "challenging" ones I've encountered.

Thanks for all the work you've done on this Jon.

Matt

 

[Síle]

I finally got a few hours in the darkroom to come up with a couple of prints that I'm happy(ish) with. When scanned they look lighter on my monitor and there appears to be a dust bunny living inside my scanner.. so please ignore the flecks.

I did a slight crop on the sap buckets in one, developed in Ilford warmtone developer on Ilfords MGIV RC Pearl paper. The second sap bucket I've posted was an experiment.. it's developed in rodinal on the RC Pearl paper and toned/stained in green tea for 24 hours, but I have to admit I quite liked the effect.
The river neg I chose to darken, I tried a few with detail in the water, but much preferred the dark moody look. Once again developed on the RC Pearl in warmtone developer.

Thanks again Jon for taking and sending the negatives and arranging the exchange and to everyone who took part, it's been fascinating watching the photo's appear.

Síle

 

[Jon King]

Physical Print Exchange

Hi All,

I apologize for the delay in getting an exchange started to send the actual prints around to people who want to do that. I started a new job, and it has been a bit more time consuming than I expected. I am coming up for air now.

I will PM my address to all participants. If you want to take part in the physical print exchange part, let me know and send me the print/prints you want to put into the group. The list will consist of everyone sending a print in, obviously The when all the prints arrive, I will enjoy them together for a day or two, then mail them to the next person on the list. Sounds good?

There were 22 sets of negatives, and 13 postings so far - not bad, and I would like to thank everyone for wanting to take part in this project. If you haven't posted yet.. go for it!!!

I have enjoyed the postings, seeing the different crops, printing techniques and tonal choices. I hope you all have too. While it was certainly nerve wracking at times to realize that my negatives were out there (thank you all for being kind), it was also exciting. I think it was well worth the effort I put into it to make the negatives.

I do hope someone else will start another round at some point. I'd love the chance to print someone else's negative for a change!

 

[Mick Fagan]

Well I finally was able to spend some time in the darkroom. I have printed both negatives and I'm reasonably pleased with them.

For the snow scene I chose to crop heavily to put prominence on the rushing water, I really liked that I was able to get the water to rush out of the bottom left side. I'm not really used to printing snow scenes and I was a bit concerned about the nearest blob of snow in the right foreground, it wasn't really creamy white. I then realised that that piece of snow was in shade, no matter what I did it would never be almost pure white, unless I underexposed it. I held the centre of the river 1/4 of a stop and the centre far left of the river 3/8 of a stop more.

The bucket was interesting but I wished for a simple not too busy scene. I enlarged quite a bit and isolated the closest bucket. Unfortunately there were a few negative markings that due to the enlargement became a bit prominent. I thought about spotting, but at the moment my hands are still shaking too much, in about 8 weeks time the shaking should be quite diminished, according to my doctor.

I also did the same print with a steel etch screen overlaid, I thought this would be good and it is, but I couldn't get enough contrast for it to be really pleasing. This kind of screen over paper, requires a contrasty type negative to work well, the negs supplied were of a normal contrast and suited the subjects perfectly for normal printing. I'll include this steel etched print in the exchange as well.

Both of my bucket prints, are straight prints.

Printed on MGIV RC pearl surface, all prints are on 8x10" paper.

I would like to thank Jon for allowing this to happen. Not the next time, but the one after, I would be able (and willing) to supply a set of negatives for a round of international printing.

Mick.

 

[jgcull]

I printed mine some time back, but I've not scanned it. I've just been comparing it to those I'm seeing here. It's more like some, less like others. By the way, I think I like how Mick printed his better than I like mine. I like your water crop, Mick. It puts more emphasis on that beautiful water. In fact, when I looked at yours I said, "his water is more dramatic than mine somehow"... then I realized it's because you took out the distractions. Nice!

Janet Cull

 

[Mick Fagan]

Janet, many thanks for the compliment, the actual proof though, is when you hold the print in your hand.

I did think that the water really was the best part of the negative, so I worked on that.

Mick.

 

[Jon King]

Traveling Portfolio List

The list so far is: myself, Brian Steinberger, Keithwms, Sile,jbjbowen, MartinB, naknak, keeds, Mick Fagan and snallen.

There were a few others who expressed interest but haven't gotten back to me on my pm yet. If you are still interested, let me know. At this point, I'd ask people to send the prints to may address. It would be nice to get the prints on the road by early July, but from the postcard exchange, I know it can sometimes take a bit of time for the postal systems to cooperate!

Again, the box can fit 12"x15" (300x375mm). Someone asked if they needed to be mounted, etc. No, but if you want to, that is fine. I have two copies of my sap bucket print - one matted, one not. I'm not sure which I'll put in.

 

[rst]

After the scan my print was lying on my desk where all the tea went. I do not know if I get the chance to repeat it in time.

Sorry
-- Ruediger

 

[Ektagraphic]

Is this going to be active again?