Mindset when heading to print in the darkroom?

I try to have fun, focus on something specific for a bit (maybe a series), then change it up to challenge myself (ie print a neg that is very challenging that I might have passed over in the series). Stay stimulated/focused yet agile with the goal of having a blast!

Hi Katie,
If I may share some personal thoughts ...
I look forward to working in the darkroom partly because when I became really interested in photographer in jr. high, I think I must have spent as much or maybe more time in the darkroom.
Now, I look forward to the weekend to get into the darkroom ... it is ... dare I say ... somewhat therapeutic. Yes, sometimes I have something in mind to print, i.e., the first few images from my new Ilford/Harman Titan 4x5 pinhole camera. Unless of course I forgot to put the negatives in my bag and only realise this after I get to the darkroom. No problem, because I can always, always find negs to print as I go through my Work Box.
I think it is important to print for you.
Nevertheless, I do wish I could do more with my fine-art photographic images such as sell prints rather than just exhibit in a few modest venues or publish in magazines. But alas, I am content with the hopeful possibility that someday collectors and galleries might come across my work. In the mean time, the few real "keeper" prints I am able to produce continue to accumulate towards building a) a solid portfolio; b) prints for exhibition & sale; c) hang on my walls; d) give as gifts; e) use in teaching.
Finally, I use to take a plethora of images of my children when they were small ... some of my best work, and one piece even won an award.
My wife was very artistic in her own way and took many of the images and made chronological albums with them, so pictures of one's family are a priceless legacy to one's art and family.
All the best,

I don't go into the darkroom with expectations of getting a good print right away. Sometimes nothing I like gets done. Work prints are pinned on a bulletin board in my den and looked at for a while. A lot of images get tossed in the process. I like my darkroom sessions to be relaxed and flexible. Good music helps me set the mood.

Is this about getting things done? Turning off the TV is a good start. :alien:

Seriously, I think concrete goals are at the core of all achievement and happiness. Unfortunately, I'm not good with goals, at least the quantifiable, verifiable variety.

Keith Carter is one of the hardest working, most disciplined photographers alive today. He prints three or four sessions a week, three hours each. He says this allows him to almost "keep up" with his prolific output.

My main problem is that I have years of negatives that need printing, and I just can't decide which one to start with. Each one of those unfinished negatives lurks in the back of my mind, gnawing at me, telling me I am incapable of finishing, so why bother?

One thing that has helped is to decide on 10x10 prints for my everyday size. Not too big, not too small, not too expensive, nor difficult to store, just right; and if they ever need to be printed bigger, it's because the gallery is saying "we can sell these like crazy in 20x20!" At that point, someone else will probably be printing for me.

People think being a photographer is a lot of fun, and it is, but it's a lot of damned work, too. How you approach the damned work part of it is surely of equal or greater importance than the fun part. As Keith says "there's no excuse, you gotta get the work done."

I'm trying...

I have a list of negatives that I need to try to print, and there is usually some other film around that needs attention. I'm always behind schedule, and I don't care very much (age??). I'm not sure what motivates me, but I think it's mostly the challenge and the surprises. What looks easy to print is often very difficult to do well, and what looks difficult often turns out well in only a couple of tries. I don't make contact sheets. For me they are a waste of time and paper and are almost always very misleading. Instead, I've learned to judge negatives, at least pretty well. The fuss of the darkroom is a de-motivater. I need enough enthusiasm to set up, decide on what to do, and mix the solutions. Then I usually break for food, and if I'm not distracted by something else around the house that needs my urgent attention, I get back to the darkroom and can do some interesting work. After a few prints, my back starts to ache, and I may take a break. If I recover, I print some more until I'm either too tired or too sore. Then I have to wash the prints, hang them up to dry, and clean up the mess. It seems like an awful lot of pain for the results, but somehow I enjoy it.

ParkerSmithPhoto said:

People think being a photographer is a lot of fun, and it is, but it's a lot of damned work, too. How you approach the damned work part of it is surely of equal or greater importance than the fun part. As Keith says "there's no excuse, you gotta get the work done."

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No free rides...

Yesterday, and the day before, I went into the darkroom with the intent of expanding two of my portfolios. I looked at contact sheets on Friday night, selected a few frames from 2008 to print, played with cropping, and Saturday morning I went into the dark, and stayed there until 9pm, surfacing only to eat, take potty break, and let my better half know that I'm still alive.
Sunday morning, repeat Saturday, except I quit around 5pm.

Out of the printing sessions came two 16x20 prints, five 11x14, eight 8x10 prints, and a slew of new contact sheets. All but the contact sheets are toned with one or two toners.

It's more than I've ever successfully produced in a weekend before, being limited by darkroom logistics, such as not having a 16x20 print washer...

But to have the intent of working on something specific I think is what gets me in the zone, all focused and inspired to try hard. To get those portfolios printed up, all on the same paper, with results that are both consistent and individually pleasing.

Thomas Bertilsson said:

Saturday morning I went into the dark, and stayed there until 9pm, surfacing only to eat, take potty break, and let my better half know that I'm still alive.
Sunday morning, repeat Saturday, except I quit around 5pm.

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Dude, that's hardcore! I know you said your darkroom isn't the most comfortable space, either.

One of the things helping me gain momentum is getting everything organized, like I do when I cook. This is a mock up of my darkroom space made out of mat board, with all the major items measured out to scale. This was how I did my fabulous kitchen. It's really easy to experiment and "feel" the layout before you start pounding nails.



The other big organizational project was getting all of the negatives contacted (took a while, almost done) and in binders by year.

Still much work to do there, but obviously, you can work hard and get nowhere if you a) aren't organized; and, b) have no clear goals. So, hopefully, I'm almost done with the organizing and close to setting some real goals to go with it.

As to section b), I can empathize with Katie, though, as it's sometimes quite difficult to evaluate why you are working on a particular image and/or what it means, if anything. (Robert Adams recalled an interview with Imogen Cunningham, who was fond of asking herself "is this a good picture?" Translation: "is this worth doing?" Or: "am I wasting my time on something no one but me cares about?")

Those thoughts alone can easily lead to avoidance and procrastination. (I plead very guilty...)

Katie said:

So my question ... when you go into the darkroom, do you know EXACTLY what you are going to print?

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Mood, state of mind or "head space" is just as important in the darkroom as it is when you're behind the camera.

As they say, taking a photograph and making the negative is like composing a symphony but making the print is like performing it.
If you are not in a good frame of mind when you print a negative, you are not likely to do your best work.

So, yes, I wait until I'm in the right head space until I go downstairs. If you need to play music or something, turn on a radio or fire up the iPod.

One trick I use to know what pictures I want to print is to post them on Flickr.
I scan my negatives and Photoshop them to look the way I like. Then I upload to Flickr and watch how many hits they get.
After a few days or a week goes by, I know which ones have been getting a good response, I have a good idea which ones are best.

When I go to the darkroom, I run a couple of test strips: One for exposure and one for contrast. Then I make one test print and call it a day. I take that print upstairs, lay it out on a blotter to dry and forget about it until the next morning. Then, when I get up, I look at it while I'm having my coffee.

Many of my pictures never make it past this stage but, when I have a "good one", I'll know it and I'll have a good picture in my mind what I want to make out of this negative.

After that, it's all a matter of making the final print look like the idea in my head.
(That's the hard part! )

I only have so much mental energy so I like to have things all planned out ahead of time. The fun part is printing something for the first time. You haven't seen the problems yet. The hard part is finishing something off. I tell myself it's not brain surgery. If you screwup you can just print it over next time.

I do think that there are two ways to approach printing. In one you know what you want the print to look like and work to get it. In the other you make several prints in a variety of looks and as they say let the print tell you which is best. Both seem to work fine but sometimes seeing the variety of prints can get you thinking.

Lots of good advice.. here are a few things I consider and do each week, I go in the darkroom average 3 days a week for 6-8 hours each session.
Set goals for each session and try to accomplish them .

Before the printing session

Go for the easiest negative first , that is followed by the same series of negatives, set the negatives in the enlarger in advance
Set up the trays and negatives in advance, I use two enlargers at all times.
Make sure all chemistry is there in plenty and ready to charge the trays
Make sure you have paper and spare bulbs.


Day of printing

get rid of all emails and disturbances and make sure you are free to work.
in my case put on the jumpsuit
warm up the safelights
while the safelights are warming up put the chemicals in trays.


Now put on PRINCE OR MADONNA or whatever music charges your soul and makes you happy and start printing.



First two prints of the day will take longer and you will waste a few more sheets.
If you want more pick negatives of similar quality so your flow is improved.

remember to take breaks for bodily functions and maybe fresh air if your in a tight space

I use the same paper and chemistry's as well as a set time for process, unless its lith.

For those who print a lot some will argue these points.
- I do not keep notes
- I do not do test strips
- I do not keep any bad prints for comparison
- All my main considerations are done in the developing tray... there fore I look as the print emerges.
- I do not have a microwave at home... my wife and I usually use the stove or bbq
-I do not play classical music.. I am not at a sleep therapy class.
- I make sure the easel is set to the bulb and negative , and therefore am very critical of all the borders.
they should be even density with no falloff and very sharp.
- I keep my work surface , neg carriers and lenses clean as possible.


Most of the people on this thread and the OP I recognize as people who spend a fair amount of time in the darkroom so I feel comfortable saying the following.

When you go to a fine restaurant do you think the head chef , or for that fact any chefs looking at notes while they prepare your meal.......:munch:

Same with printing, if you observe the simple things like dark and light on the easel, if you dodge and burn each print, and if you look at the print emerging
you do not need any notes.

I remember reading about the printers bringing prints to Richard Avedon and he would scribble on the paper where he wanted changes...this makes me laugh, as either the printers ignored what he said or they were the worst printers in the world and it took RA a lot of time to get prints out of a darkroom.
After printing for others for 30 plus years and making a living I can tell you this is not the way it goes down.
More like how Bill Jay tells the story about Helmut Newton's relationship with his printer.


To the OP ... Not everyone has the same taste in prints, go to any collector of photography and you can see a vast difference in printing styles and contrast, and density.... I feel I am a deep printer, that means I like darker prints than most would prefer... that does not make me any worse of a printer ...So when judging your work, remember that if you like it , its probably a good print and over time you may find that your style is different than others... and I think that is a good thing... Nothing worse than a print with no feeling.

Ok so I lied above .... in one clients case I do something quite different..

I am working on a project that over the last 10 years and 15 years in the future is going to require repeat visits for edition printing.

I have made portfolio prints of the hero images for my client to show , then scanned the neg's and made small RA 4 prints and put in a very large water colour book

This is going to be a Museum show and the negatives are from over 20 years of repeat visits to a location,, all large format, some pyro some D76.
All natural light and in tough lighting conditions.

These prints after I make them are listed as I go and I do write down how I made the print and where the difficulty's were.. I do not write down times or contrast settings of the enlarger, only my basic thoughts of each image.

Things like ... this is a easy image , next printing its ok to do one if requires.

or..... this is a very tough image,, hot spot on bottom required massive burn- next time print all edition of this negative rather than one.

This book will stay with me until the editions are finished and then I will give it to him as a gift.

Very interesting notes, Bob.

I find myself taking notes, to be honest with you. But I also find that I hardly ever look at them.

Music is important to me in the darkroom, and I just got a new CD player from in there. Depending on what I print, I play different types of music.

So much of what has been said resonates with me as well.

I tell my friends that I shoot film so that I can go to the Darkroom - I truly enjoy working in the Darkroom, BUT...
there are days when the Darkroom spirit is not in me. When that happens, I don't push it. I will tidy-up the place, look at contact sheets and plan my next session.

When my kids were as little as 4yrs old, I took them in with me (they insisted!); made little aprons and face masks for them. I would expose the paper and they would do the rest. That was truly a wonderful experience and I hope to repeat it when my littlest one is old enough.

Bob - Great info! Question - when you were learning to print did you take notes so as to learn what you liked/didn't? Or have you always printed in this manner? I find myself as a new printer making a few prints, flipping them over, reading my notes (f, mg setting, exposure, what was dodge/burned, etc), and using that to reaffirm my own style. As a newbie, I do print for what I like, I just don't know how I could have found out what I like without notes/reflection or does that part become natural at some point and you were able to print free of that documentation because your eye knows what to do to arrive at your own aesthetic w/o notes?

For notes: Once I get a print worked up the way I want, I make an extra backup print and make notes on the reverse then pin it up on the darkroom wall.

If I ever want to reproduce that print, I just take the backup off the wall, stick it in my easel, put the negative in the gate and line it up to the print. All I have to do, then, is to follow the directions I already wrote.

I do have a few sheets of notebook paper tacked to the wall, too, where I keep notes for prints I don't have pinned up but, for about two dozen "keepers" on the wall, I only have two or three sheets of notes on paper tacked up in the corner above my workbench.

That's it. Everything else is in my head.

OP here:
I just wanted to thank each of you for taking the time to post and explain how and why you do what you do. It has made me realize that I am not abnormal at all.

I love my darkroom time. 4 hours feels like 20 minutes to me. Time flies when you are having fun.
I find it very relaxing. I have an ipod player that stays on the whole time I'm in there. I have all my old favorite music on there (Morrissey, The Smiths, etc...)
I let my older son come in and help me when he wants to. I also like to lay out my prints for my husband to see and help me pick which one's to "keep". (although he always seems to ask why I don't make everything in color. DOH!)

It's nice for me to hear that even you seasoned printers have the same issues, and it isn't reasonable for me to ever think that I should be churning out more than I already am. I am not in this to make every image a master print, but between the wonderful shots of my family and the more artistic portfolio shots, I am wondering if I will ever get all the shots I like printed. Then I end up with hardly anything printed. And the one's I do print, I then question whether I should have printed them at all.

One day I hope to have a large collection of 8x10 to 11x14 prints of all my favorite shots. I might have to print more and shoot less, though.

I haven't had time to read through the whole thread but I'll just add my thoughts, which probably merely restate someone else's, somewhere above!

I think having time to set things aside and then reconsider them is very important. I would suggest making contact prints at a few different exposure and contrast levels; don't worry about perfection at that stage. When making contacts it's a good time try a few things that you are not sure will work. Then just let the contact prints sit for a while... days or weeks, however long it takes for you to give them a fresh look. After you've given enough time, you may be able to look at the images again and have a clearer picture of where you want to go.

Katie said:

I am wondering if I will ever get all the shots I like printed.

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I have times when I dislike everything I'm doing and nothing seems worth printing - that's when I go back and catch up on stuff that I didn't have time to print before.

Never....I have always printed without notes, over 100,000 prints for sure by now.

I only kept good prints that I thought were decent interpertations of an image, and one thing I do is for every image I made three finals.. each final was different and the next day ,,,, and over years I ended up knowing what workflow was best for me.. It took me years to admit that there is no such thing as the perfect print.
I still make a couple of density changes on work to this day ... so you could call me a insecure printer...


Yes it will become natural to you

after enough prints , and if you dodge and burn on every print, and if you look at the neg, projected image on easel and look at the print emerging in the developer, it will all start making sense and you will be free of documentation.

Also I split print and use a % style of printing where once I determine the base exposure I never change the timer or apeture during all by print cycle..

for example.... grade two filter 10 seconds gives me my base... then grade 5 filter 10 seconds as well.. I will hit the timer more than once for more contrast on the 5 or I will dodge during the grade 5 exposure if I want less..... I do not change the timer.
little things like this I feel speed up my work and less time spent trying to figure out little print routines.
Dodging is your weapon of mass destruction... It is the most important aspect of printing. Burning in is almost like salvage work, but dodging is the finesse and should be worked on every single image.

Also when making contacts for personal work I will make darker and lighter contacts**1/2 stop** from normal so when looking you see great differences and some happy surprises.
today I scan and in Lightroom play with density and contrast to get an Idea where I want to go with final prints.

If you keep test strips, if you keep bad prints for comparison sake, you are only weakening yourself.. If some one says to you I do not like your prints they are too dark , no big deal thats one person, if every single person looking at your work says its to dark then maybe you need to adjust.
Your style is determined on what you like and you should be the person steering that boat.
Did I mention I do not have a microwave and Classical music puts me to sleep.

zsas said:

Bob - Great info! Question - when you were learning to print did you take notes so as to learn what you liked/didn't? Or have you always printed in this manner? I find myself as a new printer making a few prints, flipping them over, reading my notes (f, mg setting, exposure, what was dodge/burned, etc), and using that to reaffirm my own style. As a newbie, I do print for what I like, I just don't know how I could have found out what I like without notes/reflection or does that part become natural at some point and you were able to print free of that documentation because your eye knows what to do to arrive at your own aesthetic w/o notes?

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Bob Carnie said:

Also when making contacts for personal work I will make darker and lighter contacts**1/2 stop** from normal so when looking you see great differences and some happy surprises.

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+1. I think this approach is really key to obtaining an optimal result. Just as is the case with precisely judging focus, you won't know if you're right on the mark until you go a bit above and below the mark and compare. Particularly for FB paper, due to all the ways that drydown and texture and toning etc. can affect the end result. Happy surprises can be great, you just have to put yourself in a position to be able to spot them. And that means varying exposure and such. Fo course, contrast and exposure are the really wild variables here, a little change in contrast can make a big change in optimal exposure. So you have to start with the variables that make the coarse adjustments, then proceed to the finer and finer variables....

Not to argue with Carnie... I know better, since he's made a zillion more prints than I have, but I like my contact sheets to be the same contrast every time. That, to me, confirms how I'm doing with exposing and processing film, and is a great tool to make small adjustments in my process so that the negatives are perfectly tuned to my paper.
At least to me it would be confusing if the contact sheets were different contrast. So, I make them all contrast grade 2.5. That helps me understand whether I need to give more/less exposure, and/or more/less development time.

By not doing the contact sheets in different contrast levels I learn to see the potential of certain negatives, because they're almost always right at Grade 2.5 anyway.

My 2 cents.

Last time I looked you were at least a foot taller than me, I am shrinking with age, so I am not going to argue with you.

my comments on darker lighter were for the happy surprises and not for judging my balance..
Its funny how an image takes on a complete change and sometimes a really light or really dark version kills the mid print.
I also do a correct contact so I can make sure everything is tickity boo.

Thomas Bertilsson said:

Not to argue with Carnie... I know better, since he's made a zillion more prints than I have, but I like my contact sheets to be the same contrast every time. That, to me, confirms how I'm doing with exposing and processing film, and is a great tool to make small adjustments in my process so that the negatives are perfectly tuned to my paper.
At least to me it would be confusing if the contact sheets were different contrast. So, I make them all contrast grade 2.5. That helps me understand whether I need to give more/less exposure, and/or more/less development time.

By not doing the contact sheets in different contrast levels I learn to see the potential of certain negatives, because they're almost always right at Grade 2.5 anyway.

My 2 cents.

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Bob do you create your contact sheets in that manner because you print others work and therefore being less need to be concerned if a roll is exposed similar to other rolls because they are from different photographers? I can see some value of what Thomas does and also how you approach in that each roll is its own tabula rasa?

Andy
No , I do this for my own work or at least I did, one normal, one 1/2 over 1/2 under.
Also this is why I use a out flanking method in printing as described by MAS.

Happy accidents.

For client work I make contacts 1/2 grade softer than I think is proper and lighter so that the client can see well each image. I only made one set in that case.

Today I do not make contacts , only for the die hards, I roll scan all and in Lightroom make changes to see if I want differences.



In my personal work it must be noted that I only use the camera as a device to get info on film... I consider myself as a print maker rather than a photographer...
I have more respect for print makers than I do photographers...:munch:

zsas said:

Bob do you create your contact sheets in that manner because you print others work and therefore being less need to be concerned if a roll is exposed similar to other rolls because they are from different photographers? I can see some value of what Thomas does and also how you approach in that each roll is its own tabula rasa?

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Bob Carnie said:

I have more respect for print makers than I do photographers...:munch:

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But what about the unfortunate souls who are both?