New to film photography, I need help in choosing the right film for my needs.

Xmas said:

If you are enlarging you are fitting the negative range into a print range.

In monochrome paper/resin you can get variable range contrast to capture most negatives the enlarger will have a colour filter control you dial to control.

But you may still want or need to dodge and burn locally and more generally.

An expert printer will take a difficult negative and straight print it for mid tones separated so they look good but frying and boot polishing the high and lows and then do 2nd print recovering the highs and lows same exposure as first... but burning and dodging.

I spend a week end with a box of prints all rejected...

This is the simplistic description...

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Even a fair printer does this. You may be able to get highlights and shadows in a wide range scene to both print by using a soft paper grade, but it will look like crap because of the lack of separation in close values, "micro contrast" as it were. Choosing a paper grade to do that is fine for a contact proof to guide the final print, but for the final print choose a paper grade that gives good looking midtones (or whatever tones dominate in the case of a high or low key scene) and dodge/burn/flash/bleach/whatever you have to in order to fit the higher and lower values you need onto that grade. I emphasize "you need" because sometimes it does no harm, and may even help, to let highlights or, particularly, shadows go blank. A lot of very successful available light shots have black, detail-less shadows, for example, and that's fine. Such scenes often have the important areas lighted and others in darkness anyway. It all depends on the photo.

Hi guys ... I'm busy but I'm reading all your replies and I thank you for it!

Here's an example of my experiment with Portra 400 yesterday:



Looks like this film is staying in my bag... no filter. developed and scanned at Costco. This time I didn't print with them. I'm planning to buy a scanner and may be a printer later.

Quick thought on your replies: I had to re-read many of them, as I'm not familiar with many of the techniques. Following the "teach a man to fish..." model, any recommendations on books (or a website may be) to learn printing color (digitally) and also the work that proceeds printing - as in how to accommodate the larger latitude of the negative to fit on the limited capability of the print paper?

Again, your input is much appreciated!

Dead Link Removed

You'll want a subscription to these guys, best money you'll spend if you really want to learn.

You'll also need/want a subscription to Photoshop and Lightroom.

Learning the tools and materials well should use up all your spare time for the next few years.

Enlarger, enlarger lens, lens board and negative carrier, grain focuser, timer, color printing filters, some trays, RA4 develop, stop bath, RA4 bleach-fix, tongs, box of paper, paper easel, lots of practice...

I know it's not practical for everyone, but this IS APUG. Someone had to say it.

Roger Cole said:

Enlarger, enlarger lens, lens board and negative carrier, grain focuser, timer, color printing filters, some trays, RA4 develop, stop bath, RA4 bleach-fix, tongs, box of paper, paper easel, lots of practice...
I know it's not practical for everyone, but this IS APUG. Someone had to say it.

Click to expand...

free, free, free, free (or $200 for the nice one with ANR glass), free, free (or ipod-metronome, or $10 for Polyglot's timer), in-enlarger, free, $50, $10, in with dev, free, $40, free, priceless.

Plus $10 for a can of black spraypaint to paint a piece of wood to replace the plastic in the bathroom skylight, and another $10 for a sheet of really stiff cardboard to seal around the door.

(OK, not everyone can inherit a whole darkroom from the husband of one of your mum's friends, but it's probably not more than $1-200 worth)

It's not very expensive to set up, even if you buy everything except the enlarger and lens new. That's not usually the problem. The bars are usually, in order, a) an appropriate place to set it up - you CAN do it in a spare bathroom but that's such a PITA even I wouldn't bother if I couldn't leave it set up. I do without running water though. Given a choice of a temporary "set up and tear down each time" darkroom with running water or a permanent one using a water container and holding bath I'll take the latter any day. It's working for me, and b) lack of time. It IS massively time consuming, more so when you don't have running water and have to take prints and film upstairs to wash in sinks that are too small or use the multiple still water soak method. I know all about that. When I get my permanent darkroom with running water built out later in the year (hopefully) I expect to use it a LOT more.

The equipment these days is cheap. The "having time" and "having a place" are not always so easy for everyone. I decided not to jump back into color until I had the running water, though it would be easy enough to do my own film since I have a Jobo. But I want to print again too.