Path to better printing

Second Best Advice I Ever Received: Base your exposure on how you want your highlights to print.

Rick Jones said:

Second Best Advice I Ever Received: Base your exposure on how you want your highlights to print.

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That's interesting, as it is backwards from the usual formula of "expose for the shadows and develop for the highlights".

Or, is that why it's the second best advice?

"Expose for the shadows, develop for the highlights," is for film. After getting the best possible negative comes making the print and finally presenting it. Ideally one should have the final presentation of the print in mind when taking the photograph. We can't work towards that goal without knowing what the goal is. Seeing properly displayed master prints is one aid in setting goals. Books are a more convenient substitute. Lootens and Ansel Adams wrote useful books on technique. Newer and better is Way Beyond Monochrome by Ralph Lambrecht and Chris Woodhouse with both detailed information and fine reproduction of images. It costs less than many other photo accessories, and may be more valuable in improving one's photographic skills.

bdial said:

That's interesting, as it is backwards from the usual formula of "expose for the shadows and develop for the highlights".

Or, is that why it's the second best advice?

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The first thought - it's the counterpart to exposing in camera, so you work from the other end - the whites. The whitest feature if it's too gray, will ruin your print.

However you get there - bleach, dodge or base your exposure to get the white... That needs to be the best it can be.

The shadows can be a wide range of dark. From the maximum black the paper can give, to 90% of that, or even a little less black... And the print would not suffer as much for not being pitch black in the shadows... As it would suffer if the whites are too grayish. I'm not suggesting printing grayish dark, but that's where you have the most "tolerance" for not being perfectly black.

The joke would be phrased: That's the second best advice I ever received. What's the best? Everything else.

Bill Burk said:

When Dennis McNutt joined a thread regarding Bruce Barnbaum, I was reminded of this thread.

Something that surprises me, as I remember this thread clearly... I swear someone mentioned that "it was masking that took my printing to the next level".

I can't find that post in this thread, and wanted to revisit the subject because it's a technique worth recommending.

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Yes, Bill, that sounds like something I would have said.

I spent many years learning the standard film and paper techniques, but Mark Jilg worked with me to create a series of silver masks that gave us powerful tools to make otherwise difficult or impossible photographs. I won't add to the discussions of masks here as they have been discussed in other threads. I can't imagine not having various types of masks handy in my printing techniques quiver.

Other than masks I finally learned that test strips can only give me a starting point for a print. I need to see complete prints to get a sense of their emotional impact.

One of the last prints I made started with test strips, then went through a series of fourteen 8x10 trial prints. Only when I found the right combination of printing techniques and masks did I go to an 11x14 proof print. I then lived with that print for several days before I was ready to make 16x20 final prints. (I tend to fall in love with my new prints, but living with them for a few days will reveal their flaws!)

Hopefully the readers of this forum can get to a final print with less effort than I!

Probably, this should be a sticky thread! Moderators?