Perfection or Personality

Thomas Satalino said:

Now I know I’ve only been doing this for a week or so, and I know that most of you reading this are far more experienced, however, in my brief time exploring this forum and participating in discussions, I’ve noticed a trend. It seems that there is a heavy wight towards perfectionism and exactness in this community. I can most definitely appreciate that, however, I find that I’ve had the most fun going in to the darkroom, and not having any idea What I’m planning on doing, and just letting the process play out as it would like to. I.E. completely winging processing times. The other thing I’ve noticed is that A LOT of the prints I’ve done this way have actually turned out.... really great! I’m not trying to pointy fingers or accuse anyone of anything, I’m simply asking.... why all the perfection, when guessing gives... just as good results?

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Yes you are right. From my point there is no need to be perfect.But I have a strong need to know how "perfect" possible work.
It you know how it is correct you are alowed to make it different.
In darkrooms the result from different individual going is mostly .......
Miserable -
.....

with regards

Thomas Satalino said:

It seems as though there is some conflict about my process. My process is using dektol and tf-4 for film, and Liquidol and tf-4 for printing. No stop for either, just water and those chemicals.

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What is the reason you have chosen Dektol for film developing? What film do you use at what ISO speed? What dilution of Dektol do you use, and at what time and temperature do you develop it?

faberryman said:

What is the reason you have chosen Dektol for film developing? What film do you use at what ISO speed? What dilution of Dektol do you use, and at what time and temperature do you develop it?

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Oops I meant Rodinal. I have no idea why I chose Rodinal, just wanting to try it out and see what happens. I use Kodak tMax at 400 for right now but will probably try something else once I get bored of that. As far as film developing, 16 min at 20* or somewhere around that.

Gerald C Koch said:

Perfection cannot be approached except asymptotically. In other words you can get as close as you wish but never achieve complete perfection.

As far as doing a sloppy job and wishing for an interesting accident they do happen but not as often as one would hope. What really annoys me are those that try to to turn aside criticism of sloppy work with the excuse that they were 'experimenting.'

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See, I don’t think I’m doing a “sloppy job... I just am not constantly checking the clock and thermometer.... And I’m not turning aside criticism! I just think my stuff looks just as good if I do it more loosely and by feel....

perfection and personality can be the same thing
some people's personality is everything just-so, some not so much
some folks love making the best negative and a repeatable print
something i admire ..
but its not really for me.
i don't really care about repeatable ...
a negative is a captured "something"
and
a print is a reflection of that, sometimes its straight and repeatable, sometimes not
and if its not i don't stress about it ... my water might have an algae bloom, my stock developer might
be a few weeks or months older ... my bulb is a little more dead .. its all a juggling act and sometimes
i drop the ball .. as long as i don't burn from the flaming torch, or get a machete on my skull ... im ok ..
making perfect prints is the least of my worries ...

Attention to detail allows me to go into the darkroom and dial in the exposure time and contrast based on previous experience. I really don't like standing and by shortening the darkroom time it makes my feet feel better. In addition I m certain that I will get a good print.

I want something to look like I want it to look. If it doesn't, I keep adjusting. If it is impossible to do I try to find value in what it is.
We use perfection or perfect in our language all the time. Philosophically perfect is impossible but relatively perfect is very common.
Using the impossibility of perfection as an excuse to accept failure is spiraling downward in your life.

Thomas Satalino said:

Now I know I’ve only been doing this for a week or so, and I know that most of you reading this are far more experienced, however, in my brief time exploring this forum and participating in discussions, I’ve noticed a trend. It seems that there is a heavy wight towards perfectionism and exactness in this community. I can most definitely appreciate that, however, I find that I’ve had the most fun going in to the darkroom, and not having any idea What I’m planning on doing, and just letting the process play out as it would like to. I.E. completely winging processing times. The other thing I’ve noticed is that A LOT of the prints I’ve done this way have actually turned out.... really great! I’m not trying to pointy fingers or accuse anyone of anything, I’m simply asking.... why all the perfection, when guessing gives... just as good results?

Click to expand...

if I can't make a science out of it, it's not worth doing.

One of the factors that informs some of the advice you receive here is that a fair few of us have helped/taught/mentored a number of beginners.
Once you have done that a few times, you get a feel for where the frustrations arise for the inexperienced.
A lot of the advice you see here about systems and repeat-ability arises from that desire to help people get past or avoid the frustrations and get to the point where they can concentrate on the fun and satisfaction.
I don't know if you ride a bicycle, but if you do I'd like to use an analogy.
When you start riding a bicycle, you have to work hard at doing it right, or you will either fall over or go where you don't want to go (sometimes at a higher speed than you ought to).
Once the process of riding a bicycle becomes more automatic, you can concentrate on things like the scenery, the route, the feel of the breeze. And you can also, if you wish, explore more challenging or inventive uses of the bicycle, like tricks and racing.
In other words, once you systematize the core, the creativity and the fun comes to the forefront. It also makes mundane uses of the bicycle like commuting much more practical.
I would never equate the technical advice you have received here with a quest for perfection. It is, instead, an attempt to help you achieve good quality, when you want it, without frequent failure or too much effort.
Those of us who recommend a stop bath do so because we believe it makes it easier to get good, reliable, dependable results.
The creativity and experimentation can really flow when your prints don't unexpectedly turn brown.