Printing other people's negatives

[cliveh]

Sometimes I am asked to print negatives taken by others. I have found this difficult and am not happy doing it. Do others have this problem?

 

[distributed]

No, as I have never been asked

But in fact I would like to try, for the sake of the practice and the need to look at the negative at hand, not the idea you had in mind when you took the picture.

Why are you not happy doing it?

 

[Ian Grant]

I began printing for a friends father around 1971, that contined untilthe early 2000's In the late 1970's when I had a specialist photographic company there was a sublet in my factory a commercial/advertising photograpgher and I'd always help him on long print runs. Typically a few hundred B&W prints of a few negatives for Press Releases, his enlarger and darkroom no timer, one of us would print the other process but we could be remarkably consistent.

One thing you learn very quickly is choice of Grade andwhere and when to dodge and burn, and that's purely from looking at the negative and its projection, it's far easier than you mis=ght think.

What you mustn't do is to much reinterpretation in the darkroom a unless you know the photographerwell and how they want their images to look.

Ian

 

[cliveh]

No, as I have never been asked

But in fact I would like to try, for the sake of the practice and the need to look at the negative at hand, not the idea you had in mind when you took the picture.

Why are you not happy doing it?

Because I am not psychic about interpreting their original vision in terms of lightness, darkness, contrast or emphasis.

 

[Old_Dick]

Yes, I enjoy it.

 

[MattKing]

I've done lots of this - even earned my living doing it (among other things) for a while.
I think it is fun. With most negatives I would just make what seemed to be a "good" print, but with a few I would get to enjoy trying to figure out what the photographer wants, as well as figuring out what I would do if it were up to me.
It is a really good way to improve your printing skills, because each negative is a discovery, unimpeded by previous intentions and expectations.
Several years ago we at APUG did an exchange where duplicate negatives were distributed, and each participant shared what they did with them. It was both interesting and fun. Some of the results were shared in this APUG gallery: https://www.photrio.com/forum/media/categories/lets-all-print-one-negative.15/

 

[Alex Benjamin]

If I could make a living out of it, I would.

Because I am not psychic about interpreting their original vision in terms of lightness, darkness, contrast or emphasis.

I wouldn't think of it as being psychic. I would approach it as if I were a translator. Going from one language to the other, you are trying to understand what is expressed in the text you're translating, but part of it is also your interpretation of it, within that understanding. The translator always leaves something of himself.

 

[distributed]

I would definitely try the travelling negative if there was such an exchange again.

I have very few friends who photograph B/W analog and they would typically rather not hand out their negatives. I might convince someone to make a few negatives specifically for me to print as a challenge, though.

@cliveh I'm interested to know who's asking you print for them? Everybody that I know who photographs either does it digitally, with or without any postprocessing, or is an analog photographer who has clear ideas of what he will do at the scanning/printing stage.

 

[awty]

I wouldn't do it I print for enjoyment, if I have to do someone elses then it becomes a job and already have one of those I hate.
Always happy to work with someone printing their own prints.
Ive been asked to develop someone else film, which I declined for the same reason. Will develop film for my children, but if they want a print they need to hang out with dad in a smelly claustrophobic room.

 

[cliveh]

I would definitely try the travelling negative if there was such an exchange again.

I have very few friends who photograph B/W analog and they would typically rather not hand out their negatives. I might convince someone to make a few negatives specifically for me to print as a challenge, though.

@cliveh I'm interested to know who's asking you print for them? Everybody that I know who photographs either does it digitally, with or without any postprocessing, or is an analog photographer who has clear ideas of what he will do at the scanning/printing stage.

I am talking historically. No one has asked me to print their negatives after digital arrival.

 

[gone]

Sure, I'd do it, but I'd be more comfortable with having the person who made the negative be in the darkroom when the print was made. More of a collaboration that way, and they'd know what went into making a print.

 

[George Mann]

I sure wish I knew someone who would make prints for me.

 

[faberryman]

Sometimes I am asked to print negatives taken by others. I have found this difficult and am not happy doing it. Do others have this problem?

No. If someone asked me, I would suggest in the nicest way possible way that I was not sure when I could get around to it and that they could get an 8x10 at WalMart for $2.39, unless they had previously done me a favor, in which case I would return the favor.

 

[removed account4]

Did, do, done that. Kind of hard not to when you do freelance printing…

 

[Andrew O'Neill]

I used to make 16x20 fibre based prints for a late railroad photographer, who chased steam locomotives all over Canada. The last chase he did was in China, just before they did away with steam. I enjoyed it for a while but then told him I've had enough. It was taking away all my own printing time, paper, chems, and the pay was not worth it. Some of his negatives were quite impressive, though. He lived working with Plus-X 120. Would I do it again? No.
I've got heaps of old negatives that were taken by long gone relatives, that I've been meaning to print. Now that I don't mind doing! I just don't have the time at the moment... Retirement project!

 

[pentaxuser]

Don't mini-labs do this all the time for those who want prints? Presumably the lab has to exercise judgement when it tries to make as good a representation of the negative as possible?

pentaxuser

 

[George Mann]

Don't mini-labs do this all the time for those who want prints? Presumably the lab has to exercise judgement when it tries to make as good a representation of the negative as possible?

pentaxuser

Digital mini labs don't make analog prints.

 

[Bill Burk]

I would definitely try the travelling negative if there was such an exchange again.

I have very few friends who photograph B/W analog and they would typically rather not hand out their negatives. I might convince someone to make a few negatives specifically for me to print as a challenge, though.

I participated in that exchange but failed to deliver. It was about the time of the Kodak backing paper issue and the negatives I intended for the purpose all said “Kodak”. The negative I got to print was challenging for me because it was a pretty nice landscape and I could only see it straight. So it was a good idea but sorry I flaked.

 

[winger]

I've done it a few times for a friend - I'd make a print send her a scan and she'd tell me what she'd like to see different. It took a little working back and forth, but she was happy in the end and I learned some things about contrast. I've also printed from a few of the negatives that were found at my late grandmother's house (they'd been shot by her parents).
I'm in PSA (Photographic Society of America) and they used to have several groups that sent negatives around to each other to make prints of the same ones and then compare them. None of those groups still remain, but there are print study groups still going (one is still mostly analog, but the rest are mostly inkjet).

 

[ProfessorC1983]

I taught myself to print by starting with other people's negatives. The idea being that I could eliminate my own exposure/film development mistakes as a variable. So I bought a collection of 60s-era nude and pinup negatives on the auction site and spent some long nights in my darkroom getting to know them. You know, for science.

 

[grahamp]

I've done it a few times where the subject of the pictures was deceased and all that existed was the negative and maybe a small print. It can be a bit strange where you knew the subject as well as the commissioning person.

In this case the brief is pretty clear - make a quality print or set without going too far down the creative rabbit hole

 

[MattKing]

This is the most famous other people's negative I've ever printed:

That is Charlie Warner's Speed Graphic shot of Roger Bannister and John Landy in the final corner of the Miracle Mile - the first mile race where both runners finished in less than 4 minutes (at the Empire Games in Vancouver in 1954).
I printed from the original negative (in the 1970s - it was a print order from the Vancouver Sun's archives).

 

[mshchem]

I refuse to print other's negatives, not a matter of ethics so much as it's no fun. I do have a 120 size negative from the late 40's, I intend to print for a friend. He's a local historian, local railroad that's no more.
He has no record of who took the picture, he bought the single frame somewhere.

 

[removed account4]

Digital mini labs don't make analog prints.

interpretation is interpretation, its the same thing.

 

[guangong]

Not so many years ago there were many houses in NYC that developed negatives and/or produced prints of high quality. My late friend Louie Stettner did all of his own work, from start to finish, but many, if not most, professional photographers, including fine art photographers, seldom printed their own negatives. New photographers usually passed their exposed film on to the lab.
If memory serves me, HCB did not process or print his pictures. His talent and skill was capturing "the decisive moment." AA had employees do his printing.
Since most of us APUG folks are photographers for the love of it, we explore all aspects of the craft. Yet, it has been many years since I developed slide film, or even color print film. I let the labs do it. Most of my pics are BW print.
If you enjoy printing in and of itself, why not print negs of others?