Shooting more than you can print?

Carriage · Dec 16, 2015

For people that wet print, what do you do when you're shooting at a faster rate than you can print? At this stage I'm thinking that I continue to use film for my street photography but for virtually everything else use digital. The big things that I find are delaying me are setting and packing up my temporary dark room as well as at times inconsistent exposures (due to not using a meter) such that I can't always do a bunch of "good enough" prints based off one set of test strips. However, I still think I'd be restricted at some point. When I shot a bit of C41 and got it scanned at the lab it's obviously quicker but feels like I should just go digital if I'm doing that.

Thoughts or ideas?

Ron789 · Dec 16, 2015

I scan all my negatives and use the scanned images for selecting the ones that I want to print. Doing a throrough selection is critical..... dare to admit that 99% of your photo's are not good enough.... than you have only 1% left that is worth printing.

Carriage · Dec 16, 2015

That works better for my street photography (and I do generally do that) but of photos taken when I'm out with friends or family, there may be a few that aren't brilliant that I'd like to share.

paul ron · Dec 16, 2015

ive been shooting all summer but with long days my darkroom was getting dark too late to start a printing session. so i scan my negs n take notes for when i finally do get around to print.

winter i shoot much less and with shorter days, my darkroom gets dark at a much more reasonable time so i can spend 10 hours working.

pthornto · Dec 16, 2015

I have this problem all the time! I have a significant backlog of negatives that I need to get to and even just contact proof as well. I'd be interested to hear other peoples approach. Certainly trying to cull the less than great photos is a help. One thing that has helped me is using medium format as I tend to shoot less and can manage the volume much better than 35mm...I'm just not as fluid and quick with my people photos (my kids!) when using medium format so 35mm still wins out for this purpose.

hoffy · Dec 16, 2015

Scanning is really the only answer!

/thread, banned for life

OK, I am in the same position as you Carriage - its a PITA to setup and pull down my darkroom. Over the last 2 years, I have probably had 5 printing sessions and have probably produced no more then 10 distinct prints (& multiple copies of each). Life gets in the way, chemicals go off.

I still enjoy using film and my film cameras, but in reality, the only way I can get them to come to life is by scanning and digital reproduction.

Sirius Glass · Dec 16, 2015

If I get ahead of developing film I catch up pretty quickly. I tend to let the printing back up enough so that I have several days in a row of printing. That way I only have to set up the wet darkroom, the master bathroom, once and leave it set up for several days at a time. I have multiple bathrooms so it is not a big problem.

wildbill · Dec 16, 2015

I have binders full of women.

ParkerSmithPhoto · Dec 16, 2015

I went to NYC for four days with the Bronica and only shot six rolls, but they are decisive rolls (hopefully) rather than pics of just a bunch of stuff that entered my field of vision. Shoot less but am far more focused with film because I know it costs something in money, time and energy.

Grab a Panasonic Lumix for the friends and family stuff and keep the film for the serious stuff, including friends and family when you are feeling serious and not just trying to capture a few memories.

BradleyK · Dec 16, 2015

Twice in the past year and a half I found myself so far behind in processing negatives, let alone printing, that I had a local lab deal with the backlog (processing negatives, that is). Generally, it's been my habit to soup my negatives as I shoot (more or less) and then do the majority of my printing during the monsoon season (mid-November to late-March/early-April), when I generally shoot less. Lacking a scanner at the moment - it's on my shopping list for the New Year - I don't have the option of going that route. Arguably, given the amount of shooting I do - I subscribe to the Maiselian philosophy of always carrying a camera - the scanner route would probably make sense, freeing up additional time for shooting/souping/wet printing.
Compounding my problem at the moment is the fact of having come into two bricks of expired TMax3200 a few months back; I have continued shooting, irrespective of the weather, creating an even bigger backlog of printing to be done.

Nige · Dec 16, 2015

I'm 30* years behind in printing... I don't care... that's not in my KPIs

I do like to process the negs straight away. Haven't been taking many over the last few years so that's not an issue.

* could be more

georg16nik · Dec 16, 2015

Carriage said:
For people that wet print, what do you do when you're shooting at a faster rate than you can print?..

You just shoot at ~ your printing rate or with a bit slack and that's all there is to it.
When you cross that line, you enter the photography syndromes - click-click-shutter syndrome, small format go big format syndrome, gear acquisition syndrome, etc, etc; and it's better you step aside, since your creativity is blocked and you need a break.

mooseontheloose · Dec 16, 2015

I've been shooting, developing, and printing B&W for about 10 years now, but have mostly focused on the first two for some time. I have a dedicated darkroom in my apartment (converted bedroom) so I don't have the excuse of the need to set-up/break down the darkroom every time (which has been an issue in previous places). However, work takes a lot out of me and I need the weekends to catch up with other, more pressing things, so the only time I can really get into the darkroom is during school breaks. And even then I tend to play catch up with making contact prints and fulfilling obligations for exchanges here on APUG. However, I've realized that I haven't done any serious work for some time, so the next major break (Feb/Mar) will be dedicated almost entirely to doing just that. I have about 10 binders full of negatives that I want to print from.

Having such a backlog is a bit overwhelming, but I've decided to focus on making small portfolios of work based on certain subjects (ex. cemeteries, travel locations, etc) or certain looks (Holga, infrared, lith, etc) - which are not necessarily mutually exclusive. As this coming break will be the first time in a year that I could really focus on working in the darkroom, I'm really looking forward to it.

bence8810 · Dec 16, 2015

My workflow is as follows.
I shoot about 100 rolls of 135 and maybe 10 rolls of 120 per year.
I develop and scan all my films right away - scanning is done with a little Pakon. I don't scan to share on the internet - just so I have an achive and an easy medium to quickly look for something.
I then cut the negatives into strips of 6 and lay them on a flatbed scanner and scan at 600dpi as a "contact scan". This allows me to blow up one image big enough on the screen to determine if I wanted it printed or not. I go through the contact and select the ones to be printed, usually 1 or 2 per roll.
One weekday evening I print the few I selected on 5x7 Fibre and keep these in a box. Every now and then I look at these 5x7's and select a few to be printed large and then get down to it.

I enjoy making large prints the most but at the same time I can't possibly store all my photos in that size and I have only enough wall-space for some.

Having all my contacts scanned it's easy to look for something on the fly.
I know it's not quite analogue all the way but this is what works for me best.

I only share online photos that are wet-printed and the prints scanned in.

Ben

jordanstarr · Dec 16, 2015

Scan selects

Print for exhibition, sale, personal gratification, etc.

Be more selective.

Find time if you're that passionate about it.

I spend about two evenings a week in the darkroom, but have the next 2-3 months to really focus on it. It's a commitment and it's not something you can just do a couple of times a month and expect to be caught up. I always have to trim off the fat and only print the shots I am either extremely excited about, will print for exhibition or sell. On average, I probably only print one image for every 3 rolls that I shoot.

RobC · Dec 16, 2015

This is the biggest benefit of LF. You take so few images that you never have enough to print.

DWThomas · Dec 16, 2015

Shooting more than you can print?

Cheeze - ya mean that isn't why we do this???!!!

In all honesty, these days I shoot way more "other technology" than I do film. And most of my film shooting is B&W medium format -- or larger. I at least kid myself that I am going the "fewer but better shots" route. Where the results are of a trip or family event (seldom the latter, as I have very little family extant) I will scan and post results on a web gallery. In my [snicker] "Fine Art" [snicker] work, I will scan and evaluate and generally whittle the pile down to a few candidates that I think might be exhibition worthy. I will print those at modest size in a "test print" session and see what's left. Of those, only a few get committed to quality paper. If there are only three or four frames involved, I may go back into the darkroom and do what I hope to be final enlargements immediately after the test prints.

I still occasionally fall behind a bit, but not disastrously; I just don't attempt to shoot vast quantities.

"I am retired, and what I do is supposed to be fun!"
- d w thomas

Carriage · Dec 16, 2015

Yeah, for my "art" photography this hasn't become a problem as it's much easier to not print stuff if it's no good. But what brought this up was taking a few photos at a friend's place and then some when out for dinner with my family and then suddenly I have 4-6 prints I want to make let alone the time I want to spend on my "art" stuff.

Last night I did two contact sheets and 3 quick prints (straight, same exposure, grade 2 which is probably too much) and it was a bit frustrating at it taking so long to just get some prints so I can share the photos rather than doing a good job. To be fair half the frustration could have been that the bathroom was ~30 degrees Celsius.

I think I'm leaning towards what Parker suggested and just using the film for the serious stuff.

markbarendt · Dec 16, 2015

Carriage said:
For people that wet print, what do you do when you're shooting at a faster rate than you can print? At this stage I'm thinking that I continue to use film for my street photography but for virtually everything else use digital. The big things that I find are delaying me are setting and packing up my temporary dark room as well as at times inconsistent exposures (due to not using a meter) such that I can't always do a bunch of "good enough" prints based off one set of test strips. However, I still think I'd be restricted at some point. When I shot a bit of C41 and got it scanned at the lab it's obviously quicker but feels like I should just go digital if I'm doing that.

Thoughts or ideas?

Where are you displaying all those prints?

Dwayne Martin · Dec 16, 2015

You don't want to end up like Vivian Maier

Sirius Glass · Dec 16, 2015

DWThomas said:
Cheeze - ya mean that isn't why we do this???!!!

In all honesty, these days I shoot way more "other technology" than I do film.

What is that "other technology" of which you speak? Are you doing daguerreotype, calotype negative, or wet plate?

Carriage · Dec 16, 2015

Where are you displaying all those prints?

Largely just in a photo album.

Poisson Du Jour · Dec 16, 2015

Only snapshooters, not photographers, rattle through roll upon roll upon roll of film (seemingly under the guise of "this will save film", to use the terribly common line from carnival barkers) and then file the resulting pics away never to see the light of day — nary a print a scan or something to be proud of, just hundreds and hundreds of rolls of ... nothing. I have seen far, far too much of this. I print each of my images from 120 film, then sell them.

DWThomas · Dec 16, 2015

Sirius Glass said:
What is that "other technology" of which you speak? Are you doing daguerreotype, calotype negative, or wet plate?

Uh -- "silicon plate" technology -- yeah, that's it. :munch:

NB23 · Dec 17, 2015

DWThomas said:
Uh -- "silicon plate" technology -- yeah, that's it. :munch:

Oh, you mean Supermarket plastic bag technology recycled into sensor/digital photography?

Shooting more than you can print?

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