I'd like to thank everyone for helping me along the way, from learning to develop better negatives to trouble-shooting in the darkroom. I am happy to report what I consider to be my first "good" print:
Setting aside questions of photographic talent, or whether the scene is interesting (I like it), I can at least say that I think this print was performed competently, at least on technical merit. I feel confident that the negative was developed correctly, and I managed to make a print that had no dust marks that I could see, no blemishes from contamination, had the highlights where I wanted them, the shadows where I wanted them, and the midtones where I wanted them.
Here's what I changed from yesterday:
The shadows are not impressively dark, but I am using a budget RC paper (MultiTone Pearl) that is known to have a low Dmax. What matters to me is that I think the darkest spots on the image are close to the maximum dark that this paper + developer combo can deliver, and I managed to do that while also giving the highlights (sky and the grass at the bottom-left) the density I wanted, and the midtones (train cart) the density that I wanted.
I actually made many identical copies of the final print. I'm going to save them and use them to experiment with selenium and sepia toning, perhaps in a week or two.
Setting aside questions of photographic talent, or whether the scene is interesting (I like it), I can at least say that I think this print was performed competently, at least on technical merit. I feel confident that the negative was developed correctly, and I managed to make a print that had no dust marks that I could see, no blemishes from contamination, had the highlights where I wanted them, the shadows where I wanted them, and the midtones where I wanted them.
Here's what I changed from yesterday:
- Reduced the standard development time to 90 s.
- Made a fresh batch of developer shortly before I started.
- Added a pair of tongs to the final wash too in order to minimize contact between fingers and the unfinished print.
- Diligently (obsessively?) washed and dried my glove-clad hands at the end of each print.
The shadows are not impressively dark, but I am using a budget RC paper (MultiTone Pearl) that is known to have a low Dmax. What matters to me is that I think the darkest spots on the image are close to the maximum dark that this paper + developer combo can deliver, and I managed to do that while also giving the highlights (sky and the grass at the bottom-left) the density I wanted, and the midtones (train cart) the density that I wanted.
I actually made many identical copies of the final print. I'm going to save them and use them to experiment with selenium and sepia toning, perhaps in a week or two.
