Thanks for everyone's help, have produced my first print!

Chris Nielsen · Jan 21, 2009

Thanks to everyone who helped me when it came to choosing an enlarger, I finally listened and just went and bought an enlarger. Turns out it's not a bad one!! Anyway, it's a Hansa brand (rebadged Bogen?) and has a Hansa brand lens, and to be honest I wasn't expecting much from that lens, to my surprise the first prints I've made (my first prints ever! yay!) have turned out substantially sharper than my previous best effort with a flatbed scanner and Photoshop. Hope you all don't mind but I've attached a scan of my first print that I'm happy with.. I need to do some reading on how to deal with things like scratches on my negs, as you will see there's a bit of a line on the neg. I also see I must have bumped the neg as it's moved slightly and given me a bit of a black border. Oh well.

Thanks again everyone!

Chris

Graham.b · Jan 21, 2009

Morning, it is all ways nice to see that first print, and it just gets better. The scratches... i use a 3 bottle ink called Spot tone.A bit tricky the first time but is gets there in the end.
You know there is no way out now.

Graham

Chris Nielsen · Jan 21, 2009

Oh dear, I'm here for life you say ?

Thanks for the suggestion re: scratches

ricksplace · Jan 21, 2009

Noseoil. Put a little of the oil from your skin on the neg where the scratch is et voila! It will be gone on the print. Rub your index finger alongside your nose and cheek. The little bit of oil on your finger is now rubbed (gently) ACROSS the scratch on the neg. Works like a charm.

Rick.

BTW -nice print for your first try!

BWGirl · Jan 21, 2009

ricksplace said:
Noseoil. Put a little of the oil from your skin on the neg where the scratch is et voila! It will be gone on the print. Rub your index finger alongside your nose and cheek. The little bit of oil on your finger is now rubbed (gently) ACROSS the scratch on the neg. Works like a charm.

Rick.

BTW -nice print for your first try!

Yes, it does!
Great job on your first print! Looks very nice!

jmxphoto · Jan 21, 2009

Congratulations! I made my first print about a year ago now. It's magical event. FWIW I still accidentally print part of the neg border, I just toss those before anyone else sees them. Before you know it you'll want to try fiber base paper and shopping for a print washer or figuring out split grade printing followed by wondering what all the fuss about Lith is. The rabbit hole is d-e-e-p. Good job and welcome aboard!

-James

jasonhall · Jan 21, 2009

The rabbit hole.....thats the only thing that is holding me back. Well not the hole so much but paying for it. Wonder how nice of a enlarger I could get if I sell this Epson V700 scanner? But then I need to build the dark room and.....oh I can see the hole pulling me closer already!

Jason

jmxphoto · Jan 21, 2009

Jason:
Enlargers are cheap these days. I got a Lucky 90M for $20 complete with neg carriers, a 50mm El-Nikkor, grain focusers, film hanging clips, a bunch of stuff. The shipping was more than the enlarger. Check craigslist.com and freecycle, you might be able to get a decent enlarger for nothing or close to it. Once I got my feelers out for darkroom stuff people started just giving me stuff, mostly free paper.
/hijack

Chris Nielsen · Jan 21, 2009

Thanks all!!! I enjoyed the experience of doing the first one so much I left the temporary darkroom up and went in late into last night and managed to screw up everything I touched.. Maybe I should have declared victory and opened a beer instead ? I'm going back in today to see if I can't knock out a few more prints - this is addictive!!! Oh, and thanks for the suggestions re the nose oil, must try that

Cheers

Chris

Stephanie Brim · Jan 21, 2009

Hoping to do this soon, too. Yours looks absolutely awesome.

Chris Nielsen · Jan 21, 2009

Thanks!! I printed that image first as I have a 8x10 one I scanned, sharpened as much as I dared and printed at the photo lab. I wanted to compare them, and I am glad I did! The scanned one looks awful in comparison!

Changeling1 · Jan 21, 2009

Nice first print. Those scratches may have come from dirt or grit on the film pressure plate inside the camera. Just wipe it clean and shoot another roll. Oh, one more thing- a tripod should be used whenever possible.

Chris Nielsen · Jan 21, 2009

Changeling1 said:
Nice first print. Those scratches may have come from dirt or grit on the film pressure plate inside the camera. Just wipe it clean and shoot another roll. Oh, one more thing- a tripod should be used whenever possible.

The camera I took that with has died, sadly, but I suspect it was my developing that's partly to blame.. There is some softness in the image, probably because I was using an old Series E 70-210 shot wide open ( I think )

mwdake · Jan 21, 2009

Wow, I can say that is way better than my first attempts.

Nice job, keep it up.

white.elephant · Jan 21, 2009

Great first effort. Congrats!

Anscojohn · Jan 21, 2009

Chris, That's a nice-looking print. You may, over time, make ones that you think are "better." But be sure to keep that print. It shall always be very special.

patricia de roeck · Jan 21, 2009

Welcome to the "Darkside" Chris - that's a great first print and see - you've learnt about scratches and noseoil already!
Patricia

jgcull · Jan 21, 2009

Hey, just make sure you put the nose oil (that sounds so gross) on the emulsion side of the negative. I smeared oil all over the wrong side, the shiny side, and made a mess of one of mine. Welcome, and congratulations. You're in for lots of fun!

MattKing · Jan 22, 2009

jgcull said:
Hey, just make sure you put the nose oil (that sounds so gross) on the emulsion side of the negative. I smeared oil all over the wrong side, the shiny side, and made a mess of one of mine. Welcome, and congratulations. You're in for lots of fun!

No - not on the emulsion side. It is the shiny side you should use - because it will have the same effect, and you can wash it off if necessary.

And yes, you are in for a lot of fun.

Matt

Toffle · Jan 22, 2009

Hey Chris. That is substantially better than my first print. Keep good notes and you are sure to do even better as you gain experience. Anyway, unless I'm mistaken (I have been known to be on occasion) I'm not so sure those are scratches on your negs, though. A scratched negative would generally result in a dark line on your print. (I've had a few Holga prints turn out that way) It may be that all your negatives need is a careful cleaning before you print. Or it may be that something is happening at some point in your processing that is marking your negatives.

Anyway, great work on your first print. Oh, and by the way, that is the enlarger I started with, though I have since upgraded my lenses.

Cheers,

Chris Nielsen · Jan 22, 2009

Wow, you guys rock!!! Thanks for all the support!

@toffle: I will investigate the lines on my negs, presumably something I'm doing during processing.. I've got this going on still - maybe there's something with my changing bag that's to blame?? Static buildup possibly? I might look at loading my negs in my temporary darkroom, however I was looking to avoid having to build the darkroom just to process film. Oh well. Might be worth looking at, as my current film also has those mysterious marks.

Chris Nielsen · Jan 22, 2009

Well, I'm definitely finding this enjoyable, probably more than I thought I would - I'm not wanting to tear the darkroom down now!

Oh, and I found out what happens when you put the paper in the easel upside down

Couple more efforts attached..

Thanks all again...

sidearm613 · Jan 22, 2009

I agree with everyone on this, and i gotta say this is so much better than my first print. Like everyone else, I recommend taking better care of those negs, your Efke film will thank you.

and one other thing... now that you have made a print, try cropping out that boy in the bokeh! thats another good skill, effective cropping

Chris Nielsen · Jan 22, 2009

Yeah, cropping is a fine idea!!! and Efke???? Whazzat?

sidearm613 · Jan 22, 2009

Efke is a Croatian film maker. I'm not sure if it is sold in new zealand, but anyhoo...

Efke film uses classic emulsions and really picky material for the neg base. Rollei uses this stuff for some of their film as well. the bottom line is that those films are really sensitive to scratching, much more than, say, HP5. Basically, treat those negs like they are your child, and all will be fine.

Thanks for everyone's help, have produced my first print!

Chris Nielsen

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Graham.b

Chris Nielsen

ricksplace

BWGirl

jmxphoto

jasonhall

jmxphoto

Chris Nielsen

Stephanie Brim

Chris Nielsen

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Chris Nielsen

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white.elephant

Anscojohn

patricia de roeck

jgcull

MattKing

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Toffle

Chris Nielsen

Chris Nielsen

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sidearm613

Chris Nielsen

sidearm613

Thanks for everyone's help, have produced my first print!

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