i suck at printing.

[ronocnikral]

got the beseler out last night. did some prints. all muddy and gray. i'm still learning, but i think what i learned last night was to get dayna out of the darkroom.

"it's not a printable negative. there's not enough contrast. you need to shoot a different film. you didn't develop the film right. your exposures are off in camera. put in the number 5 filter."

with that said, dayna will not be around when i print from now on. while i agree my exposures aren't always the best, they are usually in the ballpark. and i know diafine is good for scanning...

doing a little research on apug, i found it is best to start with a #2 contrast filter (it seems people randomly choose this number, mainly because it is in the middle). and i don't really have a system down yet where I can say I shot this at xxxx and i will now need yyyy contrast filter.

anyways, i think i got some good tips from apug last night (which is find the contrast filter first using 4"x5" squares and then on to getting the exposure/developing times perfect).

any other tips...?

[zebulus]

You know, me personally, I have no desire to do printing. Its just too much hassle. I love developing, but I would rather scan and then print digitally. But more power to ya!

[KJ Smith]

#2 is normal contrast.

A VC paper with no filter is #2.

Some people like to use a #2 filter so when they make adjustments, there is not so much of a difference.

Get your exposure right first. Then worry about contrast.

[Wil_Bloodworth]

I suck at it too... which is exactly why I don't do it. I'm sure there is some personal satisfaction in there for those guys like Parker Pfister who are great at it. But for me, Millers Labs does awesome work and I am 100% frustration free. Best of luck to you though!

- Wil

[ronocnikral]

i'll get right one of these days. i'm still learning. once i get it down and start pumping out FB paper prints, hopefully it will be worth it.

plus, my team at work is talking about relocating. pretty sure mpix doesn't deliver to this location. so, for the day i do move to a remote location, i will be able to get awesome prints! assuming i can get this enlarging thing down...

hopefully getting a spotmeter this week, should help a ton with the exposures.

[wclavey]

I think Kevin is right - - focus on a good exposure first and then worry about the contrast. You can do a few simple tests when you get your spot meter -- it will waste a roll of film or two, but it will help you calibrate your own personal "system" a bit and will get you into the ballpark on most every shot you take. Then tackle contrast management...

[venchka]

1. HAVE YOU DONE THE "MINIMUM exposure for maximum density thing" yet?
2. What paper developer are you using? Are you diluting the paper developer?
3. Did you #1 & #2 for a fixed amount of time? The consensus is 2 minutes. The range is 90 seconds to 3 minutes.
4. There are no magic bullets. The spot meter will be nice. It's not a magic bullet. St. Ansel did his best work without one.
5. I'm tres envious of your spot meter score.

Keep us posted on the relocation. Sounds like an adventure.

Cheers!

[ronocnikral]

yeah, the minimum exposure thing was something i picked up at apug yesterday after my annoying print session. i'm the process of moving the enlarger from our bathroom to the other guest bathroom. which would require me to only take down once guests come to stay the night and put back up once i escort them to the door. opposed to set up and take down everytime i want to make prints.

relocation...i put it at about 10% chance in the very near future. just some useless banter about, "your bosses are in luanda, everyone else is luanda, why aren't you in luanda?" at the end of the day, the answer is b/c all the engineering know how is in houston. have a couple of trips planned for next year, which will be cool for the mamiya...and me.

[wclavey]

Originally Posted by ronocnikral

...which would require me to only take down once guests come to stay the night and put back up once i escort them to the door. opposed to set up and take down everytime i want to make prints.

My darkroom is in one of the spare bathrooms, but it is the most frequently used bathroom in the house... so it is in a state of semi-dis-assembly... I take it down enough to hide it all in the bath tub behind the shower curtain and put it up when I'm going to use it - - it takes about 30 minutes to assemble from that state. I only need to take it down completely when we have company (...Wayne, you no longer count as company...). But we have plans to convert a huge walk-in closet located on the 2nf floor just over that very same bathroom into a darkroom, but I need to get all the other necessary renovations & updating done to the house first... until then, I live with the put-up/take-down requirement.

Wayne's list are the simple things you can do that will get you to the point of high reliability with your printing... You can even use your spot meter as a stand in for a densitometer to assess the things your eyes may not be able to see... but determining your real film speed that gives you the consistent exposure, with your combination of film, camera, lens, meter and chemistry is the right first step.

So, with thousands of negatives taken over 40+ years of photography, I am now undertaking the same process oriented on scanning & printing digitally rather than analog... the scanner likes thinner negatives and mine look like they can be used to stop bullets. At least, everything I have shot since I moved here to TX looks that way...

[venchka]

Luanda.........

Been there. Done That. Counted the 50 caliber holes in the walls at the airport. Watched a 707 slowly give up it's parts. Counted a zillion Soviet cargo planes on the runway. It was a place to transit quickly going to/from Cabinda. Good luck.

[ronocnikral]

it's suppose to better now. just really expensive.

"what?! you want visas for 5 people? my brother in law just happens to have five 2-bedroom apts for rent. $10,000/month each." and the quid pro quo gets you a visa stamp.

[venchka]

"What do you have for me?"

[KJ Smith]

Please understand when I said exposure, I meant through the enlarger.


Of course you need to have a printable negative to start with.

[ronocnikral]

Originally Posted by KJ Smith

Please understand when I said exposure, I meant through the enlarger.


Of course you need to have a printable negative to start with.

got it.

i feel my negs are printable. of course, i know very little about this. my wife calls them flat. maybe she's right. but, i'll run through a film test once i get the spotmeter. hopefully once i get that down i can get my meters, camera, film and developing where i want it (it's more getting the metering calibrated to the rest). i was listening to my wife and using the #5 filter which is not fun to print with...

hopefully i can pump out some nice negs to print with. probably won't get back to it until after the holidays...

[tropicpine]

I divorced a wife & gained a permanent dark room.

My set up consists of mixing chemicals, picking a playlist on the MP3 player, picking some negatives, unscrewing the white light bulbs, screwing in the red light light bulbs and turning on the enlarger.

I have found the more I print the better I get at it. To this day I have never made a better print from my scanner/PC/printer than from my enlarger.

Originally Posted by ronocnikral

... prints all muddy and gray. ...

This may be a dumb question but, have you developed a piece of unexposed paper to make sure you do not have a problem w your paper / safelight?