sepiareverb
genius and moron
SDK said:
Exactly! We sculpt with light in the darkroom. The negative is only the die for the print.
The darkroom is the soul of photography.
I shoot digi every day for work. After a while you get bored with it. I'm not sure why maybe it's the photo editing.
For colour work I like digi also, but for b&w I like a real print.
I would hate to do production work again in the darkroom, but I find great satisfaction in spending four hours printing one negative and coming up with a couple great quality prints.
The digi production work I do for magazines and newspapers.... the black and white prints I sell at summer art shows as "Fine Art Black and White".
Down the road if people still want to buy my prints, I'll still make them in the darkroom. If they want to buy my digi work, I'm sure the disc will be corrupt.
-Rob
I shoot digi every day for work. After a while you get bored with it. I'm not sure why maybe it's the photo editing.
For colour work I like digi also, but for b&w I like a real print.
I would hate to do production work again in the darkroom, but I find great satisfaction in spending four hours printing one negative and coming up with a couple great quality prints.
The digi production work I do for magazines and newspapers.... the black and white prints I sell at summer art shows as "Fine Art Black and White".
Down the road if people still want to buy my prints, I'll still make them in the darkroom. If they want to buy my digi work, I'm sure the disc will be corrupt.
-Rob
JCT
Established
Lots of reasons (I'm a recent "returnee" to film)...
1. I spend all day at work in front of a computer screen -- it's nice to have a refuge from microprocessors.
2. I love the tactile nature of the work and the different parts of my brain I have to use to make a good print, my job used to entail tons of hands-on work, now I just write.
3. My late father taught me how to develop and print film (contact sheets with a bare bulb and all..) -- I still miss him and being in the darkroom reminds me of all the happy hours we spent together. Been teaching my teenager of late-- her muttered "awesome!" when her first contact sheet came up in the developer was music to my ears.
JT
1. I spend all day at work in front of a computer screen -- it's nice to have a refuge from microprocessors.
2. I love the tactile nature of the work and the different parts of my brain I have to use to make a good print, my job used to entail tons of hands-on work, now I just write.
3. My late father taught me how to develop and print film (contact sheets with a bare bulb and all..) -- I still miss him and being in the darkroom reminds me of all the happy hours we spent together. Been teaching my teenager of late-- her muttered "awesome!" when her first contact sheet came up in the developer was music to my ears.
JT
T
tedwhite
Guest
JT:
That's quite touching about your father, and it reminds me of mine, but he never taught me. What he did do, when I was about eleven and complaining of not having anything to do, was this:
The next day he arrived from work with a home darkroom kit. chemicals, paper, and a glass contact printer, developing tank, and some trays. He gave me an old box Brownie that took large and long negatives, and told me to shut up about being bored, take some pictures and learn how to develop and print them.
So I did (thank God for an instruction booklet), and have been doing so ever since.
That's quite touching about your father, and it reminds me of mine, but he never taught me. What he did do, when I was about eleven and complaining of not having anything to do, was this:
The next day he arrived from work with a home darkroom kit. chemicals, paper, and a glass contact printer, developing tank, and some trays. He gave me an old box Brownie that took large and long negatives, and told me to shut up about being bored, take some pictures and learn how to develop and print them.
So I did (thank God for an instruction booklet), and have been doing so ever since.
JCT
Established
Your story gave me a good grin from both sides of the parenting "equation"! I have a 12-yr-old son who complains about boredom with some regularity, I actually gave him a Holga for a day of wandering around Manhattan, but couldn't get him into the darkroom to finish the deal. Maybe time for another try, he loves his Chemistry class in school... maybe it's time to pull out the Darkroom Cookbook and mix some of our own!
It's an amazing thing when you think about it, but such relatively straightforward acts by both our dads (using different approaches) ignited lifelong passions -- such a rare gift!
best,
JT
It's an amazing thing when you think about it, but such relatively straightforward acts by both our dads (using different approaches) ignited lifelong passions -- such a rare gift!
best,
JT
danwilly
Established
I love the smell of fixer in the morning.
Sisyphus
Sisyphus
Here is a link to my blog, unguided-tour.blogspot.com explaining a little bit about my philosophy. The first post is an article from the New York Times, the second post are my thoughts and sentiments.
http://unguided-tour.blogspot.com/search/label/Musings
In Brief: For me, photography is a combination of intuition and science or alchemy. It is about working with light, emotion, silver, and chemistry to manipulate the lights, the darks and the midtones. It is about decding how you want the grain on the film to look, large or small, sharp grain or fine grain, and resolution.
With Digital photography, regardless of what cameras you buy, the image texture looks the same, and i feel the photographer no longer leaves their signature on their prints by how they printed, it has become all homoginized because every is using the same tools.
Granted a lot of photographers may use leicas, however, they all have their own special way of processing their film, weather they're using rodinal at 1:25 or 1:50, whether they are processing their film at 68 degress, or for less time at 75 degrees. Whether they are using D-76, Hc 110, Pyro, or technidol, or microdol. Agitation also effects grain, density and contrast--whether they agitate the film slowly or quickly.
When it comes to printing their are million possibilities to interpret a print, with all kinds of developers, additives, and toners. Whether or not you want contrasty images, or continous tones with more seperation of the carious hues of greys. The possibilities are endless, as well as putting the final touches on the print with toners, sepia, selenium--even different dilutions of selenium and different times will effect tonality--blue toner, copper toners, gold toners, and myriad of combinations.
With digital, you are just working in grayscale and printing ink on paper, not actually manipulating or working with the embedded sliver to interpret tonal range of your negatives.
It also gives me a chance to disconnect myself from the world, news, internet, wife, children, parents, pets, telephone calls, I go inside lock the door, and everyone knows to leave me alone, unless the house is burning down, then it is mad dash to first save the vintage prints, the negatives, the books, the cameras, then the kid, then the pets, and then the wife--ok just kidding, but you should get the idea!
What is also fun, taking one image, and printing it 1000 different ways, with different developers, different papers, different temperatures, and toned in toners and different combinations, you begin to see all the charm that is being lost.
http://unguided-tour.blogspot.com/search/label/Musings
In Brief: For me, photography is a combination of intuition and science or alchemy. It is about working with light, emotion, silver, and chemistry to manipulate the lights, the darks and the midtones. It is about decding how you want the grain on the film to look, large or small, sharp grain or fine grain, and resolution.
With Digital photography, regardless of what cameras you buy, the image texture looks the same, and i feel the photographer no longer leaves their signature on their prints by how they printed, it has become all homoginized because every is using the same tools.
Granted a lot of photographers may use leicas, however, they all have their own special way of processing their film, weather they're using rodinal at 1:25 or 1:50, whether they are processing their film at 68 degress, or for less time at 75 degrees. Whether they are using D-76, Hc 110, Pyro, or technidol, or microdol. Agitation also effects grain, density and contrast--whether they agitate the film slowly or quickly.
When it comes to printing their are million possibilities to interpret a print, with all kinds of developers, additives, and toners. Whether or not you want contrasty images, or continous tones with more seperation of the carious hues of greys. The possibilities are endless, as well as putting the final touches on the print with toners, sepia, selenium--even different dilutions of selenium and different times will effect tonality--blue toner, copper toners, gold toners, and myriad of combinations.
With digital, you are just working in grayscale and printing ink on paper, not actually manipulating or working with the embedded sliver to interpret tonal range of your negatives.
It also gives me a chance to disconnect myself from the world, news, internet, wife, children, parents, pets, telephone calls, I go inside lock the door, and everyone knows to leave me alone, unless the house is burning down, then it is mad dash to first save the vintage prints, the negatives, the books, the cameras, then the kid, then the pets, and then the wife--ok just kidding, but you should get the idea!
What is also fun, taking one image, and printing it 1000 different ways, with different developers, different papers, different temperatures, and toned in toners and different combinations, you begin to see all the charm that is being lost.
canonetc
canonetc
Your Darkroom Philosophy
Your Darkroom Philosophy
There is a great satisfaction in making a work of art with my own hands. In the darkroom, there is no question if I get the print right, or get it wrong. There is no intermediary machine making decisions for me.
I prefer the durability and beauty of silver as opposed to digital inks.
I also enjoy giving the digital industry The Finger. I do not wish to depend on them on order to be "a photographer". I hope that many more students will use digital only as needed. "I use digital to make money, I use film to make art."
Darkroom printing contains the basic human enjoyment of wonder; of watching something happen that we do not understand, and which borders on the miraculous.
Cheers,
Chris
canonetc
Your Darkroom Philosophy
wontonny said:
There is a great satisfaction in making a work of art with my own hands. In the darkroom, there is no question if I get the print right, or get it wrong. There is no intermediary machine making decisions for me.
I prefer the durability and beauty of silver as opposed to digital inks.
I also enjoy giving the digital industry The Finger. I do not wish to depend on them on order to be "a photographer". I hope that many more students will use digital only as needed. "I use digital to make money, I use film to make art."
Darkroom printing contains the basic human enjoyment of wonder; of watching something happen that we do not understand, and which borders on the miraculous.
Cheers,
Chris
canonetc
T
tedwhite
Guest
Chris:
"...the basic human enjoyment of wonder; of watching something happen that we do not understand, and which borders on the miraculous."
Well said, sir. I've been doing it for decades, and every day in the darkroom, printing, little miracles still occur, and that's what draws me in.
"...the basic human enjoyment of wonder; of watching something happen that we do not understand, and which borders on the miraculous."
Well said, sir. I've been doing it for decades, and every day in the darkroom, printing, little miracles still occur, and that's what draws me in.