Fresh Out The Darkroom!

AllHailZ · Apr 16, 2007

This is part of a series that the girl and I took while on a trip to the hills. The name of the lake is Badin Lake of Uwharrie National Forest in NC. Feedback, please. I tried to reduce the graininess by printing them smaller than I previously did. You can look at my other pictures and compare to see if I succeeded or not.

#1.

#2.

#3.

#4.

nealjpage · Apr 17, 2007

I like the chimney shot. What happens if you up the contrast?

AllHailZ · Apr 17, 2007

The brick detail gets lost, becomes more black but the clouds in the sky becomes more apparent. I really should have burned the sky...

brighteyesphotos · Apr 17, 2007

Have you tried split contrast? You print with one contrast for the chimney and with a different contrast for the sky while keeping the chimney covered (dodging I believe).

AllHailZ · Apr 17, 2007

That's what I'm going to do. I think it's worth a reprint. Keep your eyes peeled!

AllHailZ · Apr 17, 2007

Here's the second try... Along with a couple of other pictures. Nothing special... It's hard to dodge the chimneys. The two chimney pictures might go to Serious Critique...

The third picture was bland when done normally, so I went with a 5 filter and got that result you see.

#1.

#2.

#3.

LaFoto · Apr 18, 2007

Maybe you had best ask questions on darkroom work in the Film Photography Forums somewhere, for that is where all those who have the knowledge about film types, papers, developers, and darkroom work in general meet and discuss their film/print work.
Any real DARKROOM work related question is far, far beyond me (and a good number of "the digital photographers'") knowledge, I'm afraid.

Efergoh · Apr 18, 2007

I really like #2 from the second set. Good show.
Lots of drama in the sky there...could be even more if you did a bit of burning...

terri · Apr 18, 2007

These chimneys have a lot of character. And you have some yummy grain going on here, too.

Some areas of the chimneys are a little muddied, however. The sky is terrific looking in print #1 (your second try), but you need more contrast on the chimney itself. Hit that baby with higher contrast, then cover it with a dodging tool while you burn the sky in the same way you did before. Otherwise, you end up with a flat-looking image like this.

Hold the chimneys back the same way in the second print - you've allowed too much exposure on them, which is great for the sky, but has turned the tops of the chimneys black, and we miss their character shining through.

You have to find the perfect combination to pull the chimneys "out" of that sky.

Brighteyesphotos is on the right track by the mention of split contrast printing; what I would offer up is for you to explore split grade printing. This link is to a brief article by Les McLean, an excellent photographer and superb printer. It's a pretty basic tutorial but it will help you in your approach to these negatives.

Just another way to think about printing. It's fascinating and frustrating at times, isn't it?

These are good shots - stick with it! :thumbup:

cosmonaut · Apr 18, 2007

The two chimneys in the field together has a lot of potential. Your scans are very bad. How are you scanning them? Have or are you using TriX?
Hats of to you though for developing your own film.
Cosmo

firemedic0135 · Apr 18, 2007

I find #2 in the second series to be a real keeper.I love it!!:thumbup:

Aquarium Dreams · Apr 19, 2007

I really like all three in the second series. Melancholy.

AllHailZ · Apr 20, 2007

Here I was thinking that nobody had responded in the flood of new threads that appeared overnight only to find that several people had indeed answered! My thanks to you!

terri said:
These chimneys have a lot of character. And you have some yummy grain going on here, too.

Some areas of the chimneys are a little muddied, however. The sky is terrific looking in print #1 (your second try), but you need more contrast on the chimney itself. Hit that baby with higher contrast, then cover it with a dodging tool while you burn the sky in the same way you did before. Otherwise, you end up with a flat-looking image like this.

Hold the chimneys back the same way in the second print - you've allowed too much exposure on them, which is great for the sky, but has turned the tops of the chimneys black, and we miss their character shining through. You have to find the perfect combination to pull the chimneys "out" of that sky.

Brighteyesphotos is on the right track by the mention of split contrast printing; what I would offer up is for you to explore split grade printing. This link is to a brief article by Les McLean, an excellent photographer and superb printer. It's a pretty basic tutorial but it will help you in your approach to these negatives.

Just another way to think about printing. It's fascinating and frustrating at times, isn't it?

These are good shots - stick with it! :thumbup:

That's absolutely brilliant! Kudos to you for showing me that article, I'm definitely going to try that whenever I have problems with contrast, the chimney shots are definitely going to be redone that way. That was very helpful, thank you! I recently read about pre-flashing, I may do that, but I like the split grade printing method better.

cosmonaut said:
The two chimneys in the field together has a lot of potential. Your scans are very bad. How are you scanning them? Have or are you using TriX?
Hats of to you though for developing your own film.
Cosmo

I'm scanning them in using a HP PSC 1610 All-in-One printer-scanner-copier. I have a desktop computer from 2001 and I've noticed that my monitor doesn't have the higher brightness new screens have, so that's why my pictures may look different to you than to me. TriX? I have no clue what that is...

To the rest, thanks for your feedback/choices!