Exam

will965 · Jan 6, 2005

Ive got a practical photography exam next wednsday, a whole day (5 hours) of printing. By the end I need to have at least 6 final photos printed. Does anyone have any usefull tips or suggestions to help.

terri · Jan 6, 2005

yeah...try to have a good idea of your exposure times in advance!! :wink:

5 hours sounds like a lot of time for 6 prints, but if you're starting with a challenging negative you can waste a bunch of time just pulling one good one!!

Do you know what you'll be printing? Are you using your own stuff or will you be given random negatives to use?

Saeid · Jan 6, 2005

Lol... believe it or not.... i once spent exactly 8 hours straight... with no breaks in the darkroom, coming out with only 2 prints... i wanted them to be perfect...

Try test strips... my technique is cut the photopaper into small pieces eg. 4cmx4cm and fix the position of ur enlarger for the size of the final print, and simply then place the small test strip in an area with the highlights and darkspots... and with that try and increase/decrease time or filters.

It saves u alot of photopaper....

tr0gd0o0r · Jan 6, 2005

I second both of those . If you get to use your own negatives pick some nice dense ones that will be easy to print from.

Tests strips rock too. My method is to cut a long strip and expose it 5 seconds steps (cover part, then uncover more over and over again) so you have a good idea of what different times will do. And make sure you look at the test strip in real light.

And wash your hands after sending each print through the devloping process or you'll ruin your clothes quickly.

havoc · Jan 6, 2005

LOL i have spent 8 hrs+ on one print. It takes along time to get everything perfect. That print prolly cost me 60 dollars in paper to get 10 copies of it.

ksmattfish · Jan 7, 2005

Sounds like a weird exam to me. I don't know what it would prove except the ability to hurry or mass produce. A better exam would be to produce a portfolio of 6 prints over the course of the whole semester.

Even when I'm just cranking out 8x10 proof prints it can sometimes take me up to 45 min per to get it worked out, and that's about all the time they are giving you. As the others have said, when it comes to making good final prints it can take hours, days, even years.