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Leaving the Wet Darkroom?
First, I did think long and hard about posting this to R.P.Digital but
after looking at the posts there, I decided that I needed the advice of people who were more involved in the wet process. I have contributed to many of the analog newsgroups for years so please try not to flame me. I have been involved with photography as a hobby for years and I have a 125 square foot plumbed darkroom in the basement that has given me long hours of enjoyment. I have been a follower of the zone system as well using my trusty Crown Graphic, Mamiya 330, Mamiya 7, and an old Moskva folder, shooting many negatives and printing them on my D5XL. I have even dabbled in color. Lately with the addition of two children to the mix (2 years old and 4 months old) I have not had nearly enough time (read none) to pursue printing in the darkroom. I still shoot black and white and have a stack of negatives that have gone unprinted. I recently dragged my old $199 flatbed scanner with the film adapter lid and scanned those negatives just to see them, and discovered that there were many shots I would love to print. Some serendipity through work allowed me to recently acquire a G5 dual processor Mac. Of course the cheapo scanner doesn't do any justice to the negatives (but mind you, I was pretty impressed anyway). I am contemplating getting a dedicated film scanner (such as the Nikon 8000, which from what I read is a bit older but not significantly worse than the Nikon 9000, and a lot cheaper used) and scanning these and any future negatives I create and creating a completely digital workflow from that point on. The questions I have a 1. Output. What are your thoughts on how to create black and white prints digitally? Do they have the feel of real prints; the gloss of the paper, Dmax, contrast, tone? Who makes them and how are they made - are people exposing real B&W or C paper to digital light and processing them, versus giant inkjet printers? Longevity? Do they carry the drama, or emotion of a print? Does the "art" come through? 2. Giving up B&W film. I am still able to process my B&W film myself with my Jobo, but from what I am reading I am tempted to just shoot C41 film and have it professionally souped. I would still want to print black and white but it seems the color information is useful in generating grayscale images in Photoshop, and eliminate the need to commit to a specific lens filter color. A grayscale scanned and printed C41 shot would have a specific "look" to it (grain wise) that may be different than some specific pure B&W technique, but it would be a look possibly worthy unto itself. This would keep my hands totally dry. 3. Giving up instant gratification. Obviously there is some pleasure in seeing and handling your finished product immediately when you are done. I'd have to wait until that big envelope (or tube) came in the mail to see what I had created. But if I could reliably see what I was going to get on the screen it would be liveable. How easy is it to profile a serivce's prints. Can you display, print and calibrate some sort of step wedge so you have some idea of what white, black, and all the greys will look like with some degree of accuracy. Are people generally happy with what comes in the mail 2 weeks later based on what they had been visualizing on the monitor. It would eliminate the 20 or so prints I usually have to make before I am happy. 4. Being able to feel I run a color darkroom as well. I have tried RA4 and been pretty happy with the results, but the process didn't thrill me. And I felt there was less for me to control, so I kept up just bringing my color negs to a lab and getting prints. But digitally I feel I'd be more involved in the final output and have more possible manipulations. Again, how easy is it to calibrate to an outside printing service so I am not disappointed with the final results I get. Thanks for letting me rant. Any thoughts on all of this? Has anyone made the switch and are you as happy? I know I'll miss the process, even the smell, but I want to get back into photography but just cannot get back down into the darkroom right now. -Joshua Wein |
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