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How does one become a master printer?
Here's a question that I haven't seen asked on the internet: how does
one become a master printer? I'm not looking for a quick recipe, but I want to know what it takes. Is it a matter of getting a good background in photography at a school, landing a job in a lab, honing your craft for years, and building a reputation? I'd really appreciate it if the printers out there could share how they did it. How did you become a master printer? |
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How does one become a master printer?
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How does one become a master printer?
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#4
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How does one become a master printer?
In article . com,
"Scott W" wrote: wrote: Here's a question that I haven't seen asked on the internet: how does one become a master printer? I'm not looking for a quick recipe, but I want to know what it takes. Is it a matter of getting a good background in photography at a school, landing a job in a lab, honing your craft for years, and building a reputation? I'd really appreciate it if the printers out there could share how they did it. How did you become a master printer? Not going to blast you but,has nothing to do with "Darkroom unless your sitting in one to post the following, On a business aspect of it, I believe you are going to have a hard time finding a good client base that wants prints done from a "master printer". I assume you are thinking about making prints from others negatives. Most of the people I know that are still having optical prints made are doing so themselves. I think you are looking at a very small market. Scott I do optical prints because it saves money, I can charge X dollars my competition is spending just to have the prints made. But cheaper is not always viewed as better, its viewed as suspect therefore actually being a master printer is preferred to claiming to be one -- "To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public."--Theodore Roosevelt, May 7, 1918 greg_____photo(dot)com |
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How does one become a master printer?
G- Blank wrote:
In article . com, "Scott W" wrote: wrote: Here's a question that I haven't seen asked on the internet: how does one become a master printer? I'm not looking for a quick recipe, but I want to know what it takes. Is it a matter of getting a good background in photography at a school, landing a job in a lab, honing your craft for years, and building a reputation? I'd really appreciate it if the printers out there could share how they did it. How did you become a master printer? Not going to blast you but,has nothing to do with "Darkroom unless your sitting in one to post the following, The point is that working with a scanned negative will help give a feel for the density range that the negative has. When I scan negative I normally scan it as if it was a positive and then convert it myself to a positive image. I really think going through this exercise would help a lot of people make better optical prints, or at least shoot better negatives. When you scan a negative (as a positive) and you see that the left side of the histogram is pretty much missing it gives you a pretty good idea that this is going to be a hard negative to print. Scott Scott |
#6
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How does one become a master printer?
In article om,
"Scott W" wrote: G- Blank wrote: In article . com, "Scott W" wrote: wrote: Here's a question that I haven't seen asked on the internet: how does one become a master printer? I'm not looking for a quick recipe, but I want to know what it takes. Is it a matter of getting a good background in photography at a school, landing a job in a lab, honing your craft for years, and building a reputation? I'd really appreciate it if the printers out there could share how they did it. How did you become a master printer? Not going to blast you but,has nothing to do with "Darkroom unless your sitting in one to post the following, The point is that working with a scanned negative will help give a feel for the density range that the negative has. When I scan negative I normally scan it as if it was a positive and then convert it myself to a positive image. I really think going through this exercise would help a lot of people make better optical prints, or at least shoot better negatives. When you scan a negative (as a positive) and you see that the left side of the histogram is pretty much missing it gives you a pretty good idea that this is going to be a hard negative to print. Scott Scott I've thought this time to time, its a hard call in my book because part of what make my prints good is intuitive I remember back to what I intended while printing-IN the dark and mostly get it or get better. and seeing the image on screen can frighten many into not printing or may encourage many to say THIS is as good as it get without the process of remembering what was intended or seeing what the potential is -Not saying your wrong just presenting a different "" MY View", -- "To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public."--Theodore Roosevelt, May 7, 1918 greg_____photo(dot)com |
#7
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How does one become a master printer?
G- Blank wrote: In article om, "Scott W" wrote: G- Blank wrote: In article . com, "Scott W" wrote: wrote: Here's a question that I haven't seen asked on the internet: how does one become a master printer? I'm not looking for a quick recipe, but I want to know what it takes. Is it a matter of getting a good background in photography at a school, landing a job in a lab, honing your craft for years, and building a reputation? I'd really appreciate it if the printers out there could share how they did it. How did you become a master printer? Not going to blast you but,has nothing to do with "Darkroom unless your sitting in one to post the following, The point is that working with a scanned negative will help give a feel for the density range that the negative has. When I scan negative I normally scan it as if it was a positive and then convert it myself to a positive image. I really think going through this exercise would help a lot of people make better optical prints, or at least shoot better negatives. When you scan a negative (as a positive) and you see that the left side of the histogram is pretty much missing it gives you a pretty good idea that this is going to be a hard negative to print. Scott I've thought this time to time, its a hard call in my book because part of what make my prints good is intuitive I remember back to what I intended while printing-IN the dark and mostly get it or get better. and seeing the image on screen can frighten many into not printing or may encourage many to say THIS is as good as it get without the process of remembering what was intended or seeing what the potential is -Not saying your wrong just presenting a different "" MY View", Never mind scotty is full of it. Want to make a good print, better learn something about sensitomerty, rather than scanners, first...And yeah, that takes both time and photo education (whether by reading or in college classrooms...) |
#8
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How does one become a master printer?
My short answer to this is always: buy a bigger garbage can.
Practice, try new things, read. There are a lot of alternate processes out there and techniques that are in danger of becoming obsolete since the sources for the materials are disappearing, so try them now. Good to retain finished copies of all your "experiments" and keep a good Daybook or Journal so you can recall what you did (also good). I tend to write my notes on the back of my prints. Parker ball points write well on RC prints, and RC is plenty good for experimentation (possible exception for RC and the next thing on my list to explore is lith printing). Film notes in 3x5 spiral notebooks that are transcribed to the back of contact sheets. I don't obsess in the Zonie fashion about every frame but will take general notes, filters used, times and type of developer, etc. (I don't mean this in a bad way, I'm not trying to knock their methods, but I learned early on that I'm not disciplined enough to take notes on every exposure.) I also print model releases on the back of contact sheets for models to sign. I get a release when I shoot and then get the second release signed when they prick up their copies. The release then gets filed with the negatives (almost like a system). Ansel Adams used to call it practicing the scales, he was also a very good pianist and made the analogy to music frequently in his writings. Good teacher, excellent photographer, excelled in the darkroom, but the last exhibit I viewed I was surprised at the sloppy way he spotted prints (may have been the "help' but I was tickled to know there is one-and only one!--area in which I consider myself at par with the master). Vestal also goes on at length about ways to explore our medium, film exposure and darkroom testing are very much center to his books. Ralph Hattersly is another, much of his "avant garde" work looks pretty dated now but he had a really big bag of darkroom techniques, even if you never print anything that looks like his stuff he had some pretty slick tricks. I think it's good to hang your work on the wall but hang some of the "failures" as well as keepers, you may figure out what it was you didn't like about a "bad" print or you may change your mind and decide you want to explore that technique later on! That and 20-30 years will make almost anyone a "master". -- darkroommike wrote in message oups.com... Here's a question that I haven't seen asked on the internet: how does one become a master printer? I'm not looking for a quick recipe, but I want to know what it takes. Is it a matter of getting a good background in photography at a school, landing a job in a lab, honing your craft for years, and building a reputation? I'd really appreciate it if the printers out there could share how they did it. How did you become a master printer? |
#9
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How does one become a master printer?
Mike King wrote:
My short answer to this is always: buy a bigger garbage can. Practice, try new things, read. There are a lot of alternate processes out there and techniques that are in danger of becoming obsolete since the sources for the materials are disappearing, so try them now. Good to retain finished copies of all your "experiments" and keep a good Daybook or Journal so you can recall what you did (also good). I tend to write my notes on the back of my prints. Parker ball points write well on Me to. Nick -- --------------------------------------- "Digital the new ice fishing" --------------------------------------- |
#10
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How does one become a master printer?
In article ,
"Mike King" wrote: but the last exhibit I viewed I was surprised at the sloppy way he spotted prints (may have been the "help' but I was tickled to know there is one-and only one!--area in which I consider myself at par with the master). I know what you mean, i saw the exhibit just after he died and was surprised to note the spotting issues. I think it's good to hang your work on the wall but hang some of the "failures" as well as keepers, you may figure out what it was you didn't like about a "bad" print or you may change your mind and decide you want to explore that technique later on! I nice big, cork bulletin board in the darkroom works well-for failures. That and 20-30 years will make almost anyone a "master". "Geesh" maybe in another 20 some of us will be considered master newsgroup posters ;0) -- The things we hate most in life often turn out to be a mirror image of ourselves. Better not to hate. Findmedirectly - "infoatgregblankphoto.com" |
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