You chose a great negative on which to demonstrate, and showing the process in action, including the specific shapes used and combined, succinctly opens potentials for those who have never ventured so far. Very well done. While we have, as you have noted here and in other videos, other tools to use, this is the foundation. The great printers all used these techniques. The magic of transforming a negative into a fine prints is not secret. The question really is, how much effort are you willing to invest in realizing your vision? Paul Strand would throw out a stack of platinum prints if they failed his standard for his best, often only a few prints from a negative left standing at the end. More than a few of us have taken a print all the way through toning and drying before admitting that the print could have been better, if we had simply stopped at some point, washed and dried, and given ourselves a few days or more to mull over how to make it a little better. Not every image deserves this, but the good ones do, and we learn a lot in the process. After cropping, this is where it starts.
Thanks, you make a great point. it is a matter of how much effort (and patience) you put in to get the image to where you want it. For me it is somewhat of a battle to not throw everything out :)
I've been photographing black and white for over 50 years and it's the best workflow I've ever seen: simple, clear, precise, no unsystematic trial and error. You are constantly looking for the right gradation and the right exposure for the entire image. But rarely you have lighting situations that are so simple that this works. The video shows why this can't actually work. When looking at a scene, the eye unconsciously the eye constantly adapts to the different bright details of the scene, so it is constantly „dodging and burning“. This is exactly what you have to do in the laboratory.
The way we see is crazy… like having multiple apertures and iso while our brains adjusts everything in real time. 👍👍👍 we take for granted how amazing this is
That's what I love about silver gelatin prints. It's the human touch that inkjet prints don't have. The craft is the most frustrating for me and yet brings me the most satisfaction.
Btw. I would place all 3 photos next to each other at the end of the video, for a comparison. The outcome is obvious and visible, yet wouldn’t hurt to put all 3 of them next to each other. One more thing- awesome You showed the whole dodge and burn process
Though my favourite part is film development I really enjoyed this excercise on printing. Liked the cut paper tools and movements that I do in Ligthroom. What delivers me real value is the clear, slow and knowledgable explanations. Thank you.
Awesome! Loved how you explained everything you were going to do and then showed us in the Darkroom in silence! Felt like we were right there with you, very cool! Thanks!
again an amazing video, professional, didactically perfect, beautiful picture. these excamples are very very helpful for understanding and learning to make a fine print. thanks a lot!
This is amazing! Love to see the steps involved into making something like this. I do want to work more in the darkroom and get something good out of my negatives. I have a lot that turn out really gray and lifeless if I print them directly, so I'll have to do something like this to get a result. Thanks for sharing. Happy holidays!
Great video - thanks. Really valuable seeing your dodging and burning technique with top-down view in real time. There are so few videos done like this but it's so useful seeing other people's darkroom technique in detail. Much appreciated.
It's this kind of video I like the most! I always struggle about the right time exposure for dodging and burning, trials and errors? Thanks for this video.
You are welcome, thanks for the feed back. I typically use guesstimates based on experience. can usually nail things to where I want them in a print or two. This just comes with printing a lot. If really unsure you can make selective targetted test strips for areas. I usually look at my overall exposure time and then break it up into 1/8, 1/4 ,1/3, 1/2 , full levels of exposure. For example this print initially was a 26 second exposure at f7.1 . So dodged the bus for 8 seconds and the buildings for eight seconds. both aprox 1/3 the total time. You can get more precise and technical with exact f-stops but for how I like to work not necessary. Just look at the total time and think how you can break it up (additive and subtractive). Then think that part is a bit to dark, maybe dodge for 1/4 the time... etc. at some point you want to have like 4 hands to get it all done!
Very challenging! If you are serious about it, you need to plan your flow and using an f stop timer combined with a light analyzer. That will save you a ton of paper and get you working systematically. Then if you ever get really good (i can’t say I have), intuition and experience will take over.
Always enjoy your videos, very informative. Any chance of one on contrast filters. I can never get my head around split grade printing, contrast filters etc?
Love your videos! any chance you'd be able to share what books you read and use to acquire all of this knowledge? I've seen you reference some in the past, but can't find a place where you list it out. It could be worth putting in the thumbnails as affiliate links. I'd be more than happy to purchase via that. I'm self taught and looking to learn more from textbooks or books in general. thanks!
Learned a lot from watching your technique to hit the areas. Do you aim for long exposures so you can really have time to play with it? Or does that even matter? I get a little too excited and have to calm down a little when the light hits the paper.
Do you have a work around for sound? My timer doesn't have sound and I like the way you work with your timer using the beeps. I have the saunders ic enlarger timer...
Thanks for all your videos : back to the lab myself after...40 years! I'm running into a very basic problem : very short base time exposures. How to you get exposure times so long? Thanks!
If your enlarger head doesn’t have a ( Neutral ) Density setting, you can place a sheet of Neutral Density above the negative. An ND 0.3 will double the exposure time; ND sheets are available in ND 0.3, 0.6, etc. They are made by Rosco and Lee.
You chose a great negative on which to demonstrate, and showing the process in action, including the specific shapes used and combined, succinctly opens potentials for those who have never ventured so far. Very well done.
While we have, as you have noted here and in other videos, other tools to use, this is the foundation. The great printers all used these techniques. The magic of transforming a negative into a fine prints is not secret. The question really is, how much effort are you willing to invest in realizing your vision? Paul Strand would throw out a stack of platinum prints if they failed his standard for his best, often only a few prints from a negative left standing at the end.
More than a few of us have taken a print all the way through toning and drying before admitting that the print could have been better, if we had simply stopped at some point, washed and dried, and given ourselves a few days or more to mull over how to make it a little better. Not every image deserves this, but the good ones do, and we learn a lot in the process. After cropping, this is where it starts.
Thanks, you make a great point. it is a matter of how much effort (and patience) you put in to get the image to where you want it. For me it is somewhat of a battle to not throw everything out :)
Thanks for the video. I never get tired of watching darkroom printing videos. I appreciate you doing these every week.
Thanks, that means a lot 🙏
I've been photographing black and white for over 50 years and it's the best workflow I've ever seen: simple, clear, precise, no unsystematic trial and error. You are constantly looking for the right gradation and the right exposure for the entire image. But rarely you have lighting situations that are so simple that this works. The video shows why this can't actually work.
When looking at a scene, the eye unconsciously the eye constantly adapts to the different bright details of the scene, so it is constantly „dodging and burning“. This is exactly what you have to do in the laboratory.
The way we see is crazy… like having multiple apertures and iso while our brains adjusts everything in real time. 👍👍👍 we take for granted how amazing this is
That's what I love about silver gelatin prints. It's the human touch that inkjet prints don't have. The craft is the most frustrating for me and yet brings me the most satisfaction.
@@donyee8970 Certainly can be frustrating 😂 but could not agree more!
The photography at the very beginning is breathtaking! So great to see Your skills and sense of art developing over the years
Thank you so much, really appreciate that!
Btw. I would place all 3 photos next to each other at the end of the video, for a comparison. The outcome is obvious and visible, yet wouldn’t hurt to put all 3 of them next to each other. One more thing- awesome You showed the whole dodge and burn process
@@TheJanisyt Yeah, should have... will remember for next time 👍
Though my favourite part is film development I really enjoyed this excercise on printing. Liked the cut paper tools and movements that I do in Ligthroom. What delivers me real value is the clear, slow and knowledgable explanations. Thank you.
Your welcome 🙏
Awesome! Loved how you explained everything you were going to do and then showed us in the Darkroom in silence! Felt like we were right there with you, very cool! Thanks!
You’re welcome 🙏 glad you enjoyed it!
again an amazing video, professional, didactically perfect, beautiful picture. these excamples are very very helpful for understanding and learning to make a fine print. thanks a lot!
Your welcome, glad you liked it!
An amazing image. Definitely worth the effort.
Thank you 🙏
This is amazing! Love to see the steps involved into making something like this. I do want to work more in the darkroom and get something good out of my negatives. I have a lot that turn out really gray and lifeless if I print them directly, so I'll have to do something like this to get a result. Thanks for sharing. Happy holidays!
Thank you, Happy Holidays!
Great video! Thank you very much for sharing your experience and knowledge!
Your welcome 🙏
Great video - thanks. Really valuable seeing your dodging and burning technique with top-down view in real time. There are so few videos done like this but it's so useful seeing other people's darkroom technique in detail. Much appreciated.
You’re welcome, glad you enjoyed it!
Nice video Matt, thanks for sharing your experience, it's a pleasure to watch you work in the darkroom.
You’re welcome, thank you!
As always , great video !!
Thanks!!!
Brings back memories of hanging out with you developing a lot of film. Great content, keep it goin buddy!
@@jjevensen Thanks Jeremy, we gotta get together soon. Been thinking about that bike 👍
@@DistphotoI still have the Kris Bennett and a s&m Holmes. Haven’t touched them in a while. They are just sitting around.
I'm not usually impressed by tattoos, but yours made me do a double take!
Thanks 👍👍👍
Thank you for these videos!
Thanks for watching!
It's this kind of video I like the most! I always struggle about the right time exposure for dodging and burning, trials and errors? Thanks for this video.
You are welcome, thanks for the feed back. I typically use guesstimates based on experience. can usually nail things to where I want them in a print or two. This just comes with printing a lot. If really unsure you can make selective targetted test strips for areas.
I usually look at my overall exposure time and then break it up into 1/8, 1/4 ,1/3, 1/2 , full levels of exposure. For example this print initially was a 26 second exposure at f7.1 . So dodged the bus for 8 seconds and the buildings for eight seconds. both aprox 1/3 the total time. You can get more precise and technical with exact f-stops but for how I like to work not necessary.
Just look at the total time and think how you can break it up (additive and subtractive).
Then think that part is a bit to dark, maybe dodge for 1/4 the time... etc. at some point you want to have like 4 hands to get it all done!
Very challenging! If you are serious about it, you need to plan your flow and using an f stop timer combined with a light analyzer.
That will save you a ton of paper and get you working systematically. Then if you ever get really good (i can’t say I have), intuition and experience will take over.
You're right but an f stop timer is too expensive, I try to improve an educated guess by printing more often and by taking notes
@@lucbeliveau3977 Best approach in my opinion as you will do this regardless… though different people have different ways of thinking and learning 👍
謝謝！
Thank you!
Great shot and cool to see your process. But I'm quite glad that we can use Lightroom...
Thanks, love Lightroom as well, It is quite incredible!
Great video Matt . I know you have been making some good stuff recently but I've not had time to view , now I do !
Awesome, hope you enjoy 👍
Always enjoy your videos, very informative. Any chance of one on contrast filters. I can never get my head around split grade printing, contrast filters etc?
@@michael195b Thanks, yeah will see what I can do 👍
Fantastic video
Thank you!
Very good video. Now to build a darkroom :)
👍👍👍
Love your videos! any chance you'd be able to share what books you read and use to acquire all of this knowledge? I've seen you reference some in the past, but can't find a place where you list it out. It could be worth putting in the thumbnails as affiliate links. I'd be more than happy to purchase via that. I'm self taught and looking to learn more from textbooks or books in general. thanks!
Will see about doing it 👍
Big love!
🙏🙏🙏
Learned a lot from watching your technique to hit the areas. Do you aim for long exposures so you can really have time to play with it? Or does that even matter? I get a little too excited and have to calm down a little when the light hits the paper.
I like exposures longer. Long enough to get things subtle and precise, but not so long my arms hurt and am bored 👍
Hi, thanks for all the great videos. What timer are you using?
Thanks, the timer is the LPL ET-500 also have a Gralab 450👍
Do you have a work around for sound? My timer doesn't have sound and I like the way you work with your timer using the beeps. I have the saunders ic enlarger timer...
Thanks for all your videos : back to the lab myself after...40 years! I'm running into a very basic problem : very short base time exposures. How to you get exposure times so long? Thanks!
If your enlarger head doesn’t have a ( Neutral ) Density setting, you can place a sheet of Neutral Density above the negative. An ND 0.3 will double the exposure time; ND sheets are available in ND 0.3, 0.6, etc. They are made by Rosco and Lee.
@@tetraptere Yup, what @bluzizalright said 👍
@@Distphoto can I combine a multigrade with an ND filter in the enlarger tray?
Bice video, I learn a lot
Great to hear!
How do you get such long print times? My prints are never that long.
You can pace an ND filter under the lens to increase the exposure time.
Yup, this print I used a 3 stop for the initial exposure and a 2 stop for some of the burns 👍
❤❤
@@wavensdorvad 🙏🙏🙏