What Mark calls hybrid processing is what was my approach, from mid-2002 until I got my DSLR in late 2004. An outfit called "Rabbit Photo" in Australia was among the first to offer negative scanning commercially, followed by what was the most professional photo shop in Brisbane, Photo Continental (now closed, unfortunately). The scans were not of sufficiently high quality for serious work though, so I soon organised to get my own scanner (now useless because it has a SCSI connection). Like Mark too, I have shot more film in recent months than digital, and now use an Epson V500 scanner to capture the digital version of the negative - which I develop if it's a monochrome film. I still have a decent enlarger and the rest of the kit, and want to get back to wet printing but finding supplies here is extraordinarily difficult - no-one now stocks developer or papers. May have to go mail order, which makes it more expensive to do.
John in Brisbane -----Original Message----- From: PDML [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Mark C Sent: Wednesday, 3 February 2016 09:34 To: Pentax-Discuss Mail List <[email protected]> Subject: Re: OT: "Stand development" of B&W film On 2/2/2016 12:10 PM, Mark Roberts wrote: > > I need to get back into shooting and developing my own B&W film. Even > if I just scan the negatives and print digitally. > > My department is considering adding a Photography Minor to our > program. As far as I can tell, having a B&W film photography course is > pretty much standard for a Photography Minor, but some schools are > actually skipping darkroom printing and just teaching the processing > of negatives along with scanning. Anethma to me (and still not viable > for a Photography Major, thankfully) but it's probably the way of the > future. > > Scanning and printing digitally offers tremendous control over how the print looks but a digital print will always lack the "hand crafted" aspect that a wet print has. People seem to like darkroom prints in that each print is uniquely prepared by the photographer. You can limit the edition size of a digital print, but they will still be more or less exactly the same and lack the panache of a hand pulled wet print. I also think that there is a perception that there is a lack of authenticity when digital processes are used to mimic analog processes (a notion that I personally reject.) That said - I go all all out with digital processing of scanned film, including DOF / focus stacking, hdr toning, micro contrast adjustments, etc. I enjoy the process of shooting film, making creative decisions in terms of how to develop film and like the tonality of a well developed negative. A well exposed, developed and scanned negative is a great starting point for creating a digital print. So far in 2016 the vast majority of my shooting has been B&W. I'm guessing about 40 rolls (some 120 but mostly 35mm) thus far. I would argue that hybrid processing - analog captures with digital processing and printing - is a distinct category of photography. Learning wet printing would be really interesting but considering the time it would require and all the other interesting things I have yet to do, I doubt that I will ever engage with it. Mark --- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. https://www.avast.com/antivirus -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions. -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
