Bill, This is a great idea! I would appreciate an opportunity to participate in such an interesting experiment. Regards, Bob --- William Robb <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > ----- Original Message ----- > From: Shel Belinkoff > Subject: Thoughts About Making Good B&W Negatives > > > > Ansel Adams was reported to have said "The > negative is the > score and the > > print is the performance." Of course, he meant > that without a > good > > negative you will, at best, struggle to make a > fine print. It > is only > > when all the needed information is contained in > the negative - > when all > > the tones are recorded, so to speak - that an > excellent print > can be > > created. > > > > Rod Dresser, writing in the current issue of > Camera Arts > magazine, > > suggests that those new to B&W darkroom work > should learn what > a good > > negative is. He suggests studying the good > negatives of an > experienced > > printer, looking at the quality and qualities of > the recorded > image. > > > > When I read that I wondered how many of the new > B&W printers > we have > > here now - and there seems to be a few who are > just jumping or > or > > rekindling their darkroom interests - have had a > chance to > look at such > > negatives, and compare them to their own, or to > one another. > > Rod Dresser's suggestion is an excellent one, and > I just > wanted to pass > > it along for anyone who is interested, especially > those new to > the > > darkroom. > > A nice suggestion, but perhaps not a particularly > practical one. > One of the qualities of a negative, to me, is ease > of printing. > If I can pull a good print out without a lot of > effort, I have > done my job in the field. > The thing is, what is easy for me, may be very > difficult for > someone else, and as a consequence, what I consider > an easy > negative to print, may well be someone elses > nightmare. > What I did find very instructive when I was starting > out, was to > go shooting with my mentor, and then compare our > prints after we > had printed them in our separate darkrooms. > Better still, was when I was able to print with Roy > in the > darkroom, making suggestions, and telling me what > his thought > process was. > I was never really able to tell much from looking at > a negative > as to how the final print was going to look. I could > look, and > see that I had ample shadow detail, and that the > highlights > weren't blown out, but this didn't necessarily > translate to a > good print. > I have seen some wonderful prints from negatives > that made me > cringe when I saw them, and some coyote ugly prints > from what I > thought would be wonderful negatives, due to the > qualities that > the printer was able (or unable) to bring out. > > Now, the challenge part. > Not so much a challenge, perhaps, as seeing how > other people do > things. > I have often thought that it would be nice to see > how other > people would perform a score, so to speak. > With this in mind, I am willing to donate a 6x7 > negative that > produced an award winning print to a printing > challenge. > What I have in mind is a sort of travelling > portfolio. > You get the negative in the mail, make a print from > it that > pleases you, send me the print, and send the > negative on to the > next person. > Once I have all the prints in hand, we could then > circulate the > portfolio among the participants, and perhaps have > some > meaningful discussions about why one person did one > thing, and > someone else did something different. > Anyway, it is just a thought, if anyone is > interested. > > William Robb > - > This message is from the Pentax-Discuss Mail List. > To unsubscribe, > go to http://www.pdml.net and follow the directions. > Don't forget to > visit the Pentax Users' Gallery at > http://pug.komkon.org . >
===== What boots up must come down. Yahoo! Health - your guide to health and wellness http://health.yahoo.com - This message is from the Pentax-Discuss Mail List. To unsubscribe, go to http://www.pdml.net and follow the directions. Don't forget to visit the Pentax Users' Gallery at http://pug.komkon.org .
