View Full Version : learning the trade
PaulG
30th June 2009, 06:45 PM
As the title says, I'm curious to hear stories of how members learned their 'trade'.
More of a 'how' you acquired the skills that make you the darkroom worker you are today, than a 'why'. Are you self-taught, did you learn at college, were you apprenticed to a master of the 'dark arts', did a passing badger impart the knowledge to you? Is there any particular thing or person that inspired or enabled your printing?
As the evening class I attend is coming to an end, I'm starting to think ahead to what I want to do next and what I need to learn to achieve it. More importantly I have to figure out where and how to acquire this knowledge. Eek!
Words of wisdom, inspirational thoughts and prophecies of doom all gratefully received. :)
B&W Neil
30th June 2009, 06:52 PM
All self taught over a large number of years from books, mags and the like. I'm a bit of a loner really !
Neil.
Dave miller
30th June 2009, 07:01 PM
Me too, self taught from books, photographic clubs (when they were) and creating a vast amount of waste; in fact I still am.:(
Richard Gould
30th June 2009, 07:17 PM
Learned the basics from my uncle when I was 9 or ten, got hooked on the smell of fixer , and hopefully improved over the years,Richard
Miha
30th June 2009, 09:27 PM
From books only. I started developing and printing when I was 16 or so (16 years ago). My first enlarger was a slide projector (!) because I just wanted the magic to happen!! Soon I got a proper enlarger (a kaiser) which I still use today.
Mike O'Pray
30th June 2009, 11:08 PM
I learned a little from my Dad who loaned me his pre-war Kodak 6x9 folder in 1956 when I was 10 but money was too scarce to allow any real development of my skills. I joined a school photography club with the same folder when I was 13 but while film development was possible we lacked an enlarger and the teachers who ran the club weren't dedicated enough. We did too little and too infrequently and money for film was still scarce
Things laid dormant until I got a Yashica rangefinder in 1974 but I was a holiday snapper using commercial processing. I only really bought it for a forthcoming holiday. It was used intermittently
In about 2000 we had a narrow boat holiday on the Welsh borders and I bought a Kodak book about photography at a secondhand book sale in Llangollen. The cover picture looked good and I had the time to peruse books on what is a very low tempo holiday.
Maybe I expressed my pleasure when reading the book and it gave the wife an idea for my forthcoming birhtday.The wife then did some research and the result was a Pentax MZ7 as a birthday present but I was still a snapper using C41 film and commercial processing.
Now we move to the light on the road to Damascus in late 2002. I cannot describe the exact "conversion" but we had an "employee development and assistance" programme in the company I worked for and talking to the administrator who was himself an analogue photographer I discovered a B&W evening class course at Leamington College which I could attend for which the company would pay. I got a City and Guilds basic cert which is probably the equivalent of a GCSE qualification.It was basic but did involve demonstrating that I had a certain level of knowledge and had processed film and made prints.
I became so hooked about darkroom printing that I attended the course twice and then wanted a B&W darkroom at home which I now have. I only gave thought to RA4 long after I had the home darkroom. I suppose it was mixture of curiosity and my growing confidence that colour was possible.
It was but didn't monopolise my darkroom time as I might have expected based on my exclusive use of C41 from the 1970s until the beginning of the B&W course in early 2003.
So I had fairly rudimentary formalised teaching at a B&W evening class and it was the catalyst for further exploration and purchase of books
Maybe it was partly circumstances( only B&W was available at Leamington ) and partly a subconscious return to my 1950s photographic roots and the unfinished business of my school club but to be honest I still can't put my finger on the exact circumstances covering the "why" of my conversion.
Maybe it's simply the convenience of B&W but I think it's more complicated than that. All I know is that I still take and process far more B&W than colour.
Mike
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Trevor Crone
1st July 2009, 07:26 AM
Self-taught from books (Ansel Adams Basic Photo Series) and photo mags. in the mid 1970's. Plus invaluable help from members of the dear departed Greenwich Photographic Club which I joined in 1977.
Still learning though:)
PaulG
1st July 2009, 08:11 AM
Thanks all for sharing your experiences. I must confess I'm a little surprised at the number of self-taught printers, but that may be more of a reflection of my lack of bravery at tackling some aspects and techniques. All credit to you!
I suppose I should share my background...
I've taken snapshots off and on for years, using colour neg film on a variety of auto-everything compact cameras. About 2 years ago I decided that I was interested in learning more and signed up for an evening class. Cue buying a Pentax MX with a standard 50mm f/1.7 lens and learning the basics of how to shoot, process and print from black and white film. A couple more evening classes followed and with them a bit more knowledge and experience.
I think I now have more of an idea of what my style is, but I stil make plenty of mistakes and still have big gaps in my knowledge and understanding. Trying to teach myself some of the more 'advanced' (well to me they're advanced) techniques without some kind of external reference is proving a bit tricky. I think I perhaps need a bit more courage to just try something and see what happens...
Dave miller
1st July 2009, 08:25 AM
Some say that your best teacher is the waste bin. ;)
Martin Aislabie
7th July 2009, 10:53 PM
I caught the photographic bug while at University
I needed some photographs for a project I was doing so bought myself a 35mm SLR and it all went down hill from there :rolleyes:
There were two photographic groups at University, the first was the Students Union supported Camera Club (mainly interested in who had the best camera & lenses) and the second was the University supported Centre for the Arts – which was much more about pictures than equipment.
I quickly tired of the Camera Club clique and moved onto the far less popular but much more useful (to me) Centre for the Arts group.
There was a Photographic Lecturer in residence at the Centre for the Arts and he taught me the basics but thought that the best critics and teachers were your peers. I guess he didn’t want to cramp you developing your own style.
Sadly the year after I graduated, the Centre for the Arts closed due to budget cuts.
Since then, I have read as many decent books about how to print as I could find (there are surprisingly few good ones IMO).
Ansel Adams “The Print”, “Controls in Black and White Photography” by Richard Henry, “Way Beyond Monochrome” by Ralph Lambrecht & Chris Woodhouse and Les McLeans’ “Creative Black and White Photography” were probably the most useful books about printing for me.
I have always tried to go to as many photographic exhibitions as I could reasonably manage – it helps to give me both direction and a sense of perspective of what good photographs should look like.
I have found over the years that in order to improve my printing, it has been better to try and concentrate on getting the best out of a few good negatives, than it is to be constantly moving on to new work.
Practice, practice, practice seems to be the only way of improving – but in this respect, it’s just like any other skill.
I was rather shocked at the first APUG weekend I attended, in Seahouses in Northumberland, at the amazing standard of work from top class printers such as Stoo Batchelor and Les McLean.
The whole group made my efforts look rather sad and meagre in comparison, although of course, they were far too polite and made all the right encouraging noises
But it did give me the impetus to go back and practice lots more.
Martin
Roy_H
11th July 2009, 09:54 PM
Sounds like I may be in a minority having studied photography in college, but it was back in 1968 when the photographic department was part of the Dept of Physics & Applied Mathematics at the college I attended (if memory serves...) and they never mentioned the work of any photographer, living or dead.
Apart from refining the technical side and getting my City & Guilds and BIPP certifications, I wouldn't say I learnt any photography in those years though. That came several years later, partly by self-discovery and partly by seeing the work of some of the greats.
Once I realised what photography was capable of, I started subscribing to Creative Camera magazine in 1975 and that opened to me a world of possibilities. Also important were some landmark exhibitions I saw that still resonate: 'The Land' selected by Bill Brandt at the V&A in 1975; Edward Weston original prints at MOMA in Oxford (late 1970s) - the first time I experienced light apparently emanating from a print!; and Ralph Gibson's stunning early work, also at MOMA in 1977.
As a printer though I am totally self-taught, but am indebted to people like Paul Hill, John Blakemore and the late Peter Goldfield, all of whose workshops I attended in the 1980s and there learned much that helped me on my way. Becoming the printer for the negative archive of the photographer Edwin Smith also taught me more than you could ever learn from printing just your own work.
Now however, after about 15 years away from a darkroom, it feels like I am having to re-learn nearly everything!
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