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Photo Details | |
SanMiguel Friend Registered: June 2014 Location: Portstewart, Northern Ireland Posts: 341 |
I just wanted to share a print with which I am very pleased - my first attempt at using pre-flashing to get some tone in the highlights (sky) with a high-contrast neg. This was taken with the camera pointing almost directly at the sun so I knew I was in for a hard time come the darkroom. The first, straight print was pretty much as expected with the sky paper-white. After reading up about pre-flashing and doing a test strip I gave it a go. Next print was better, with some tone coming into the sky but the bottom half of the print had lost all sparkle. I read some more and increased the contrast by a full grade, lowered the exposure and with a couple of extra burn-ins on the sky at different grades and a bit of dodging around my friend's face I ended up with the print you see. Mind you, it took me two fairly long darkroom sessions to get there (and quite a few 'learning prints' along the way). Still, I changed my position from 'I never want to see this negative again' to 'I actually got there' so all in all I'm feeling very happy with how things turned out. I've a few other high-contrast negatives in my mind to go back to now, armed with my new skills.
My motivation wasn't just that I could see some tone in the sky from the negative but that I had scanned the negative in order to email the image to my friend. I rarely scan anything these days (apart from prints). The digital image looked good and I thought to myself 'I'll be damned if I'm going to admit that a scanner and some software can do a far better job than I can in the darkroom' The photograph was taken in Derry/Londonderry last weekend - my friend's rather thoughtful pose and the Sinn Fein posters in front of the 1927 War Memorial provided an interesting commentary, I thought. |
· Date: Wed, 10, May, 2017 · Views: 4707 · Filesize: 52.4kb, 164.3kb · Dimensions: 959 x 1200 · |
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Additional Info | |
Keywords: Pre-flashing | |
Film make, size & rating:: HP5@400asa | |
Film developer & temp:: ID-11, 1+1 | |
Lens focal length, aperture & speed:: 35mm | |
Tripod used Y/N:: N | |
Paper:: Ilford Warmtone RC | |
Paper developer & temp:: Fotospeed WT-10 |