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  #61  
Old 29th December 2021, 09:05 PM
Terry S Terry S is offline
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My print offering, made from Rob Archer's negative strip, was put in the postal system by first class post this afternoon, Wednesday 29th December 2021.

There's probably a bit of a backlog for Royal Mail to catch up on, so hopefully it should get to you soon Rob.

As mentioned in the letter, sent with my offering, I have scanned both one of your prints, along with mine, which I will put in the gallery once you have acknowledged receipt. We can then both comment on how we made our prints.

Terry S

Last edited by Terry S; 29th December 2021 at 09:09 PM.
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  #62  
Old 30th December 2021, 08:09 PM
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Rob Archer Rob Archer is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Terry S View Post
My print offering, made from Rob Archer's negative strip, was put in the postal system by first class post this afternoon, Wednesday 29th December 2021.

There's probably a bit of a backlog for Royal Mail to catch up on, so hopefully it should get to you soon Rob.

As mentioned in the letter, sent with my offering, I have scanned both one of your prints, along with mine, which I will put in the gallery once you have acknowledged receipt. We can then both comment on how we made our prints.

Terry S
And received today. I really like your treatment of this negative - straight black and white (no toning, unlike mine) and quite high in contrast. It works well. Unfortunately it will be a couple of weeks before I can make my print of your negative. I was knocked off my bike by a stupid, drugged-up, uninsured, unlicenced driver the other day and have a fractured shoulder and badly bruised ankle which means I can't get back into the darkroom for a bit. I'll hopefully still meet the deadline!
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  #63  
Old 31st December 2021, 12:51 AM
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Rob,
This is our own project and we make our own deadlines. I'm very sorry to hear about your accident, so if you have any problems with the timescale I originally proposed message me. I suspect there are ways we could get Round 7 underway before full completion of R6. Everything is possible!
Colin


ps- I'm scheming something new already!!
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  #64  
Old 31st December 2021, 01:26 PM
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We now have our first pair of prints posted in the Gallery for Negative Exchange Round 6, along with a straight version to show how the negative would print without any further control, or 'manipulation'. That is, like a machine print. I thought this might help demonstrate what challenges the negative presented, but perhaps in future showing the negative itself might be of interest?

The image was taken on the way to work one day, using a Dynax 600 with 28-80 zoom. Film is HP5 in my usual PMK Pyro. What caught my attention was someone was trying to enjoy the beach on a wild, windy, day. I also wanted to make the dramatic sky a big part of the composition.

For my print:
I opted to use the split grade method.
1. Grade 0 exposure, 12 seconds. I dodged the sky on the right along the horizon (-6) as this felt too grey and I wanted a cleaner separation of sea and sky. The two figures were also dodged for half the exposure time. The top left of the print was then burned in (+30).


2. Grade 5 exposure, 12 seconds. The very dark foreground was dodged briefly (-4). I then burned the sky on the left side. This was progressive, ranging from +40 near the horizon to a maximum of +110 around the bright sun.

I've attached a print map to explain.
As I mentioned to Uwe, the other option I'd considered with this image was to chop the sky completely, and make a letterbox style print. However, I don't feel the small 35mm neg stands this kind of cropping without showing its imperfections too clearly.

Uwe's Print: My first impression was that we'd ended up with very similar prints. The overall balance feels the same, and the sky has had similar attention.
The first thing which stood out for me is print colour. I like warm prints and toned mine in sepia and selenium. Uwe's print is untoned and actually works better. I've had them side by side for a few days and prefer his more neutral image. The lesson for me here is not to tone just by habit- I need to be more selective.
Secondly, Uwe has printed with a black border to the image, something I've never done. It actually does something to tie the whole image together. I can't explain how, but it changes the print.

Thanks Uwe.
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  #65  
Old 31st December 2021, 01:36 PM
Terry S Terry S is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Rob Archer View Post
And received today. I really like your treatment of this negative - straight black and white (no toning, unlike mine) and quite high in contrast. It works well. Unfortunately it will be a couple of weeks before I can make my print of your negative. I was knocked off my bike by a stupid, drugged-up, uninsured, unlicenced driver the other day and have a fractured shoulder and badly bruised ankle which means I can't get back into the darkroom for a bit. I'll hopefully still meet the deadline!
Ouch!! So sorry to hear about your incident Rob and I hope you recover soon. Luckily, I have not been in my car, as it was parked outside my house in London, but on two occasions, I have had unlicensed and uninsured drivers write off two of my cars.

Now, the prints. Thanks for your comments and it's good to see it arrive so quickly.

I have just put both of our prints in the gallery, with my comments, so feel free to add anything else about yours (or mine...):

http://www.film-and-darkroom-user.or...2959&nocache=1

All the best for your recovery.

Terry S
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  #66  
Old 31st December 2021, 01:52 PM
Terry S Terry S is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by skellum View Post
As I mentioned to Uwe, the other option I'd considered with this image was to chop the sky completely, and make a letterbox style print. However, I don't feel the small 35mm neg stands this kind of cropping without showing its imperfections too clearly.
.
The first thing which stood out for me is print colour. I like warm prints and toned mine in sepia and selenium. The lesson for me here is not to tone just by habit- I need to be more selective.

Uwe has printed with a black border to the image, something I've never done. It actually does something to tie the whole image together. I can't explain how, but it changes the print.
It's interesting to look at your print map Skellum.

Personally, I prefer the ultra-cropped print, in the panoramic format, that wasn't made or sent. Although I like the final version that was sent to Uwe, I found the sky and the foreground were competing too much, with each other.

And an interesting comment about toning. I too have toned prints in the past, with the more natural, straight b/w print, being the winner in the end. But your comment also reminds us, don't just tone all your prints, as a matter of habit, but also try to vary your printing style and subjects that you always photograph, so that you are not just jumping in and producing a print straight / the same way, with every print you do. It's a hard habit to get out of, but it can be very rewarding, with some good surprises along the way.

And yes, the black border added by Uwe really works on this occasion. I like it too.

Terry S
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  #67  
Old 31st December 2021, 08:48 PM
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Good evening Terry.
I've been looking at the prints you posted in the Gallery made from Rob's negative. I suspect it isn't the easiest to print.
The two are quite different: Rob's vision is somehow softer with very open shadows full of detail. You have gone in a completely different direction, emphasising the bright leaves against a dark backdrop. The word which springs to mind is 'theatrical'. You've treated this rather like one of Karsh's portraits, where his sitter almost seemed picked out of the shadows by a shaft of light. I like that a lot.
Rob has cropped away a bit of the foreground making the image more square, and the band of bright leaves now runs (almost) corner to corner. It's a very strong shape within the frame.

When Rob comments, I wonder if he can recall what he was thinking when he took it. Was it the difference in lighting between foreground and background? I imagine it was fairly dim amongst the trees.

Print colour? I just can't decide. If I couldn't see Terry's print I'd be entirely satisfied with Rob's toning which is full of Autumnal, earthy colour. However, Terry's untoned version definitely has something else going on. I wonder if it's because the print has a lot of shadow in it, which we expect to see as Black?

Thanks for posting them Terry.
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  #68  
Old 1st January 2022, 06:59 AM
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Uwe Pilz Uwe Pilz is offline
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I Looked at the prints form Rob's negative too. What a difference! This is what negative print exchange may show us .That is more than one way for interpreting a negative.
~
> And yes, the black border added by Uwe really works on this occasion.

Just for clarification: I did not add something but printed the borders of the negative.
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  #69  
Old 1st January 2022, 01:22 PM
Terry S Terry S is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by skellum View Post
Thanks for posting them Terry.
Skellum, thanks for the comments and I've enjoyed doing it all.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Uwe Pilz View Post
This is what negative print exchange may show us .That is more than one way for interpreting a negative.

> And yes, the black border added by Uwe really works on this occasion.

Just for clarification: I did not add something but printed the borders of the negative.
I totally agree Uwe, the Negative Exchange is quite different from the Print Exchange, where we both take and print the work ourselves. Great fun!

And thanks for clarifying the black border. It's something that I do occasionally with some of my prints, where I have composed something well enough to print the whole negative. Works for some, but no so much with others.

Terry S
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  #70  
Old 2nd January 2022, 10:09 PM
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Regarding the black borders: both my LPL and Fujimoto enlargers have masks for various formats but all are sized to show only the image none of the rebate exposed.
My 'new' Durst has a slightly oversize negative carrier with sliding masks. I've been slightly cursing the double glass design as I'm getting more dust marks then usual, but it would allow me to print with a whisker of rebate exposed and allow a black line round the print.
Of course, whether or not I'll spot an opportunity to do it where it's actually appropriate is a different matter.
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