[Leica] Frustrations!

[DFeldman@aol.com]

I just completed a printing session in my darkroom. Days like these make me
wonder why I continue with this !#$@ hobby !:) Frustrations today centered on
negatives that could have been good, but were not. I thought I would relay
what I've noticed, and maybe some of you folks who know what your doing can
help me out.

The pictures I take are a mixture of snapshots and landscapes. Most of my
people pictures are of friends and relations (too shy around strangers!). The
landscapes that I enjoy most have some type of machinery in them.

I use an M6, and 35 and 90 summicrons. Film is generally HP5+, with some Delta
100 and TMZ. I rarely print larger than 7" x 9" on 8x10 paper.

Before I list out my screw-ups, I would like to pat myself on the back and say
that I do seem to be able to set the exposure properly. None of my messed up
negatives were messed up because of exposure. Anyway, here we go:

1) Not getting close enough to the subject. This problem struck mostly in the
people pictures. I find that what I want to print is usually about 1/4-1/2 the
total negative. This means that I have to enlarge the negative a lot, which
makes the grain very visible and seems to soften the overall image. I wonder
if I should change over to a 50mm lens - I never seem to back away from my
subjects - I just don't get close enough. Maybe I could just have someone
stand behind me and push hard at the right moment...

2) Depth of Field - not enough. This one really makes me mad. I know how to
figure this out (though it is a little harder with an M6 than it was with my
SLR with DOF preview). I think that I just have to be more thoughtful (hard
with a moving 3 year old), and for landscapes, pack some sort of camera
support (a mono pod?) to enable smaller apertures.

3) Camera shake. Is there any way to practice holding the camera still? I
usually follow the 1/focal length rule of thumb for hand holding, but I still
have trouble, especially with the 90. A related question, when you hold the
camera vertical, do you have your right hand on top or bottom?

Those were today's problems, with the negatives I thought worthy of trying to
print. Of course there were many that were not worth even trying -- but I
think that is a relatively common occurrence. The final bit of frustration was
not having anything worthwhile to practice my printing on - I am relatively
new to the darkroom (~150 sheets of paper exposed).

Anyway, any help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance,

David Feldman
Davis, CA