[Leica] re: contact printing

[dnygr at cshore.com (dnygr)]

Contact printing is a neat way to go.

A friend of mine shoots LF, but also MF and with a Leica.

He scans his negatives, does what he otherwise would in the darkroom, saves 
the finished product to disc which he then sends to San Diego and has 
negatives made to the size he wants to contact print.

Seems to me he gets the best of both worlds: a silver gelatin print (or some 
variation of it) and a reusable negative that has all the darkroom dodgings 
and burnings already incorporated into it so that it is easy to print.

He has put in the work to get a good print, but he has a negative that 
allows easy reproduction for him to sell, which he does.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: great prints are the result of 
exacting work whether it is in the old darkroom or with photoshop. They also 
demand the printer develop good taste (what good is, is open to discussion, 
but generally good does not include flat or dark black and white prints or 
color photos with poor colors, for example the green hue from fluorescent 
bulbs).

Cheers--Doug 

 
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