[Leica] Retouching enlargements experience?

[Lluis Ripoll]

Thank you Jayanand, but as I have explained to Don, my problem was not a defective negative, some dust it can appear, if I do a digital negative, beside that in my opinion you have a loss of quality, is that a Digintal Negative shall be operate as a transfer by contact and I can encounter again some dust. Even if you examine with a magnifier the negative, you can encounter in the enlargement some small points to be  retouched and I think this one is the best  way, I presumre not easy… 

Cheers
Lluis


> El 18 febr 2019, a les 4:23, Jayanand Govindaraj via LUG <lug at leica-users.org> va escriure:
> 
> Luis,
> My advice would be to digitize the negative, clean it up, convert it to a
> digital negative and then do your darkroom prints.
> 
> Cheers
> Jayanand
> 
> On Mon, Feb 18, 2019 at 8:45 AM Don Dory via LUG <lug at leica-users.org>
> wrote:
> 
>> Back in the day: start with distilled water filtered for all your mixing of
>> chemicals and rinsing negatives in photoflo.  Use a clean soft pad to
>> remove excess wetting agent or what I used at the end, denatured alcohol
>> leaving the film on the reels..  Then I had a custom built film dryer that
>> basically used a hairdryer sucking in air through a hepa filter and into a
>> metal tube that held the reels of film.  So, most of the time the film was
>> clean and straight into sleeves.
>> 
>> When enlarging blow the negatives off with an air compressor through a hepa
>> filter.  If you still have dust spots then, sigh, there is nothing but spot
>> tone inks and a really fine brush.  Become the artist and mix the colors
>> until you get the tone right, much easier typed than done.  I will say that
>> once you have standardized on a paper and developer you learn the mix and
>> it becomes a lot easier.  Wearing one of those binocular magnifiers you see
>> jewelers and watch repair techs use carefully put really tiny dots of ink
>> down in the dust spot building the density up with more dots.  Let it dry
>> between as the density changes as it dries.  This is a true art/craft and
>> it gets much easier the more you do it.  I have to say that I was doing a
>> lot of this for myself and others who gave up learning.
>> 
>> But, with a smile, spotting is so much easier using Adobe's tools.
>> 
>> All the best, and just like using an M, there is a learning curve in seeing
>> color in the B&W and a steady hand with the brush along with a whole lot of
>> patience.
>> 
>> On Sun, Feb 17, 2019 at 7:22 PM Lluis Ripoll via LUG <lug at leica-users.org>
>> wrote:
>> 
>>> Steve, mon ami
>>> 
>>> I will share the answer with you if I find it…..
>>> 
>>> Amitiés
>>> Lluis
>>> 
>>> 
>>>> El 18 febr 2019, a les 1:19, Stephen Barbour via LUG <
>>> lug at leica-users.org> va escriure:
>>>> 
>>>> Well put, agree with all including your ending question.
>>>> 
>>>> Sent from my iPhone, Steve
>>>> 
>>>>> On Feb 17, 2019, at 4:12 PM, Lluis Ripoll via LUG <
>> lug at leica-users.org>
>>> wrote:
>>>>> 
>>>>> I’ve encountered sometimes when I enlarge a small dust like small
>> hairs
>>> that ruin the enlargement. I clean it, I look to the negative with a
>>> magnifier 8X but sometimes I’ve removed the dust from one point to
>> another
>>> point.
>>>>> 
>>>>> To clean the nregative I’m using PEC PAD with the special tissues
>>> provided but sometimes a supplementary action on the enlargement would be
>>> necessary. I think it is very difficult do a good retouching and make a
>>> similar tone to the one of the print.
>>>>> 
>>>>> Some experiences about cleaning better the negatives or applying
>>> retouching?
>>>>> 
>>>>> Thank you!
>>>>> Lluis
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>> Leica Users Group.
>>>>> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> Leica Users Group.
>>>> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information
>>> 
>>> 
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Leica Users Group.
>>> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> --
>> Don
>> don.dory at gmail.com
>> 
>> _______________________________________________
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> 
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