[Leica] Getting into printing.. need advice?

[kcarney1 at cox.net (Ken Carney)]

If you have a community darkroom that keeps reasonably fresh chemistry and
aligned enlargers, that would be $20 well spent.  Most of them I have seen
are really poor, with banged-up equipment, stale chemistry, "safelights"
that fog the paper and so on.  The ventilation is important.  A couple of
other things.  I would use really good gloves.  It may seem harmless to dunk
your hands in print fixer, but it contains dissolved silver.  Or print
tongs.  Also, you will save a lot of time if you use a full sheet of paper
for your test strips - then you can see what is going on better.

Best of luck,

Ken

> -----Original Message-----
> From: lug-bounces+kcarney1=cox.net@leica-users.org [mailto:lug-
> bounces+kcarney1=cox.net@leica-users.org] On Behalf Of Yama Nawabi
> Sent: Sunday, September 07, 2008 3:58 AM
> To: Leica Users Group
> Subject: Re: [Leica] Getting into printing.. need advice?
> 
> I'm more interested in printing the analog way because of the relative
> difficulty (and the arguable point that it is more 'artistic'). As
> mentioned before, I am young, and as a result, I like to take these
> projects on in order to gain a feeling of self-fulfillment.
> 
> Anyway, I think a public darkroom might be a good idea for now, but I
> would really hate having to pay my city's $20 fee...although, if I pay
> it And spend the day there...that doesn't sound too bad.
> 
> Oh, and if I need a print, I do have a canon 30d and 24-70L... And a
> coolscan iv. However, I did not take the plunge into film just to scan
> my negatives and stop there.
> 
> Thanks everyone for all your help!
> On 9/7/08, Luis Miguel Casta?eda Navas <octabod@gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > On 07/09/2008, at 1:19, Yama Nawabi wrote:
> >
> >>  What information should I know to start printing?
> >
> > Despite all the things you have heard from some people banging over
> > darkroom, silver printing is an art itself, and as every form of
> > handcrafted art is time consuming and leads to frustration if you're
> > in a hurry for results, skills take a while to come and get sorted
> > into your mind.
> >
> > Digital printing means production, silver also can be done for
> > production with the right stuff, but it's mostly pointless nowadays
> > for such target: if you're not going to get the last bit of whatever
> > you're doing, or your plans are just a few prints now and then, and
> > mostly snaps, better spend your money on a good printer.
> >
> > If you stand with silver, start on a community darkroom before
> > spending money. Take care that none of the modern chemicals smells (at
> > least none of the required ones), and fumes aren't dangerous as long
> > as you care for proper ventilation (as much as you do for light
> > insulation), there are a lot of myths around this (as well as they are
> > a lot of myths about digital processing).
> >
> > I do have extensive experience with darkroom and digital (which I
> > started to experiment-learn due my former job in the early-mid 90's),
> > and I cannot recommend any: at present time I print all my BW, which
> > is very personal, in the darkroom, and color (either film or digital)
> > digitally. The choice is only yours but I do not think (sorry Ric,
> > Daniel) that having your bum sitting in front of a computer is
> > different (either socially or from you family point of view) than
> > going into the darkroom, only might be preferred by some :).
> >
> >
> >
> > I feel better, to hell with photography, art, women, and all
> > E. Weston, 1924
> > -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> > http://luis.imaginarymagnitude.net/
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Leica Users Group.
> > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information
> >
> 
> 
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