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New Year Resolution - Do more wet prints!


topoxforddoc

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I've just come back from doing my first wet print session for a few months - just been too busy at work. Even on cheap Ilford Multigrade RC, I wonder why I ever bother to print film scans on my Epson R3800. Sure, the R3800 is a great printer and does a pretty good job at mono printing. But my wet prints tonight (of previous frames scanned and dry printed) just seem so much better. I've been wiping my negatives with Pec Pads prior to printing - just brilliant - no dust and no obvious scratches. I reckoned if Pec Pads were good enough to clean my DMR sensors, then it is probably ok to do the same for my negs.

 

So in the New Year, more cups of cold coffee (but now tainted with fixer!)!

 

Happy New Year!

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Guest AgXlove

I have been thinking about photographic resolutions for 2010. Here are some that are kicking around in my head -

 

- Photograph one subject or scene every day (similar to the "photo a day" resolution, but requiring/expecting more of myself).

 

- Get B&W wet darkroom set up and running.

 

- Develop & print my own B&W film/negs.

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i have given up on wet prints to be honest...just don't have the time and it is frustrating trying to perfect a craft with only limited time available....:(

 

still shoot lots of film but have spent time improving my scanning and printing to a level where I am now very happy with.

Yes I miss the 'process' but I simply cannot spend the time it deserves..

 

wish you lots of pleasure with your printing though...I am jealous.

 

Anyone want to buy a mint V35 and Focometer;)

 

best

 

andy

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i have given up on wet prints to be honest...just don't have the time and it is frustrating trying to perfect a craft with only limited time available....:(

 

still shoot lots of film but have spent time improving my scanning and printing to a level where I am now very happy with.

Yes I miss the 'process' but I simply cannot spend the time it deserves..

 

wish you lots of pleasure with your printing though...I am jealous.

 

Anyone want to buy a mint V35 and Focometer;)

 

best

 

andy

 

Andy,

 

I thought the dry prints on my R3800 were pretty good. I've got quite good at the hybrid film/digital workflow. For a while, I've been under the illusion that dry prints were just fine and dandy.

 

But now I've just had my first serious darkroom session for a while, I've realised that there just ain't nothing that beats a wet fibre print. Not even really expensive paper like the DaVinci Fibre Gloss on my R3800 comes close. Even my Resin coated multigrade wet prints are better than the DaVinci and the other papers I've tried.

 

Sure, the dry prints replicate everything off the scanned negative - grain and all. But as my Wife said to me today, the digital prints just look "flat". Now she knows nothing about photography and thinks that I spend too much time and money on this hobby. But she spotted the difference straightaway.

 

Best wishes,

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Charlie - I hope you have fun. I have to face sorting out and packing up my darkroom soon ready to move house in the summer and I am going to miss my "bolt hole" until we get settled again.

 

But, my resolution this year is to shoot one film stock only for the whole year.

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Charlie - I hope you have fun. I have to face sorting out and packing up my darkroom soon ready to move house in the summer and I am going to miss my "bolt hole" until we get settled again.

 

But, my resolution this year is to shoot one film stock only for the whole year.

 

Andy,

 

So is that Double X only then? I've been a HP5 shooter only (at least in B&W) for a while. My only colour stock is kodachrome and my freezer is getting empty. Hope the house move goes well. Will you be staying around Mount Vernon?

 

Best wishes,

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Charlie - Mount Vernon is dead since the Burns & Plastic Surgery unit moved to the Free and Susie is tired of trekking up to Hampstead on the tube. So she decided to join me and take early retirement! We are house hunting in the Dungeness - Dymchurch area. More bang for your buck down there - as they say.

 

Yes, Double-X all year. Ten cans (4,000ft) in the freezer, ordered a pile of re-usable metal cassettes to go with my IXMOO's.

 

Literally up to my neck in film!! :D

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Andy, I'll be in Germany in February, but I'll have my wife and two-year-old with me. She-who-must-be-obeyed would kill me if I suggested carting that thing around. I barely managed to get my ski boots authorized!

 

Would a courier be better?

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