[Largeformat] Re: Attachments

[Vic Culver <vic@exis.net>]

From: Vic Culver <vic@exis.net>

Wonderful, TL.  Of course I've dodged and burned.  And, using a technique I
learned from Fred Picker, I can get back to the same print nearly every
single time I try.  He calls it the Print Recipe, and he has written about
it quite a bit, through his newsletters and etc.  I just grabbed my copy of
his book "The Fine Print" but it is not in there.  If you can't get in
touch with Fred (he has a home page) so that you can get a copy of his
newsletter detailing this process then let me know and I'll see if I can
get permission to reproduce that part of his newsletter(s) that tell about
that.  It is the simplest, most SENSIBLE approach to making a print I ever
did see or hear of.  My background in science tells me that you can only do
one thing at a time, because, as he says, anything changes everything.  So
you move forward one step at a time, and create a very accurate shorthand
'formula' for the print you want to get.  I use the compensating Cold Light
Head and Timer, as well as the compensating developing timer.  Paul
Horowitz is responsible for the design of these marvelous tools that give
you control and precision so that you can always get back to where you
were.  Fred manufactures the tools.  If this sounds mechanical -- well, it
really isn't.  You get to be as creative as you want to be, but you can
REPEAT it, and THAT is the critical thing.  The darndest thing is:  when
you get exactly the print you want, you dial in the dry-down factor and by
GOLLY -- the dried print looks as bright and vibrant as the wet one did!
Of course, if you look at every print as an ADVENTURE -- and you don't care
where you wind up each time you start to make a print, then all this stuff
will leave you cold!  But I like to be able to reproduce what I've done
before, then when I get tired of that (HA!) I can go back and do it
different.  But I always know what I'm doing.

I'd mentioned Imogene Cunningham's alleged sloppy darkroom work before.  It
can lead to some pretty darn good stuff.  I'd like to know how Judy Dater
prints!!!  But until I get my inner fires burning like theirs must have
been burning, I have to rely on careful craft to bring my vision to light!
Here's a question for Billy D. -- Bill, do you print the same when you're
doing commercial work as when you do personal work?  Do you KNOW where
you're going with a print, or do you just kinda mess around (please excuse
that expression, I don't mean it in a derogatory manner) until you get
something that looks good?  Did you mention an automatic processor?  If you
use one, it must work for you, right?

I don't mean to preach to the choir.  I was a college professor before I
'retired' and I'm used to jumping up on soapboxes and lecturing.  Please
forgive my old habits.

As for moving stuff around:  I don't have that much good stuff.  We have
another house up in Maryland and that is my wife's headquarters (she still
works at an agency in D.C.) and she takes some of my stuff.  Other people
have borrowed some -- it's kinda like a lending library (I DO wish they'd
offer to BUY some of it!!!).   As for big stuff, I have a collection
(small) of photographic POSTERS all framed and mounted, etc.  I like to
hang them and swap them around from time to time.  That's for INSPIRATION,
I guess --

OK, enough.  Thanks for the bandwidth.  I'm for keeping the discussions
going.  I like to hear what you folks have to say about stuff.  Maybe YOU
can preach a little, too!  How are we going to expand our horizons without
some kind of exchanges?  The delete key is always there if things get too
.... too.... if you become disenchanted!

Good seeing,  Vic





At 08:38 AM 1/26/1999 -0600, you wrote:
>From: "Thomas L Labron" <norbal@okstate.edu>
>
>Vic,
>
>     Haven't you done a lot of burning and dodging.  It is truly an art.  I
>have done it and have been pretty good at it, but would rather be able to
>make a straight print, but like everything else with my photography it is
>past tense.  I still have a variety of spots, discs and circles that I used
>and all different shapes of cardboard to do almost anything with to make a
>good print.  The big problems is record keeping if see yourself having to
>reproduce your photo.  I usually made a master print and kept a paper in an
>envelope with it telling of aperture/exposure time, etc. and a map of the
>print and the number of the item/items used to assist in the dodging or
>burning process.
>
>     Oh how I love big prints.  Granted, like you, I have kept mine smaller
>than 20X30 because a print that size in a home can be overwhelming.  I
>stick to matted 16X20's in a 20X24 frame.  That pretty much makes enough of
>a statement for me.  The thing that I would like to mention here is that
>once a print is hung it is not cemented to the wall.  While overseas my
>wife and I collected and framed a lot of art pieces and we have a lot, but
>about every quarter we change the wall hangings.  It is great because when
>people come to your house and they have been there before the whole house
>looks different.  The same can be said for area carpets.  Changing them in
>a room makes it all look different.  I switch my pictures at work also,
>which reminds me it is about time to do that again, but I have a 20X30
>matted print of a Kirov class Cruiser I took in the Straits of Singapore on
>my wall at work and it sure commands lot of attention behind my desk when
>people first walk in the office and see it.
>
>     And no, this is too good of a discussion to go private.
>
>God Bless and Keep You and Yours,
>
>Regards from Pawnee America and have a Happy New Year,
>
>Tom La Bron
>LTA  Oklahoma State University
>Office E-mail: norbal@okstate.edu
>Home E-mail:   norbalt@juno.com
>Website URL:   http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Towers/6309
>---------------------------------------------------------------------------
>---
>
><SNIPE>
>
>

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