B&W processing advice?

[Dzerzhinski46]

Dear All,

Any last words of advice before I process my own B&W film? I have decided to take the plunge and do it myself. I hope it turns out all right.

By the way, my local custom processor in town is not doing a good job in my opinion, not so much the film, but the prints are not very good. The negs are fine, I inspected them myself and didn't find anything wrong. The negatives are sharp and nicely exposed, but the prints I am getting are not very good . Some are scratched, some are slightly fuzzy, unsharp, etc. Any ideas?

Dzerzhinski

[another view]

I've never made a darkroom print, and pretty sure it won't happen for awhile. I just don't have the time or a good space here to do it - maybe in the future. I've developed film and made scans and can tell you from that experience (similar to what I've heard of darkroom work) that getting rid of dust on the negative is very difficult, but very important. Scratches are just careless handling and fuzzy prints may be the lab's fault due to not focusing the equipment correctly. Sharpness can be hard to tell from looking at the neg unless you have a strong (8x or so) loupe and a lightbox.

Give it a shot, now is a great time to be buying darkroom equipment as long as it's used. A true well-crafted b&w print has a quality to it that you just aren't going to get from digital printing. There are so many variables that you can create your own "look" to your prints. You won't see this care taken with 4x6 proofs - you would have to either do it yourself (best, but learning curve) or work with a custom lab for a negative you really want to get a great print from. Ansel Adams said that the negative is the score but the print is the performance, comparing b&w work to a symphony.

[magoo]

I have some advice, double check, then check again for any light leaks comming to the room where you will be loading the film unless you have a changing bag. also, if you are going to be making your own prints, spring for a decent grain focuser. triple check your temperature and the times and the rest is gravy. I have heard from some people that diafine is very easy to use, you can develop slow and high speed film at the same time. the iso isn't really a factor. I will try it, but right now i use tmax for my tri-x I will be using when I start another photoclass to kill time.

Have fun, Nothing brings out the true romance of photography than the darkroom, can't say that about photoshop

Magoo