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[OM] B&W printing redux

Subject: [OM] B&W printing redux
From: Ken N <image66@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: Mon, 24 Sep 2001 07:41:31 -0700 (PDT)
This weekend was spent working with my dad in the darkroom.  We
got things setup, cleaned, and darkened.  We cleaned up the old
Federal 4x5 enlarger, lubed and adjusted the thing. 
Unfortunately, the lensboard required a smaller diameter lens
than my 80mm and 50mm enlarger lenses.  (had something like a 15
inch F6.3 lens installed).  We managed to mount the lensboard
from my Omega into the Federal so I could use a shorter lens. 
Then we ran into the big problems.  We couldn't get the
lens-film distance short enough to focus with.  The 50mm
enlarger lens was totally worthless and the 80mm lens just
barely focused in.  And then, the diffusion enlarger was so dim
that we could barely frame the shot on the easel.  We knew that
it would be a LONG day with this enlarger so we cut our losses
and put my Omega B66 back on the table.  The brightness
difference was on the order of five or six stops.  That improved
matters greatly.  Besides, sometimes it's better to work with
what you know and bring the "mystery box" on in the background. 
I want to get it working since I have some full-frame 6x7 shots
that need to be printed.

Anyway, I had several shots that I wanted to print, but had
difficulty getting to "work".  We worked on them and got decent
prints as a result.  We reprinted one shot of a pair of old
(late forties) school busses rotting away in the remnents of an
old barn that I took using my XA.  Taken on Plus-X, the tonals
were phenonominal and we got nice solid blacks and sparkling
highlights.  Fought the grain the whole way.  OK, so we enlarged
it up to about a 20x24 to get the crop we wanted.  Amazing, that
XA's lens (it was nearly as sharp as pictures taken with a 6x7)!
 Correcting for the vignetting was a breaze.

We also worked on a TMAX 100 negative that was essentially
grainless, and had both beautiful tones and nice shadow detail. 
Highlights burned out a bit, but overall, the picture worked out
extremely well.  OK, the crop just didn't work.  We struggled to
get the composition we wanted, but in the end, the picture
demands to be square or something.  I've got an 11x14 for the
office wall, but since the shot doesn't stand well by itself, I
will have to print two others from the series and display them
together.

Then we decided to get brave.  I have struggled and struggled
with the T400CN.  It has such beautiful highlight/shadow detail,
but the midtones absolutely vacuum.  It's like you can get only
four tones out of this film.  We worked very hard on one shot
and managed, with gut-wrenching dodging and burning, to get an
acceptable print with decent gradients. I wish that I would have
spent time with a couple of rolls in the darkroom before
committing myself to a year of shooting the stuff.  To keep
stuff from getting muddy we had to print it at grade 4 to 4 1/2
and do serious dodging and burning.  Kodak recommends a grade 3
paper for T400CN.  I wouldn't go any softer, that's for sure.

We had a lot of fun (and may do some more late tonight after my
daughter's birthday party).  It was neat working with my dad
again and he helped me out a lot in working the print.  One
print that I've struggled with and failed to get past the
test-strip phase we got a decent working print in just a few
minutes.  Final print is awesome and my wife has already claimed
it and the busses for the family room wall.

Anyway, it has been a good weekend and we have enjoyed our time
together.  We live in different states and manage to see my
parens once or twice a year for what seems like only minutes. 
Dad is seriously contemplating getting his darkroom operational
again, but would like a newer enlarger like mine.  OK, he wants
mine!  I said sure, but I'll need to get one of those mammoth
4x5 color enlargers that are for sale in Des Moines for $900. 
Like THAT would happen!

One nice thing about the world going to digital--it is resulting
in a lot of very nice darkroom gear becomming available.  Now,
if prices would drop just a wee bit more...

KN

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