The joy of the darkroom

working in the darkroom is not always as fast and smooth as logging into Photoshop, but that magical moment when an actual image appears, out of nowhere, on the blank paper without any doubt can make all other moments of aggravation worth while. Unless you feel that way about working in the darkroom, just turn on the lights and forget about it all.
True, working in the color darkroom is not as fascinating as working in the black & white one, and is often accompanied with much more technicality, color frustration and total darkness, but on the other hand you avoid the smell and the direct contact with the chemicals.

After making a contact sheet and the exposure testing [using test strips], it is time to examine the print and see what can be done in order to get the desired great print.

Dodging and Burning - These are techniques used for lightening or darkening certain areas of a photograph in order to get more and better details [if they exist at all] in highlights and shadows. Warning: dodging and burning are not for people who suffer of an impatience condition.

Toning - By using toning agents a print's tone or even it's color can change. A black & white negative can become a sepia [yellow-brown] print or even red, orange, blue etc. Toning is often used to make the photograph long lasting, to add a new tone before hand-painting it, to boost the contrast and because it is FUN.

Cropping - Basically cropping a photograph is about deciding on what to leave out the final print. It is a great practice for those who forget to crop with the camera while shooting. In order to crop while printing you need to elevate the enlarger head higher, until you can see the part of the negative you wish to print on the paper.

Creating black borders - There are different ways of adding black border to the print. It can be done after printing by cutting the matt board to a smaller size than the easel opening or it can be done while printing by using a different sized mask on the negative carrier.

Color printing - It mainly comes down to balancing between exposure time and the amount of yellow, magenta and cyan filters. It is just the perfect job for the color blind. Unlike the black and white darkroom loading the negative and exposing it in the color darkroom is done in total darkness.

Contrast - No matter what they'll tell you, the level of contrast in a picture is mainly a personal preference. Adjusting the contrast can be done by using a multi contrast printing paper or by changing the filter used while making the exposure. The higher filter used the higher contrast the final print will have.

filter #00

filter #3

filter #5

going digital

Today's tip : don't let your imagination limit you.

Taking a street [non]photo into the digital darkroom is very much in contrast with the flowing pace of non-photography but let alone fun, rewarding, creative, self expressive and did I say fun? Digital images include pictures which were originally taken using a digital camera or negatives and prints scanned into the computer. From that point on all options are open. Some people prefer to present their images “raw”; as they came out their camera with only minor retouches. There are people who use photo editors to improve their images. The 3rd group works on their original images with an artistic output in mind. Since the appearance of digital photography there's an ongoing debate on how much is too much in image manipulation. But I say; whatever works for you.

Digitally working on an image, one can achieve equal results as in the conventional darkroom and even more. Not to mention the apparent reduction in sweat and tears. Dodging and burning for example which is a tedious process in the traditional darkroom can be done in a couple of minutes in Photoshop and with similar results.
So whatever your choice in processing your photos is, remember that both traditional and digital have a place in the creative world of photography and it is very recommended to give both a test drive before choosing the best one for you.

There are primarily two purposes for manipulating photographs; 1) Enhancing sharpness, size, colors, tones, contrast and light as needed. 2) Creating an artistic production which sometimes means generating a new image out of an existing photographs by using composites [ usually done by working with layers] or changing certain parts of a photograph [using selection].

sharpness and blur - changing the sharpness level of a photo can easily done.
in Photoshop by chosing the blur or sharpen tool [ R or shift+R ].
in Paintshop Pro by selecting image/blur or image/sharpen from the menu.