Printing the Image - Ann
This past weekend both Ann and I printed images. Since you haven’t had a chance to visit Ann’s images for awhile, let’s take a look at the images she decided to develop.
Lately, Ann has resisted looking at her images. We all go through these cycles and sometimes it’s hard to look at your own work, nonetheless try to refine the images. It’s particularly difficult when you really have not been able to get out to photograph so you’re consistently revisiting old stuff. Instead, for the past couple of months Ann has been studying images from her favorite photographers and immersing herself that way, but even that can have its limits. That’s why I was so pleased when I mentioned to Ann that I’ll want to try and print a couple of images the following weekend, if simply to get the ink flowing through the printer head, and she mentioned she might work on a couple of images .
I think my experiments with the Q2MR might have struck a chord with Ann because the first image she selected was an image from Madeira that she decided to develop in black and white. The color counterpart is lovely, with beautiful late afternoon golden light streaking across the landscape. However, in black and white, that color doesn’t help at all and, given the image’s complexity, it quickly became the type of difficult image that one can learn a whole from.
After working on it for a couple of sessions, Ann asked me to take a look at it with her to see how the qualities she knew were in the image could be brought out better. Developing an image in black and white is entirely different than in color and sometimes you have to do things that seem counterintuitive. Ann and I worked together on the image for about another hour, sometimes simply enhancing what Ann had already worked on, sometimes me (or Ann) suggesting a particular edit at one location or another. Nearing the end, Ann had two recommendations about how the image was lacking and both were spot on. The result is lovely, as is the print, which as you might have guessed was printed as large as we could on the paper we have.
As much as I may pine for the old days of silver-based prints, some key things we did with the above image simply could never be done in the wet darkroom. It’s not that one would not have been able to have a stunning image (face it, the raking light would glow on a silver print), but it would have been fundamentally different. Working in a digital darkroom allows one a degree of control over small areas and the ability to emphasize objects for the eye in near-unnoticeable ways that just weren’t available a couple of decades ago. We work with the tools we have and Ann’s image turned out lovely.
A couple of days later Ann asked me a question about whether she should even try to print a particular image she had worked on. When I asked why, she said it’s because it’s an early morning image and she wanted to keep the feel of night that hangs around as the sun lets you know morning is about to arrive, but she was afraid that the image was just too dark (plus the sensor noise from a long exposure that was, unfortunately, also under exposed). I chuckled a bit because I’d mentioned to her that I had just worked on a pre-dawn image that, despite some very bright areas, I’d wanted to keep the landscape as dark as it felt. I told Ann that I was going to print mine, in part to find out how these types of images print, so she should print hers as well.
As things played out, Ann printed her image twice. She first thought she would try it on a matte paper, And while it held some of the textures in the grasses well, the lit clouds lost a bit of brilliance and the subtle lit areas of the landscape seemed dull. Textured dark areas can turn muddy if not processed (and printed) just right. So Ann re-worked the image just a bit and the next day printed it on a glossier paper (unfortunately, we only had it in a smaller paper size . . . the image deserves a larger-size print).
As you can see, the image is incredibly subtle, yet rich in colors, forms and detail. However, even with the glossier print, the light under which you view the print has to be just right, or else it becomes dull and lifeless, not doing the image justice. It’s a good reminder of just how important it is to get the right light on a print and why so many fine art printers want to know what the luminance value will be on the prints during a show so they can print to that level of illumination. It really does make all the difference in the world for some prints.
That was it for Ann’s images. Not only two lovely images, but two images that had lessons to teach us about developing images and printing them. You really can’t ask for much more from a (digital) darkroom session.