Post Processing Hell

But at least digital is a lot quicker than film used to be! Load the spiral and into the tank in a dark bag, or the darkroom without the benefit of even a safe light (esp if processing E6). Mix the chemicals, Dev stop and fix, and about six steps IIRC for the E6 for colour transparencies. Then wash and hang to dry.

Now we have a negative it's time to assess that. What grade paper? what size are you going to print. Do you bother making contact prints? Or just work direct from the neg? What exposure dose it need? That's just for monochrome prints. Printing from transparencies was even harder, but not as bad as from colour negs. All my serious colour photography was on slide film, and then printed on initially Agfa direct reversal paper, which was quite easy to do with the kit they supplied (a friends dad worked for Agfa so got me a couple of the kits). it only needed developing in a Sodium Hydroxide solution and could be dish developed, although pulling the paper from the dish with "bare hands" was probably not such a good idea. The soapy feeling one got on one's fingers from the developer was actually the fats in your skin turning to soap! In the end I moved to doing Ciba-Chrome prints and they were really nice when you got it right. Printing from colour negs was something I left for the one hour labs for snap shots.

I reckon that it is now possible to process to completion at least five times as many images in the time it used to take to do one image from exposure to print on film using digital processing techniques. I enjoy processing on the computer almost as much as I did working in the analogue darkroom. I know the results are technically much much better now too.

Alan

I actually quite enjoy this part, unless it is stacking 100's of images!

Hey, I also enjoy the "Digital Darkroom"!

tonylong wrote in post #16863619
Hey, I also enjoy the "Digital Darkroom"!

Me too, but then I'm just a hobbyist - no deadlines and I still get to eat even if I delay the PP.

Yeah

BigAl007 wrote in post #16863385
But at least digital is a lot quicker than film used to be! Load the spiral and into the tank in a dark bag, or the darkroom without the benefit of even a safe light (esp if processing E6). Mix the chemicals, Dev stop and fix, and about six steps IIRC for the E6 for colour transparencies. Then wash and hang to dry.

Now we have a negative it's time to assess that. What grade paper? what size are you going to print. Do you bother making contact prints? Or just work direct from the neg? What exposure dose it need? That's just for monochrome prints. Printing from transparencies was even harder, but not as bad as from colour negs. All my serious colour photography was on slide film, and then printed on initially Agfa direct reversal paper, which was quite easy to do with the kit they supplied (a friends dad worked for Agfa so got me a couple of the kits). it only needed developing in a Sodium Hydroxide solution and could be dish developed, although pulling the paper from the dish with "bare hands" was probably not such a good idea. The soapy feeling one got on one's fingers from the developer was actually the fats in your skin turning to soap! In the end I moved to doing Ciba-Chrome prints and they were really nice when you got it right. Printing from colour negs was something I left for the one hour labs for snap shots.

I reckon that it is now possible to process to completion at least five times as many images in the time it used to take to do one image from exposure to print on film using digital processing techniques. I enjoy processing on the computer almost as much as I did working in the analogue darkroom. I know the results are technically much much better now too.

Alan

Oh yes, it is much better than the old days, I am just poking some fun at it

Everyone, I also enjoy it. It is part of the creative process. It takes a lot of time but the results are better than back in the film days, and it is a lot cheaper after we have paid our entry fee.