Absurdly huge files

[Lenny Eiger]

You must have been pulling out your hair then when Richard Avedon made you make complicated dodges and burns, I have seen some of his printing notes and they were very detailed.

No. When I print for others, I am happy to print in their style. (As you know, its quite a different skill.) Avedon and I got along very well. The last print I did for him had about a dozen different instructions. His negs were fairly dense, there was a lot of contrast built in. Also, quite consistent. He had a cold light head on an old 8x10 enlarger, with the cranks to raise the head. The darkroom was pretty small.

I spent many years of my life in the darkroom. I printed 20x24 color prints in trays when I was a kid, for my father. I processed 120 E6 with tanks and rolls when I was 9. I managed darkrooms for colleges before I taught there (Parsons and Cooper), and I repaired and tuned all their enlargers. I taught darkroom techniques, as well as alt process and view camera.

I did get frustrated when printed for a specialty b&w lab in San Francisco for a while. The photographers wanted the most exquisite prints, but about 85% of them had truly awful negs. I had to do every kind of manipulation, pull out the hot developer and everything...

Lenny

[federico9001]

quality of scan matters. otherwise "resolution" is often an empty word only.