Print technique: Subtle tweaks, going round and round

[Darin Boville]

The other day i saw an interview with Roger Waters talking about his Pink Floyd days and how he and David Gilmour would sometimes have these nasty fights over various aspects of the recording they were working on. Sounded like real stand your ground and don't give an inch sort of arguments. Funny thing is, they still remember the arguments but can't remember what was so important--and can't hear it on the album.

I'm in the middle of printing a big project and I took a week or so off after encountering a print that was especially frustrating to print. Needed a break. Making subtle tweaks here and there, I think I know what I want, I think I know how to get there, and then when the print is in front of me it just isn't right. Sheet after sheet of paper. Days go by like this.

So, as I said, I took a little time off to clear my mind, to forget the frustration. And guess what...I'm looking at the many work prints, the ones I kept tweaking and being frustrated with, and I can't tell the difference between them. Side by side comparisons. And they all looked great.

This happens to me more than it should. I wish I could find a way around it.

Anyone else have do this bit of craziness? Any words of wisdom?

--Darin

[Kirk Gittings]

I get into that too whether printing silver or ink. My solution is to pin up a print in my living room like it was finished. Then I look at it at various times of day in mixed daylight and under halogens at night. The most useful observations in this phase are when I forget the print is there and it surprises me. Then I can get an unfiltered assessment of it.

[jp]

Drydown hides some minor things I think I see when the prints are wet. Makes for some appreciation for RC paper as it can be dried very quickly. Another day in the darkroom might mean a different batch of developer, which can make a big difference too.

Pink Floyd is sometimes nice to listen to for darkroom/workshop music too.

[Oren Grad]

I struggled with a negative a couple of weekends ago, printed it four slightly different ways, was going to toss all but the best one but ended up leaving them all on the drying line, figuring I'd deal with it later. Of course, the one I wanted to keep when I went to put them away a couple of days later was one of the ones I was going to toss.

So it goes...

[Jim Jones]

Eugene Smith said, in the book Darkroom, "One area alone would take five hours to ferricyanide, and then five hours and one second later I made one jab too many and wham, I'd have to start all over again! I can assure you that I'm never going to print the original again. . . . The copy negative is a little harsher than the original ... but I can probably get a print from this negative in an hour instead of five days and five nights."

Page 322, W. Eugene Smith: shadow and substance : the life and work of an American photographer by Jim Hughes

[DennisD]

Darin your issue is quite common and I've often experienced the same feeling. Sometimes it's best to make a few prints and step back for a while as you assess what you've done. You gain a much better perspective if the process is not rushed.

I have a 4' x 6' bulletin board on the wall of my workroom. It's reserved for putting up prints in progress. I'll usually pin up several prints of the same subject with various tweaks & variations. I'll leave them up for a few days, sometimes longer (or much longer) until I decide which version looks best and what further refinements are needed. Then the process begins again until I reach what I like.

[ROL]

I find that looking back over old fine art prints or those that are hung, including some within a printing session with questioned values at the time, I remember none of the myopic judgment issues I fretted over during printing. They all look perfectly fine – something less involved appreciators of the work, including my wife, are able to see much better than I, when removed from the darkroom. Given the negative, there can simply be little to no appreciable difference, or rather benefit, between say, a 40 or 50 second burn.

[Doremus Scudder]

... there can simply be little to no appreciable difference, or rather benefit, between say, a 40 or 50 second burn.

Attention to detail is great, but at some point we cross the line between improving something and simply changing it.

We can take Ansel Adam's analogy a step further. If the negative is the score, and a print is a performance, then, as in musical performances, there can be a number of viable and even inspired interpretations of it.

I often try out a print with several different interpretations. After I dry them and look at them again, I may keep four out of five; even though they are different from each other, each "performance" is valid and satisfying enough for me to deem the print worthy of display. And, as many of you above have indicated, after some time has passed, and I'm just looking at one print, I often overlook the subtleties I "fretted over during printing." However, without all that fretting, I feel my work would be inferior.

I guess what I'm advocating is dropping the "cookie-cutter mentality" and allowing, even encouraging, different renderings of the same negative.

I work hard on my vocal technique and interpretation as well (fretting, if you will), working on shaping phrases, dynamics, tempo, and so forth. But I've yet to sing an aria twice the same way. Part of that is the conductor or the accompanist, but a lot of it is just me taking an interpretive step to the right or left compared to how I performed last week or the day before.

Best,

Doremus

[ROL]

Attention to detail is great, but at some point we cross the line between improving something and simply changing it.

Certainly, that is what experience in the DR has taught me. In fact, that is the recognized well put bar of achievement I now use. The specific facilitation of that point may still give me pause, but then again perhaps that may be interpreted as one definition of dedication to craft, if not rationality. Another evocative phrase comes to mind, in somewhat common use these days: never let the perfect become the enemy of the good.

[bob carnie]

I have always advocated making three variations for my clients and letting them choose the best to them.

Your frustration is common Darren and keep making variations and next day see the happy surprises.

Since you cannot tell the differences it only means to me your printing is getting pretty good.