One of the things that has been revealed by scanning my older work for my current retrospective is developement issues.
Prior to 1998 all my 4x5 was developed by the shuffle method in trays. I had been doing this for 20 years that way with excellent results and little noticeable scratching in my prints. My method included emulsion down, which minimizes scatches and printing with an Aristo cold light head. I had also developed a significant case of contact dermatitis on my fingers and was looking for a method to get my hands out of the developer. I settled on BTZS tubes and have used them ever since 1998.
In the last year I have gone back to scan some of my vintage film and discovered something interesting. The tray developed film which I thought I was so adept at is full of very fine scratches from the shuffle method whereas my later film from the BTZS tubes is not. My assistant spots my scans and it is literally the difference between a 1/2 spotting session vs. a 2-3 hour spotting session. Most of these fine scratches don't show up in traditional prints with a cold light head, but if they get sharpened in a digital print they will show up.
Just an interesting little tidbit.
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