Ansel Adams remastered

[Brian Ellis]

. . . Why not
ask why Brett Weston burned his negatives, which gives him an A+ in my book.

Just as an aside, Brett Weston didn't burn all his negatives so maybe he should just get a B+. : - ) We don't need to ask why he burned the ones he did, I think he told us why he did it. Meg can correct me but it's my understanding he said he burned them because he didn't want other people reprinting and reinterpreting them after he was gone.

You also said that "even in the realm of simple silver
gelatin printing there are all kinds of options and creative tools he apparently never
seriously explored." I'm trying to think of what these might be and I can't think of any (even assuming we know what he explored and what he didn't). What do you have in mind?

[Drew Wiley]

Brian - of course I have no tally of what things AA might have incidentally experimented with or even selectively used for his commercial work. But in terms of his
fine art printing, what he taught, random conversations with his assistants and some
mutual friends, and just looking at a lot of prints, it is possible to form an estimate of
what he was comfortable with and wasn't. I personally found it ironic that he was
surrounded by friends, colleages, and neighbors who were quite proficient at masking,
yet this is one very useful avenue he doesn't even seem to mention. John Sexton dabbled with it; but Howard Bond seems to have been the one to popularize it with
b&w printers. Plain old neocreocin red was a bread-and-butter control tool of many
contemporaneous photographers, and AA didn't empasize that either; maybe it
conflicted with his esthetic, like photoshop does today to certain purists (just guessing), though he must have been tempted to use from time to time. By contrast
he promoted flashing, which is a rather primitive control compared to masking.
Perhaps he didn't want to deal with more spotting, but assistants were around for
that sort of thing. The fact is, we all have certain preferences and methodology and
become proficient in some more than others.

[Brian Ellis]

Brian - of course I have no tally of what things AA might have incidentally experimented with or even selectively used for his commercial work. But in terms of his
fine art printing, what he taught, random conversations with his assistants and some
mutual friends, and just looking at a lot of prints, it is possible to form an estimate of
what he was comfortable with and wasn't. I personally found it ironic that he was
surrounded by friends, colleages, and neighbors who were quite proficient at masking,
yet this is one very useful avenue he doesn't even seem to mention. John Sexton dabbled with it; but Howard Bond seems to have been the one to popularize it with
b&w printers. Plain old neocreocin red was a bread-and-butter control tool of many
contemporaneous photographers, and AA didn't empasize that either; maybe it
conflicted with his esthetic, like photoshop does today to certain purists (just guessing), though he must have been tempted to use from time to time. By contrast
he promoted flashing, which is a rather primitive control compared to masking.
Perhaps he didn't want to deal with more spotting, but assistants were around for
that sort of thing. The fact is, we all have certain preferences and methodology and
become proficient in some more than others.

Thanks Drew. So you're saying that Adams ignored or didn't seriously pursue masking and something called "neocreocin red" that I've never heard of and that didn't come up when I Googled it. Not to argue or be critical but that's quite a bit different than the "all kinds of options and creative tools" you originally said that Adams ignored.

As an aside, John Sexton uses and teaches a much simpler method of unsharp masking than Howard Bond's far more complex method. I have no idea whether he learned that from his time with Adams or developed it on his own. I'm not aware that he uses any other kind of masking. .

[Drew Wiley]

Brian - I was merely giving examples. If you get ahold of a Kodak graphics arts guide
from the era or know anything about what Adams' color-printing neighbors were up to
you can understand just how simple his own techniques were by comparison. Bond's
and Sexton's masking techniques are also very, very elementary. Maybe there was a
disjunct between what Adams considered b&w printing and what was routine in
photolithography and color printing at the time. Maybe he just didn't bother. Maybe he
tried and got frustrated because his equipment wasn't up to par. Adams gave up on
pyro too, even though many people used it. He liked predictability. People think that he
was a master of technique - and within his own parameters he was - but compared to
many color printers of the era his skill set and equipment was quite limited. Can't find
neocreosin red?!!!!!! That was Photoshop for 75 years, and still works better for
certain b&w negative corrections/manipulations. Ever see clouds dubbed into a dense
sky or cigarette smoke added to a period portrait? Need to reduce density repeatedly
in a very controlled and predictable manner in just part of a negative? A ten dollar
bottle of neocreosin will last twenty years. How much does a Mac and Photoshop
cost?

[Merg Ross]

[QUOTE=Brian Ellis;507756]Just as an aside, Brett Weston didn't burn all his negatives so maybe he should just get a B+. : - ) We don't need to ask why he burned the ones he did, I think he told us why he did it. Meg can correct me but it's my understanding he said he burned them because he didn't want other people reprinting and reinterpreting them after he was gone.

Brian, that is precisely Brett's reason for destroying most (not all) of his negatives. The well publicized burning of a few negatives took place at his home on the morning of his 80th birthday.

Shortly after he had printed over 800 of his father's negatives, (the 1954 Print Project), Brett concluded that only he could make a Brett Weston print.

[Merg Ross]

Brian - I was merely giving examples. If you get ahold of a Kodak graphics arts guide
from the era or know anything about what Adams' color-printing neighbors were up to
you can understand just how simple his own techniques were by comparison. Bond's
and Sexton's masking techniques are also very, very elementary. Maybe there was a
disjunct between what Adams considered b&w printing and what was routine in
photolithography and color printing at the time. Maybe he just didn't bother. Maybe he
tried and got frustrated because his equipment wasn't up to par. Adams gave up on
pyro too, even though many people used it. He liked predictability. People think that he
was a master of technique - and within his own parameters he was - but compared to
many color printers of the era his skill set and equipment was quite limited. Can't find
neocreosin red?!!!!!! That was Photoshop for 75 years, and still works better for
certain b&w negative corrections/manipulations. Ever see clouds dubbed into a dense
sky or cigarette smoke added to a period portrait? Need to reduce density repeatedly
in a very controlled and predictable manner in just part of a negative? A ten dollar
bottle of neocreosin will last twenty years. How much does a Mac and Photoshop
cost?

Hi Drew, I believe that you are referring to crocein dye, is that correct? I used to use a powder, scarlet dye made by Kodak for working on negatives.

[Drew Wiley]

Yes Merg, Kodak might have labeled it "Creocin". Here's a product that's ridiculously
fast and easy to use and costs next to nothing, is easily controlled or removed. You
don't need a two-hundred page owner's manual; in fact, you can learn to use it in
about two minutes, and the only extra ingredient you need is tap water. Which means it's not "cool". Steve Jobs won't be making any announcements about it. If
every remaining bottle in the world sold, the value of Adobe or Apple stock wouldn't
go up a millionth of a percent. No one will pay attention if one pontificates about it
on these web forums. No one will go around bragging how much they spent on it.
Totally doomed. The next thing we need to banish from our photographic vocabulary
is Farmer's Reducer.

[Drew Wiley]

Just checked a bottle in the lab. It's labeled Kodak Crocein Scarlet. This is a sizable
class of dyes industrially. I always thought it belonged to the eosin class, hence the
name neocreosin, which appears in much of the older literature. But several related
dyes might have been used over the years. The MSDS might or might not be more
specific.

[Brian Ellis]

[QUOTE=Merg Ross;507938]

Just as an aside, Brett Weston didn't burn all his negatives so maybe he should just get a B+. : - ) We don't need to ask why he burned the ones he did, I think he told us why he did it. Meg can correct me but it's my understanding he said he burned them because he didn't want other people reprinting and reinterpreting them after he was gone.

Brian, that is precisely Brett's reason for destroying most (not all) of his negatives. The well publicized burning of a few negatives took place at his home on the morning of his 80th birthday.

Shortly after he had printed over 800 of his father's negatives, (the 1954 Print Project), Brett concluded that only he could make a Brett Weston print.

Thanks Merg. My apologies for not catching the typo in my spelling of your name in my original post.