What do you do with old failed prints?

[stradibarrius]

After a printing session what do you do with all the prints that just don't cut it? I have always just thrown them away but thought I would ask just in case there is some use for them.

[Jac@stafford.net]

I tear them up and throw them away.

Many years ago, one of my artistic brothers would go through my trash and recombine parts of prints. He made some remarkable images of my failures.
.

[evan clarke]

I save quite a few, useful if you want to try a new bleaching or toning method or maybe practice hand tinting..As long as I have the space.

[John Kasaian]

Toss 'em

[Richard Wasserman]

Trash

[invisibleflash]

One of my trash prints ended up in LACMA.

I usually just trash them or donate to a local artist that cuts them up for collage. If it is just off a wee bit, I save it as a proof to sell possibly. Also use the trash rag prints as template set up if I need to print on the backs.

[jp]

I use some of my test strips for bookmarks. I am pleasantly surprised with some of the strange compositions that result.

Bad prints usually get tossed. If they are family photos, I let the girls have at one with a marker or crayon or whatever they'd like.

[Vaughn]

Some of my reject platinum prints get cut up for cards and bookmarks. The reject silver gelatin prints at the university get recycled for their silver.

[Mark Woods]

Rip and toss.

[Keith Fleming]

Aren't we, as photographic artists, supposed to respond to the question (based on what I've seen in photo magazines over several decades) by saying something on the lines of: "Because I always fully visualize the final print, and also have total control over every step and variable in the creative process leading to that print, I never have a failed print."

It would be so nice to be able to honestly make such a statement, but I cannot. Right beside the end of the sink, near the fixer, is a trash can lined with a plastic bag. Some failures go into it right out of the fixer, some after drying, and some when I take a hard look at them accept the reality they stink. But I try to learn from each of them--but sometimes I am a slow learner.

Keith

[Leigh]

I stack them, largest at the bottom.

Let them dry, put a cushion on top, and use as a stool. :D

- Leigh

[Vaughn]

...Some failures go into it right out of the fixer, some after drying, and some when I take a hard look at them accept the reality they stink...Keith

I had some prints that stunk...I had let the gelatin/sugar/pigment mixture for my carbon prints stay out too long and it got a little moldy.:)

[Doremus Scudder]

Any print that I would not be happy exhibiting goes into the trash (which is most of them...)

Vaughn,

I'm interested in how you recycle discard prints to reclaim the silver. Would you mind elaborating?

Best,

Doremus

[E. von Hoegh]

Aren't we, as photographic artists, supposed to respond to the question (based on what I've seen in photo magazines over several decades) by saying something on the lines of: "Because I always fully visualize the final print, and also have total control over every step and variable in the creative process leading to that print, I never have a failed print."

It would be so nice to be able to honestly make such a statement, but I cannot. Right beside the end of the sink, near the fixer, is a trash can lined with a plastic bag. Some failures go into it right out of the fixer, some after drying, and some when I take a hard look at them accept the reality they stink. But I try to learn from each of them--but sometimes I am a slow learner.

Keith

Some of mine never make it into the fixer...

[Kodachrome25]

I save quite a few, useful if you want to try a new bleaching or toning method or maybe practice hand tinting..As long as I have the space.

+1, they are also good for practice spotting for the print that *did* make the cut...

[Vaughn]

...Vaughn,

I'm interested in how you recycle discard prints to reclaim the silver. Would you mind elaborating?

Best,

Doremus

I do not know the details -- a waste handler picks up our used fixer and photopaper and it gets hauled off to the SF Bay Area. We use to get 10 cents a pound for the paper, but with the cost of power (and gasoline), we are happy they haul the photopaper away for free these days.

I believe the emulsions falls off of photopaper if kept in water long enough -- then a silver-recovery device might be able to be used to get the silver.

Vaughn

[Andrew O'Neill]

For the past 7 or 8 years I have been printing mainly alternative processes (kallitype and carbon transfer). These unwanted prints are torn up and binned. I always kept unwanted silver prints for toning tests. When the pile gets to big, I rip them up and put them in a bucket of water until the emulsion dissolves. The paper is then dried and put in the recycle bin. I haven't done this for quite a while so the water in the bucket has completely evaporated leaving a black film on the inner sides of the bucket. I guess someday I could take it to the proper authorities and have them dispose of it...
Recently I have been thinking of doing a wall paper collage one wall in the darkroom with old prints...

[Kodachrome25]

Recently I have been thinking of doing a wall paper collage one wall in the darkroom with old prints...

We did that with prints in the darkroom at the paper I used to work at. There were about a hundred of them including lots of celebs like Andy Warhol, Goldie Hawn and Hunter S. Thompson not to mention the company bong that lived below the ventilation duct that had a label on it that said "Property of The XXXXX Times"....:-)

That was back in the day...in 1998....

[Andrew O'Neill]

Now that I'd LOVE to see!

[chrisleyon]

Used to thrown at trash :). Well Click here (http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2279360,00.asp) to read about Less paper in three steps. I am working for PrntingBlue.com (http://www.printingblue.com/sticker-printing/custom-stickers.asp) (Leading Online Printing Services Company in USA), where we produced thousands of daily prints for different products likes stickers printing, folder printing, business cards and many more products. We used to follow above shared article to reduce wastage and paper with well organized way.

[Andrew O'Neill]

Huh? oh, Spammit anyways!

[invisibleflash]

I also use junk prints for cleaning out the printer feed rollers or head align and cleaning etc.

[invisibleflash]

Used to thrown at trash :). Well Click here (http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2279360,00.asp) to read about Less paper in three steps. I am working for PrntingBlue.com (http://www.printingblue.com/sticker-printing/custom-stickers.asp) (Leading Online Printing Services Company in USA), where we produced thousands of daily prints for different products likes stickers printing, folder printing, business cards and many more products. We used to follow above shared article to reduce wastage and paper with well organized way.

Not Interested...go buy an ad.

[invisibleflash]

We did that with prints in the darkroom at the paper I used to work at. There were about a hundred of them including lots of celebs like Andy Warhol, Goldie Hawn and Hunter S. Thompson not to mention the company bong that lived below the ventilation duct that had a label on it that said "Property of The XXXXX Times"....:-)

That was back in the day...in 1998....

got a pix of it?

[E. von Hoegh]

Used to thrown at trash :). Well Click here (http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2279360,00.asp) to read about Less paper in three steps. I am working for PrntingBlue.com (http://www.printingblue.com/sticker-printing/custom-stickers.asp) (Leading Online Printing Services Company in USA), where we produced thousands of daily prints for different products likes stickers printing, folder printing, business cards and many more products. We used to follow above shared article to reduce wastage and paper with well organized way.

Tell you what. We'll all save all our bad prints, offcuts, test strips, etc. and ship them to you. Then you can take advantage of the neato tricks you're spamming this forum about. OK?

Post scriptum - Please learn to type English.

[Vick Ko]

Toss, because I don't wash them. Don't want hypo-soaked garbage around.

[Dan Henderson]

Aren't we, as photographic artists, supposed to respond to the question (based on what I've seen in photo magazines over several decades) by saying something on the lines of: "Because I always fully visualize the final print, and also have total control over every step and variable in the creative process leading to that print, I never have a failed print."

It would be so nice to be able to honestly make such a statement, but I cannot. Right beside the end of the sink, near the fixer, is a trash can lined with a plastic bag. Some failures go into it right out of the fixer, some after drying, and some when I take a hard look at them accept the reality they stink. But I try to learn from each of them--but sometimes I am a slow learner.

Keith

My contribution to photographic theory is to employ Darwin's theory of natural selection. Many images attract my eye, some keep my interest long enough to be committed to film. All film is developed and proofed. Some proofs continue to interest me enough to work toward a finished print. Some fall apart along the way, others live on. Some of those survive to actually become a finished print. Some of those end up being matted, framed, and offered for sale.

[Brian Ellis]

Moab Entrada paper can be printed on both sides. I save the prints I don't like and use the other side for proofs.

[mike rosenlof]

mostly toss, but some get used for testing other new techniques involved in print finishing. For example, right now, I should use some for spotting practice. Other tests are toning, flattening in the drymount press, drying techniques, etc.

[Peter Lewin]

I rip them up and put them in a bucket of water until the emulsion dissolves. The paper is then dried and put in the recycle bin. I haven't done this for quite a while so the water in the bucket has completely evaporated leaving a black film on the inner sides of the bucket....
Does soaking silver gelatin prints dissolve the emulsion? Like everyone here, the rejects go into the darkroom garbage bin, but ultimately I have a collection of both garbage binned prints that never made it out of the darkroom, plus "finished prints" which I rejected prior to toning and mounting. Since my township recycles paper (and I try to recycle as much "stuff" as possible), how do I get to the next step? Can dried prints simply go into the recycled paper stream, or is it necessary to get rid of the emulsion first? If soaking doesn't do it, how else can one remove the emulsion (if that is a necessary step)? Since I've been reluctant to recycle the prints, I have a nice collection waiting to go out...

[Drew Wiley]

Yup. I rip em in half and put them in the recycle bin, not garbage per se. That's the official rule here. Any emulsion is going
to be separated from the pulp in the general business that recycling itself does best, just like wax on cardboard food boxes etc. I let them worry about that.

[Noah B]

I usually keep them in a box for many months, then when the boxes start piling up I sift through them and throw out the negative and print if I really don't like it.