Poll: How do you process large format black and white film?

[andreios]

#3 indeed. For me, this is part of the beauty and attraction of the whole thing - "hands on" approach, creating physical objects, no screen time involved (unless I decide to share the final print here, obviously )...

[kevinjp]

I develop my own film using the SP-445. The ease of use of the SP-445 is what gave me the final push to get into large format a little over a year ago.

Unfortunately I don't have any darkroom access so no printing for me, only scanning with an Epson 4990. Someday I hope to have darkroom access of some sort, but for now I'm just focusing on learning the ins and outs of technique, films and developing.

[Alan Klein]

I process my own black and white film because it's dead simple, I don't have to schlep it to a lab and back and it's cheaper. Also, I'm impatient and this way I get to see my results right away.

I expect that a significant majority of people are scanning and processing negatives in Photoshop/Capture One.

Turnaround time mailing to a lab is about a week. Often, exposed sheets sit in their holders for weeks or months until I get around to sending them out. So another week isn't noticed. But it is nice when it arrives and I can open the package.

I think Photoshop/Capture One is editing but not scanning programs. I use Epsonscan program to scan my Epson V850 scanner. Then I use Lightroom to edit the scans.

[sharktooth]

Thanks to everyone who has clicked on one of the poll options. There's no time limit, so feel free to click one if you haven't yet. You don't have to comment about your selection if you don't want to, so it can be completely anonymous if you wish.

I'm just trying to get a sense of how people are using large format in the here and now. There are clearly many different approaches, and it's interesting to see what others are doing.

[thornhill]

#3 in black and white

[_tf_]

I develop my own film using the SP-445. The ease of use of the SP-445 is what gave me the final push to get into large format a little over a year ago.

I’ve switched to the SP-445 recently from handrotating a jobo tank, and it was definitely worth the expense, being able to process 4x5 film using inversion in just 1/2l of chemicals has been liberating, for the want of a better word.

[sharktooth]

Interesting trend lately. There''s been a significant drop in the percentage of people doing home developing and printing. It used to be over 90% when the poll first started, but down to 65% now.

The biggest uptick appears to be people home developing film, but then going to digital output for final presentation.

[Ulophot]

I can understand the allure of digital and its various strong points. And certainly there are those who use the digital tools only as they would darkroom ones; who can steer clear of the seduction of the "just a little more perfection" that so easily in digital crosses the line into removal of pesky elements and so on. But in general, I simply don't trust digital any longer, because of the pervasiveness of that choice of alteration, and trust in the photographic image remains important to me. (And yes, I know perfectly well about cropping, retouching, multiple printing, etc. in film photography, for artistic or nefarious purposes.)

For me, the challenge continues to lie in accepting the limitations of what I get in the negative and what I can accomplish with it in the darkroom, which, in my view, if hardly a severe limit, even without venturing beyond the limits of lightening, darkening, and contrast. So many great and beautiful images have been created by this means, let alone the decades before ASA speeds, light meters, and muilti-contrast papers. For the kind of images I hope to create, there is no want of high bars to aspire to.

[Serge S]

Presently dev in Jobo & scanning to print.
Have been working to get my darkroom up and running again with a larger sink finally in place and new 4x5 enlarger in place - so I get get back to traditional printing.
Have a bit of trepidation on dust control with my large format negs - really hard to keep the dust at bay - and I am very thorough about cleanliness.
No issues with MF negs though.
My goal is to print 11 x 14
(Back in early 2000's I used to do a wet print to scan on a flatbed Linotype Hell Saphir scanner)

[phdgent]

That would be# 3 since the 1980's.

Jobo processor, Jobo sheet film drums.

Durst 138 enlarger.

Mix from powder B&W chemistry.

~The Epson scanner is for sharing images via the web only.. and the quality of scans is not that important.


Bernice

The same here except for since 1978 (shooting with a used ARCA SWISS, the same as A. Adams had) and the JOBO processor (which is replaced by manual power...).