Great post Shel, I'm getting inspired to do BW again. All the way from exposure to final print. Fortunately all I'll need is film, paper and chemistry. The rest just fell in my lap the other week in the form of 6 big boxes of darkroom stuff and a decent enlarger. It was given to a friend and he didn't want it! I used to have the Adams books, they were lost in a flood. Time to replace them. Hope I can pick your brain once in a while, I've forgotten an awful lot in 25+ years.
Don > -----Original Message----- > From: Shel Belinkoff [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Friday, August 27, 2004 2:50 PM > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: Re: I enjoy film > > <snip> > My first suggestion would be to get two books by Ansel Adams: The Negative > and The Print. Those books are a great starting place, even if you don't > like Adams' work or accept some of his theories. Then go see some > exhibition quality work by the great photogs and printers. And just > because a work is on exhibition does not mean it's exhibition quality. See > real prints. Reproductions in books are not even close to good quality. > You MUST know what a good print looks like (and you must be familiar with > the various styles and types of printing) before you can start making your > own prints and start developing (literally) your own style. > > You must also learn how to properly expose your film. Just getting a > "perfect" exposure based on meter readings is not good enough. You must be > able to understand light well enough to be able to creatively over or under > expose based on meter readings, and to be able to properly develop the film > for those modified exposures. This takes a little experience and practice. > It's not rocket science, but a proper exposure is paramount in obtaining > the results you want. > > > Shel>
