That was one of my Grandpa's many sayings which has stuck in my mind all these years. I guess it's a polite way of saying
"You're not very good at this, are you?". For some reason it came to mind when I tried to print this shot, from some very old Forte film left in a bulk loader that I acquired from a school clear-out a while back. I had no idea how to process it so I just dunked it in my usual ID-11 for about 11 minutes. Not quite long enough, perhaps or maybe it's lost a bit of speed over the years but whatever the reason the fact is the negative came out very flat, with little or no contrast. Hmm. What to do, eh? Nothing else for it but to try and lith it, I thought - and here was the result on Foma 131 paper:
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| Sand dunes on Portstewart Strand, 2019. |
The scan is a wee bit brighter than the print, which is even more moody than you see here. I had used a longish exposure on a very windy day, so the dune grasses in the foreground have some movement in them. You've got the usual lith-on-Foma warmth but I dunked the lower half of the print in some PotFerri to bring out the highlights a bit and as you can see they've lost that warmth. Still, it works, to a degree...
I must be blesséd in the eyes of the Lord, then . . . .
ReplyDeleteWell, I'm not religious, so I only have to impress myself. Rare enough. But I'm impressed with the photo you've made here, especially because of the difficulties in trying to develop old film without timing charts, etc. I like the lith look, but when I do it in digital it just looks fake.
:)
DeleteI really need to do a few tests with the Forte to see what speed & developer combination works best. And the old Tri-X as well, which resides in another Watson bulk loader acquired at the same time.
I think the digital attempts at re-creating classic film and analog looks don't work well at all. It's one thing that drove me back to film (all those Nik software filters like Silver Efex). It's makes it all too derivative and to my mind analog and digital have different strengths and should stick at what they're best for, not try to mimic the other.