Modernizing the Masters: Ansel Adams' The Print

Hello Everyone! I hope you enjoy the video! Let me know what other books, artists, or topics you would like to see next!
0:00 Introduction
1:44 Visualization and Expressive Print
5:52 Modern Darkroom Light Sources
7:15 Multigrade Paper Techniques
8:06 Basic Print and Modern Test Strip Intro
8:55 Split Contrast Printing Intro
10:27 Modern Negative Visualization using Smartphones
12:47 Simple Test Strip Demo
18:39 Advanced Compound Contrast Test trip Demo
22:36 Conclusion

[@josephasghar]

I thought I knew all the moves, but your test strip hack is a gem!

[@richpence]

Thanks! Hope it can be helpful! Sometimes it really depends what you want to get out of your test strip. With the variable contrast style it can be useful to use a small ruler to make sure the sections align!

[@craigyoung3229]

more of this, please... so good!

[@philipu150]

Well done, and very worthwhile, Richard. I have been at B&W film photography, professionally and not, since high school in 1968. After an obligatory 13-year hiatus, the Adams series, and other books of his, were among my first "go-to's" as I began rebuilding my technique and retraining my eye. As you make clear, the tri-part series is a treasure trove of wisdom on the medium; I have read it multiple times over the years and not infrequently pull a book from the shelf to check on some matter or another. In fact, just over a year ago, I got a copy of the earlier "Natural Light Photography" and discovered a statement on portraiture that helped me considerably in redefining my own direction in this field, which is my primary interest. Content of this quality will be valuable as the rebound of interest in film photography continues. It's also a pleasure to hear Adams playing. I would love to know where that color footage comes from. I have only seen the two brief Bach clips in one of the the later documentaries, and the rediscovered B&W one, some of which you showed. He had a beautiful touch. My father was a famous pianist (accompanist) of that generation as well, with the special sensitivity. I was unable to quite follow one aspect of your printing demo, the addition of the "one more" exposure after completion of the 2-second series -- wouldn't that make the series start at 4 second, thus 4, 6. 8... ? I look forward to future videos.

[@richpence]

Thank you for sharing your experience! I'll see if I can find a copy of Natural Light Photography to pick up. The Color Documentary is called " Ansel Adams: Photographer (1981) ", you can find the whole piece here on youtube under that name by a channel called VHS Therapy. There are many good documentaries here on youtube by channels dedicated like that dedicated to archiving these old vhs and TV documentary releases. I'll try to clarify the single contrast filter test strip process, I hope I understand your questions and please ask more if it is not clear. There are two steps (I'll use the times in the video for example): 1. Make the first 2 second interval test strip, around 5-7 sections (Total showing 2 thru 10-14 seconds ) is my preference. I like to start with the test strip totally covered, then work my way to showing the whole strip ( This may be your question, I work my way back from fully covered, then when the whole test strip is exposed I'll do the final exposure which gives me the starting 2 seconds ). You could of course start with the whole strip uncovered, and then slowly cover it, which would probably make more sense and be less confusing; I just have a habit of starting with it covered. 2. To get even more times shown, use some cardboard and cover all but the section you would like to extend the time. For this example it was the central portion of the landscape horizon so I could get the sky and ground easily. Importantly, this second step cuts perpendicular to the original vertical strips. I changed my timer to 10 seconds for this section and exposed the whole thing for that 10 seconds. This compounds onto the previous vertical test strip exposures, so gives me 12, 14, 16... instead of the original 2, 4, 6.. I hope that makes sense. Thanks for watching!

[@philipu150]

@@richpence I get most of it, but I'm still confused about that 2 seconds. I think you';re saying that you begin with the entire paper covered and give a 2-second exposure before uncovering any of it, which is why you need to add 2 seconds at the end. To each his own, but I fail to see the logic in not exposing the first strip for 2 seconds and continuing across. I do use the opposite approach, because it's easier to see how much paper is left when its uncovered than guessing how much is still covered. I understand the use of the covered mid-section. I am parsimonious with paper, too, but too often have images that don't offer such an easy way to encompass the tones I need to know about in a 4" strip. Walter Rosenblum once told me, you have to print as if someone else were paying for the paper. Easier said than done these days, with the economy such a wreck. What really hurts, though, is having to discard a sheet of paper because I lost concentration and made a stupid mistake. A few 8x10s of FB paper is a good bottle of wine!

[@richpence]

@@philipu150 There are lots of ways other than just the broad second covering and expanded exposure to find your times, such as selectively covering just a single section then another. Or, to just make tiny portions (say a .5" x 2" strip) to just focus on the brightest / darkest areas. Also I often would not make a basic print. I will judge my dodging times simply from the test strip, take notes, and maybe try a full or half test strip in the area of interest with the dodging. You are right that my method does not make the most sense. But here is what I do. I cover all but my first 1/8th inch of paper, so there is a little showing, 2 second exposure. Then I work my way down. exposing more and more paper, until finally I do pretty much guess when the end of the test strip is, then ill take away any covering and expose the whole uncovered strip for the final 2 seconds. It is a little backwards, but it is just my habit.

[@seanmac5507]

I want to thank you for your in depth approach to darkroom work. It's so helpful to see 🙂

[@richpence]

Thank you very much! I’m happy to make nice content for the things I love!

[@paulstillwell]

Favreau video, thank you so much! I learned a ton!

[@paulstillwell]

Well... spell check got hold of that!!! Fantastic video!

[@richpence]

Thanks very much! I’m glad it was useful!

[@sharpersflorist918]

Top notch content and production 🙌

[@richpence]

Thanks very much stranger!

[@wetpossum]

"The Variable Contrast Printing Manual" by Anchell is a very valuable resource for multigrade paper that adds a lot of detail that didn't exist when "The Print" was written.

[@richpence]

That’s an awesome look book! I’ll pick up a copy. Thanks for the info!

[@philipu150]

One more thing. A friend made me an 4x5 LED head for my Omega D2, using a cheap 256-LED panel, and a controller with dry-down compensation. The brightness is not quite what I got from my cold light previously, though adequate for my work, and we had a devil of time solving the problem of evenness, eventually suing an Excel program to set levels for concentric rectangles in the array. I have a 135mm lens, which probably contributes to the issue. What has been your experience, what LED unit did you settle on, and can you offer an average exposure time for, say, an ~8x10 full frame print, Gr. 2, from a 4x5 neg at f/11 or so on Multigrade? (I use WTF, which is about a stop slower). Thanks.

[@richpence]

I have to admit that I take the starving artist route to DIY Projects, as buying film / supplies and saving time are generally my goals. But of course, the camera (I build the 4x5 cam seen in the main talking head shot of the video ) or product I build needs to be stable, repeatable, and not difficult to get to the quality I need. So I really just do the best I can with my limited experience ( I am quite inspired by Ansel's writings on how he used mirrors going outside the room to use the sky as his enlarging light source ) I also feel things do not need to be very complicated, or at least I strive to make them as simple and accessible as possible. I want everyone to be able to build their own enlargers easily! (stay tuned for a project on just that over the summer) I really wanted a simple and almost ready made solution. After a little searching I found the " Switti S20 Camera Light " on Amazon for around $50, and found one that included the power supply. The reason I went with this style is the ability for it to be powered by a 12v power supply with NO built in battery and a physical on switch, not a momentary or digital switch like most of the rechargeable video lights. This allows the unit to be constantly switched to on so that when the power is plugged in the the light comes on. This was a big requirement for me so that the light can be used with a standard darkroom timer. There is a 2 second "warm up" time. But I found simply adding an extra a seconds to my calculated times was sufficient and accurate. So test strips would be made with 4 seconds increments on the timer but read as 2 second increments. If my needed exposure is 18 seconds, I'll set my timer to 20 seconds. The only modifications I needed to make was to remove the front black plastic frame on the light and add an additional piece of white acrylic and gaff tape it all very close to the edges to give more than full coverage of my film. The design of these lights is also kind of handy, they are just a inward facing string of lights that point in toward the center, so in reading the light they actually give a tiny bit extra brightness around the outside which helps to offset light falloff. I still get a little falloff, but it is pretty easily corrected with a burn in around the edges ( I would say it's approximately 1/3rd stop or less ) I am running a nikkor 150mm enlarging lens with multigrade slide in filter set below it. The light is super bright, Sometimes feels too bright (Which it can of course be turned down). I was making 11x14 enlargements from 4x5 RC Paper negatives at f8 that were less than 30 seconds. paper negs are easily visible and able to be focused. heat has not been an issue. If I had to guess. I think I could pull an 8x10 print from 4x5 neg at f11 in well under 10 seconds. I would likely have to stop down and /or dim the light source. I am also going to look into making a kit of ortho film transparencies to act as center darkening filters for more precisely burning in edges and repeating vignettes. If I get those completed I am thinking to make a more in depth video of the building of an LED large format enlarger.

[@igaluitchannel6644]

All these books are very dense, but the nuggets of information are contained sometimes in just a few lines here and there and are easy to miss. So, reading and re-reading is necessary. I have one of those Saunders LPLs and the results are just not the same as when using the Ilford filters. I've gotten much better results with them. The MCY values of that enlarger just don't give the supposed results in prints.

[@richpence]

There are a lot of great nuggets indeed! But often after an initial read I just go back and look up a section when I want to brush up on something. I love the Saunders LPL! I grew up printing on them so I am quite used to how they behave. It also heavily depends on the paper. The Ilford, Multitone, and Bergger (All of which I like to use) all have very different tone curves and contrasts to the different filters. I tend to get the results I expect from the built in filters, but I also keep a set of the ilford under lens filters in the darkroom in case something isn't quite working right!

[@igaluitchannel6644]

@@richpence Two lines that changed my approach (from "The Print"), "expose for the highlights and adjust contrast for the shadows." Obviously, with multicontrast paper, there are some variations under grade 4, of a second or two between grades, but the principle still stands and it's changed the way I work.

[@richpence]

@@igaluitchannel6644 That's a great excerpt. In one of my old classrooms I made an extensive chart describing the different filters and understanding the time compensations needed while using the filters.

[@igaluitchannel6644]

@@richpence I see. My filtration system went on the blink and rather than trying to fix it, I thought I'd try the Ilford Filters.

[@igaluitchannel6644]

@@richpence Oh, that would be useful indeed. I think that's where a lot of people get somewhat frustrated and discouraged - with the apparent unpredictability of filtration - particularly the dial-in type.

[@nilsl8168]

I've always been using 0 and 5 for split grade. Is there a reason you don't do it like that?

[@richpence]

That is a way to do it! But a bit too extreme on either end I would think. I have found there is a unique character and contrast curve for each filter setting as well as each paper. So understanding each is very useful. It’s helpful to take a couple common subjects shot on a film stock you use regularly and make small prints at each filter setting (if you’re clever you could also do this all in one go on a single big piece of paper) and you can use that as a handy reference for which filters you’d like to use! Sometimes you may like the image overall at 3.5, and just want a little bit of filter 4.5 to burn in the sky, or some 1.5 to give more body to a shadow.

[@gottanikoncamera]

With that much text on the screen, I’ll just read the book, thank you.

[@richpence]

Sorry for the excessive text, I just like to be clear with quotes, haha. It is a video about a book after all!