Learning to judge negatives

I've learned to look over my negatives and make my own decisions

about which frames have the best exposure. I often suggest this to

others, but how can they tell which ones are too dense or too thin,

without having something to compare to? What I mean is: how do you

teach someone to evaluate their negatives? Is there a good reference,

a book or online tutorial?

Trying to print them is a good way. A negative may be "printable" but still hard to print well. And, as far as that goes, it is somewhat a matter of judgment as to what the "best" exposure is.

Jeffrey

 

My simple rule is if I can't make out the details in the negative, the printer probably won't. Seems to work fine. Regards.

I brought this up because prints can be misleading and not always adjusted "correctly". Also, if you bracket exposures, the labs tend to print them all the same, so learning to recognize a good negative puts you ahead of the game, and puts you in control. I'm really suprised that most people never even look at their negatives, and rely only on the prints. This can lead to lots of confusion and frustration... I've had overexposed negatives printed with - density, making them even brighter! Underexposed ones tend to be printable, but look very "weak" and usually not worth using. Some types of images, like night and "astro" can really fool automated machines, and custom printing is a must (generally need + density) Looking over the negs gives you a quick idea of what's usable, or just which exposure has the most potential. Stop guessing... all the answers are there an the film.

There's only one way. Make a proper proof.

 

For B&W: Find the minimun time to make a maximum black through a clear (blank) frame or edge. Then make a proof sheet using this time. Do NOT reduce the development time. Develop for a full 2 minutes. You must use the same paper that you print on to make the proof. Bad negs will be easy to find as will the good ones.

 

For Color: Same idea but a bit harder to do if you have a lab make your proofs. They will average the exposure to compensate for under exposed frames.

 

See Fred Pickard's book "Zone VI Workshop" for more info on a "proper proof"

Anthony, that's exactly the problem... making proofs for color negatives. Unless you do it yourself, the machine proofs just lead to confusion and frustration. Many lab "techs" screw up adjustments even worse. With practice, you can study your own negatives and end the guessing game, at least concerning exposure, and get an idea of the overall potential of the images. In the end, prints need to be made to judge focus and color issues, but you can quicky learn to "weed out" bad frames that aren't worth printing by looking at the negs. I'm suprised at how many people don't even look at them.