The best of both worlds

[h._p.]

I've been going through my old negatives, throwing away the dross and

scanning the ones I want to keep. I came across this neg which I shot

on a Nikon F with, I think, a 200mm lens. When I originally printed it

I used grade 5 but could never get it as 'hard' as I wanted it.

 

A few seconds work in Photoshop and voila! It was exactly the way I'd

originally conceived it. So our classic cameras can benefit from new

technology after all!<div></div>

[h._p.]

And once I'd started, I thought I'd see what I could do with another neg that had never worked out right, this one from a Leica M2 and 90mm lens...<div></div>

[h._p.]

And finally, I thought, what the heck, this one looks all right as a half-tone but what's it like as a lith?<div></div>

[larrydressler]

Harvey We must be kindered spirits because I also found a cache of my ols stuff that I never thought was just right but I kept it around then lost it then found it again through the years and 9 moves.around the world. I am retired Milatary. It seems I even have discovered a new eye and can take some ideas way past what I wanted. I am working on them when I get time.

Larry<div></div>

[connealy]

I think I'm quite a bit more skillful at bringing out the potential of my negatives with scanning and inkjet technology than I ever got to be in the darkroom. Dodging, burning and control over contrast and other qualities of the image is a lot easier, and spotting the prints with those little brushes and ink bottles just isn't something I miss. There are certainly things you can do with traditional techniques that you can't with digital, but it doesn't seem to matter for most of what I want to accomplish.

[george_shihanian]

I mean no offense, but what is the appeal of this effect? I don't see the "magic", sorry. Are you taking old negatives that never looked right and trying to find a way to make them interesting? Only the first train shot seems somewhat interesting to me, but the second one has too much on the right and nothing to balance it on the left, too much vacant space.

[george_shihanian]

I forgot to add that I imagine we're just getting a snippet of the effect here on a computer monitor, and in print I'd probably "get it"?

[wendell_kelly]

In the past, I've achieved just the same effect by either directly shooting with high contrast copy film or making a copy negative on high contrast copy film from a print made on normal grade paper.

[connealy]

Since only Harvey is able to compare his earlier effort with the present one, I think we have to accept his conclusion on faith. I would also suggest that when you go back to reconsider work you did a long time ago you presumably have the benefit of years of experience and refined judgment. I've been doing a little of the same thing recently, and it is apparent to me that I threw out a lot of my best work when I was young and stupid.

[larrydressler]

Kodalith has been discontinued..... Offset printing is moving to digital. Soon the term Half tone will be a memory. Sorry you don't understand ....

[mike_elek]

Sometimes you want a specific look to a photo. And the computer comes in very handy in being able to achieve that look. I've also found a computer works very well for older negatives that have been mishandled.

[silent1]

For whatever it's worth, every one of those effects would have been achievable in the analog darkroom with an internegative made on lith film. No, just printing on harder paper wouldn't do it.

[bacsa]

LOL, I've shot a fuji neopan1600 once, and let it develop+print by a lab; well, the prints i got were of about this 'tonal range' :)

 

"Grade 9" fits the subject matter pretty well, harvey. Best of both worlds, indeed.

[Sandeha Lynch]

About 10 years ago I realised that some of my older negatives had been wrecked by bad storage. With some weird salt or acid streaks across them it would have taken a real master printer to salvage anything, but ... the consumer neg scanners arrived just in time. I scanned this set a few months ago.

<p>

<img src="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/3502029-lg.jpg">

<p>

<b>1982</b> ... that's Ilford XP1 through a Minolta Elite II

[glenn_thoreson]

I got lots of Kodalith in 4X5 and 5X7. I need to start playing with it again, before it gets older than I am. I am slowly getting my scanner problems ironed out and just scanned a 4X5 Kodalith negative. If I can figure out how to post it, I will do so. I like your stark graphic arts style images, by the way.

[claude_batmanghelidj]

Sandeha,

 

I really like that picture. It really brings back memories for me. I lived in Britain from 1973 to 1986, and that image was my flavor of Britain from around the mid seventies. By the time you took that pic, Britain was a different world for me. The eighties were the time of black leather everywhere, skirts jackets, and Duran Duran, and everything seemed to have a sharp edge to it. Your picture conjures a softer more gentle Britain.

[Sandeha Lynch]

Thanks Claude. Like a different planet, I agree; hope you saw the rest of them in my folder. I was in the UK for most of the eighties, but for me it was The Bhundu Boys and rock bands from West and South Africa. So ... Duran who?