Unofficial Printing Survey

[ed_candland1]

I have just started with LF this year and have been shooting chromes

mainly because I don�t have a LF darkroom to use and well, I just

can�t see having a B & W print made in a lab for some reason. I do

enjoy color work also.

 

I was thinking about buying a 4 x 5 enlarger at some point and I

thought it would be fun to find out how everyone handles their

printing chores. So here�s my little survey:

 

1. Do you print your own work or out lab?

2. Pro or hobbyist?

3. B & W or color?

4. Wet or digital?

5. If digital, what method (home scanner and inkjet or drum scan

and Lightjet etc.)?

6. If wet color, what process (Ilfochrome or Type R etc.)?

 

 

Thanks, Ed

[michael_sherck]

<li>1. Print my own B&W (99%) and a local lab does color (1%) -- 4x5.

<li>2. Hobbiest.

<li>3. B&W, mostly, except for 35mm, which is more color (perhaps 50%)

<li>4. Wet. Don't care that much for digital prints.

<li>5. Tried home scanner & inkjet.

<li>6. Ilfochrome, when I can afford it.

<P>

Good luck -- hope you find the answer to your question. (Hint: according to Douglas Adams, it's 42.) :)

<P>

Mike

[doug_mcgoldrick2]

print my own b/w lab for color

pro

50/50 b/w color although my personal work is 80% b/w

color I do digital off of film scans, b/w mainly wet sometimes I'll

scan a print and tone it in ps and make an epson print

for scanning I use an epson 1680 w/ silverling software (drum

for things to be published)

I print on an epson 1270 but I hope to be getting a 2200 if the

economy pics up.

[gary_meader]

Print my own B&W

Shoot Color transparencies

Scan them on a Umax Powerlook III

Print them on Epson 1280

Also scan and print B&W negs on 1270 w/ MIS variable inkset

Printed Cibachromes for years but found it too expensive

Semi-Pro,that is I charge for some work, but it's not my main

income.

[bob.]

1) Print (Durst Laborator 1200 - Dich head)

 

2) Hobby (no one would PAY for these!)

 

3) B&W only

 

4) Wet (would probably go digital if I shot colour)

 

5) n/a

 

6) n/a

 

Interesting thread - I'll be interested in the digital user's answers...

 

Cheers,

[steve_feldman]

1. Print my own B&W (98%) and a local lab does color (2%) 35mm, 645, 4x5.

2. Hobbiest (Advanced amature).

3. B&W, mostly.

4. Wet. Very wet.

[jorge_gasteazoro4]

1.- Print my own (Zone VI enlarger, pt/pd prints)<br>

2.- Hobby<br>

3.- B&W I am terrible with color.<br>

4.- Wet.....lets leave it at that.<br>

[david_tolcher]

1. Print my own B&W (70%) and send away for 16X20 ilfochromes -- 4x5, 35mm.

2. Hobby.

3. B&W only at home

4. Wet.

5. Have a scanner and have dappled with scanning (35mm up to 5X4) and homeprinting. Also lab printing from CD (works OK up to 16X12)but ddoesnt havethe glory of ilfochrome. Thinking about one of the new A3 Epson or Canon printers for colour once I can master Photoshop.

6. Not worth doing wet home colour IMO

[brian_ellis3]

1. Print my own

 

2. Hobbyist

 

3. B&W

 

4. Both

 

5. Home scanner and inkjet

 

6. N/A

[james___]

I shoot mainly black and white and process and print all my own work. I have a rudimentary darkroom in which I have printed Ilfochrome but without running water I gave up as it is too expensive. I have a scanner and printer which I now use for color work. I feel labs do a poor job with black and white printing mainly because they don't know what I want from my negs. I'm an amateur although I teach quite a bit.

[jim_becia]

1. Lab

2. "Semipro" Have a real job but do sell my work.

3. Color

4. Digital scans from film.

5. Most of my work is drum scanned and then printed using a Lightjet. However, I do print smaller sized photos on Epson's color photo printers. Jim

[wilbur_wong]

1 print my own

2 hobbyist mainly

3 both - see below

4 both - see below

5 home scanner 1640 su

 

I used to shoot 4 x 5 landscapes as transparencies, but changed to shooting color negatives six years ago or so. Richard Misrach urged me to try out negs after he looked over several of my photos. I am really glad that I made this change, as the range of zones available on negs is so much greater.

 

I just recently started doing some work in B & W, which I am finding very challenging ( and I hope rewarding)

 

Choosing an enlarger today certainly brings into the question of whether to even go there. I enjoy doing this work on the wet side but if I were starting from scratch I might find myself gravitating toward digital printing of my color work - editing in photoshop is very precise - surgically so, and I could do burns and dodges that I wouldn't even dream of trying under an enlarging lens but I don't feel that I yet have a good control of the coloration of my prints as yet in digital. I am guessing that eventually all of my printing will go toward the digital end.

 

Economics might eventually play a factor here in setting up a new photo studio consider that an epson 7600 printer sells for $3,000. My Beseler Universal color head is $2,500 !!! which is above the $1,400 chassis, then you need an enlarging lens. . .

 

At the above prices (either capable of printing to say 20 X 24) a capable scanner is a no brainer piece of pocket change.

 

In either case the first consideration I think might be processing of the film - if you are dedicated to being able to expand and contract the zonal range of your B&W negs, I think I would want to do it myself. For this and for my color negs I process in a Jobo CPA with Jobo lift.

 

Unless you plan to publish, seriously consider going to color neg regardless of which printing method you end up choosing.

[daniel flather]

1) 35mm B&W I print 100%, All 4x5 goes to the lab, don't have an enlarger :(<BR>

2) Hobby.<BR>

3) 90% B&W<br>

4) Wet.<BR>

5) See 4<br>

6) Type R 90%

[jnorman2]

1. i printed my own work for about 15 years, but for the past 10 years, i have one specialist that does nothing but hand process all my negatives, and another specialist who does nothing except hand print and archivally process all my prints. i have a staff assistant that does all the cataloging, labelling, and preparation for HABS/HAER submittals. a pro lab in salem, oregon (photovision - brian and alan wood) does my scanning and digital printing as needed.

2. professional architectural photographer

3. about 90-95% B/W, color only on request from HABS/HAER

4. all B/W fiber-base printing for LOC accession and exhibition purposes is hand-processed wet. extreme enlargements for certain types of public viewing are digital prints made from 300-600dpi scans of the b/w negs. all color work is CTs, scanned at 300-600dpi and digitally printed (from my experience, digital prints are FAR superior to any chemical prints from CTs - i havent used any chemical color prints for over 2 years).

5. while i recently had a personal tour of all the new digital scanning and printing equipment at photovision from brian wood (geez, that guy knows a ton of stuff about this technology), i would have to ask him what type of scanner and printing devices he is currently using - it certainly turns out state-of-the-art results.

6. n/a

[jay_de_fehr]

1. I print my own work, formerly using a Beseler 45 with a dichro head, now I contact print as my darkroom has reconverted to a bathroom. 2. Obsessive non-pro 3.B&W, color only in an unusual circumstance, then negs&lab.4. Wet. I've only recently acquired a cheap flatbed scanner which I use to scan my negs and upload here. It's been humbling and educational, much like all of my endeavours.5.n/a 6. neg./ pro lab/C-print.-jdf

[ole_tjugen]

1: I used to print all my own work, and will again as soon as I get my darkroom up and running again. It was dismantled when I moved a few years ago; I've recently bought a Durst 138S for LF use... In the meantime nothing has been printed.

 

2: Hobbyist at the moment - used to be part-time pro...

 

3: B&W only

 

4: Wet. But digital while my darkroom is down...

 

5: Scanner

 

6: Any process - as long as it's B&W.

 

Ole

[jacob_snowbarger1]

1. Both, I do all my own black and white in my darkroom.

 

2. Student, so very serious hobbyist.

 

3. Both

 

4. Both

 

5. Topaz and epson 7600 or home scanner and epson 7600

 

6. N/A