I had taken a more relaxed attitude to printing, I choose a neg, make a couple or three final images after testing then let them dry. If I am unhappy with the print after it dries then the next day I can do more work on it. When I am happy with it I will do the final printing process which involves bleaching and toning.
Here is the second negative I worked on today. The photo is of a young Burmese girl in the dump, she has on a turban head cloth and her eyes are downcast. I have many photos of this same girl smiling, she loved to have her photo taken and had a beautiful sweet smile. The main difficulty with this print is getting the contrast just right and burning in all the bright white garbage to include some tonality. I am using 2 different burning masks that were made on RC paper and had different areas of the white garbage cut out. I will try one one more version tonight before sleeping, maybe a 10% less exposure overall print.
These are the steps I have taken so far in making this print.
1) Basic exposure, 70 seconds F 5.6 at filter 3 3/4 (4).
2) Dodge face -15 seconds.
3) Burn corners 10 seconds each
4) Mask 1 burn in garbage 50 seconds at filter -1
5) Mask 2 burn in garbage 30 seconds at filter -1
- Developed in dectol 1/1 for 2 minutes (trying 2 minutes instead of my regular 3 minutes).
- Photo paper is Ilford 11x14 FB neutral tone.
- Enlarger, Saunders 4x5 LPL with multigrade head.
- Negative, Tri-x film 35mm
- Negative, Tri-x film 35mm