I had a difficult time printing up this photograph of Khune Goh, he is one of the people I photographed in Bangkok at the start of last trip. Khune Goh and 3 others lived under-around a freeway in Bangkok Thailand. I hope to go back and photograph him and the others again with 35mm equipment as well as 5x7 large format next trip.
This photograph presented several difficulties mostly in putting some decent tonality-detail into the bright white wall behind the subject. I struggled quite a bit trying to figure out what filter and time I needed to give the wall some presence without making the whole thing a dark grey messy mass. Khune Goh was relatively easy to figure out, I just added contrast dodged the face a bit and burned his lower body some.
The other major problem was trying to use 2 different filter grades on this print without having burn-dodge lines present. I had to keep cutting down the dodge tool of Khune Goh to eliminate white areas on the wall, then I got dark areas on Khune Goh! In the last and 6th print I dodged the areas on Khune Goh during the basic exposure that would eventually be burned in on the background burn, this helped lesson the dark areas around his back and hair.
This was quite a complicated print to do, and a great learning experience. I used up all 6 sheets in the bag of paper I was using (paper unknown). Now its time to have some lunch and move onto another neg. Thanks Mr Goh, you pushed me to learn and become a bit of a better printer. I need to continue to improve at blending prints that use multiple types of filtration. If I ever printed this photo for a show I might try a slightly lower filter for the main figure, possibly 4 1/2.
Here are some photos from the darkroom session and the printing method used:
- Basic exposure 52 second at F5.6 and filter 5.
- Dodge face for -10 seconds during basic exposure, dodge back hair and back shoulders -20 seconds spread over the figure.
- Burn +20 left side with card. Give all following manipulations filter 3.
- Burn +10 bottom with card.
- Burn +10 bottom right 1/2 and upper corner with bent card.
- Use dodge tool on figure watching carefully to not allow burn-dodge lines and give background +30 seconds.
- Use burning mask to burn in very bright areas another +30 seconds.
This photograph presented several difficulties mostly in putting some decent tonality-detail into the bright white wall behind the subject. I struggled quite a bit trying to figure out what filter and time I needed to give the wall some presence without making the whole thing a dark grey messy mass. Khune Goh was relatively easy to figure out, I just added contrast dodged the face a bit and burned his lower body some.
The other major problem was trying to use 2 different filter grades on this print without having burn-dodge lines present. I had to keep cutting down the dodge tool of Khune Goh to eliminate white areas on the wall, then I got dark areas on Khune Goh! In the last and 6th print I dodged the areas on Khune Goh during the basic exposure that would eventually be burned in on the background burn, this helped lesson the dark areas around his back and hair.
This was quite a complicated print to do, and a great learning experience. I used up all 6 sheets in the bag of paper I was using (paper unknown). Now its time to have some lunch and move onto another neg. Thanks Mr Goh, you pushed me to learn and become a bit of a better printer. I need to continue to improve at blending prints that use multiple types of filtration. If I ever printed this photo for a show I might try a slightly lower filter for the main figure, possibly 4 1/2.
Here are some photos from the darkroom session and the printing method used:
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| Version 6, Khune Goh "People Under The Freeway" series, Bangkok Thailand 2013 |
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| Version 4, Khune Goh "People Under The Freeway" series, Bangkok Thailand 2013 |
- Dodge face for -10 seconds during basic exposure, dodge back hair and back shoulders -20 seconds spread over the figure.
- Burn +20 left side with card. Give all following manipulations filter 3.
- Burn +10 bottom with card.
- Burn +10 bottom right 1/2 and upper corner with bent card.
- Use dodge tool on figure watching carefully to not allow burn-dodge lines and give background +30 seconds.
- Use burning mask to burn in very bright areas another +30 seconds.
