I have been struggling along getting used to the new 5x7 138S Durst enlarger. I tried 2 different negs but the contrast you get with the condensers is throwing me off. My first neg was a dense 800ASA Tri-x shot of dad that went way up considerably in contrast, the second was a contrasty neg shot in the dump of some feet with crawling flies. Both negs were to contrasty to print, I think they both can be printed well with a diffusion enlarger like the Saunders LPL 4500 or the Durst 1200 (colour head) but would be very difficult to print in any condenser machine.
My 3rd attempt looks like it might work, the neg is a shot of a young man in the dump who is in shadow with some distant bright background areas I hope I can burn down. I think this machine will work well with non contrasty negs best, so I will probably print the contrasty 4x5 and 5x7 negs in other equipment and reserve this enlarger for the flatter lit negs. I can also use this enlarger for work I want to print super contrasty like the b/w ring flash heads I plan to do.
One thing I really love about this new enlarger is how rock solid the focus is. This thing is built like a tank and once you set stuff, it stays set. There is no focus shift after you focus the first time, it stays focused.
I plan on spending the rest of the night trying to print the young man neg on 11x14 fiber in the 138S, I will post some digi shots of that later if I get that far.
Note* Jack also gave me a condenser head for the Durst 1200, will try that another day. I am still waiting on Jack to send me the specialized neg carrier from PEI so cannot use that enlarger yet.
Here is the print mentioned, the prints might be a bit dark. I plan on doing extensive bleaching and toning on it tomorrow, to see if I can open up the shadows a bit and brighten the highlights. I was reading in one of my darkroom books how Larry Clark would print moody and dark then bring things out bit by bit with bleach. I want to make the print sing, hopefully bleach and toning will give it a better voice, if not I will try lighter prints later on.
My 3rd attempt looks like it might work, the neg is a shot of a young man in the dump who is in shadow with some distant bright background areas I hope I can burn down. I think this machine will work well with non contrasty negs best, so I will probably print the contrasty 4x5 and 5x7 negs in other equipment and reserve this enlarger for the flatter lit negs. I can also use this enlarger for work I want to print super contrasty like the b/w ring flash heads I plan to do.
One thing I really love about this new enlarger is how rock solid the focus is. This thing is built like a tank and once you set stuff, it stays set. There is no focus shift after you focus the first time, it stays focused.
I plan on spending the rest of the night trying to print the young man neg on 11x14 fiber in the 138S, I will post some digi shots of that later if I get that far.
Note* Jack also gave me a condenser head for the Durst 1200, will try that another day. I am still waiting on Jack to send me the specialized neg carrier from PEI so cannot use that enlarger yet.
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| Young Burmese man in jean jacket Mae Sot garbage dump, Thailand 2013 |
