Did my first 12 prints of secondary printing today, its going a bit slower than I thought it would. I want to do another 12 tonight and then will continue tomorrow. Having multiple styles of paper is a real pain when your bleaching and toning. Each type of paper responds differently to bleach and to selenium toner. When you have a tray full of different papers like I do today your never quite sure whats going to happen when you tone and add the bleach brush. This is another example of why its so important to simplify and to really learn your materials. Only when you truly understand your tools can you completely control them, only when you completely control them can you hope to make any kind of important expression.
I am getting much better at bleaching, using both tools I read about and tools I invented for the job. Bleach really digs in and works wells with Ilford warm tone paper (not so much their neutral tone paper). There were several prints I thought would not work but after bleaching they looked quite good. Bleaching can really light up dark areas muddy areas of a print and add a bit of important highlight. Sometimes you can over bleach and it looks bad other times it looks more dramatic, a really subtle thingy. How much to bleach or not to bleach is a personal preference thing. The key is to not have to strong a solution and to work slowly taking off a bit of the darkness sat a time and not letting the highlight areas go too white.
There is something truly unique and beautiful about a Tri-x neg that is sharp and grainy, that is then bleached. It creates a unique look that is quite persuasive and powerful, something I have not seen in digi photography. You got to love it!
"Ain't Photography Grand!"
I am getting much better at bleaching, using both tools I read about and tools I invented for the job. Bleach really digs in and works wells with Ilford warm tone paper (not so much their neutral tone paper). There were several prints I thought would not work but after bleaching they looked quite good. Bleaching can really light up dark areas muddy areas of a print and add a bit of important highlight. Sometimes you can over bleach and it looks bad other times it looks more dramatic, a really subtle thingy. How much to bleach or not to bleach is a personal preference thing. The key is to not have to strong a solution and to work slowly taking off a bit of the darkness sat a time and not letting the highlight areas go too white.
There is something truly unique and beautiful about a Tri-x neg that is sharp and grainy, that is then bleached. It creates a unique look that is quite persuasive and powerful, something I have not seen in digi photography. You got to love it!
"Ain't Photography Grand!"
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| 6 Prints awaiting final wash |
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| 6 Prints receiving final wash |
