Tuesday, March 30, 2004
I recently bought a new lens for my enlarger, a Rodenstock 80mm. I'm hoping it will help me get a little more detail out of my negatives, I feel they'are lacking something.
I've been making my contact sheets of my 2 1/4 negatives on Kodak AZO silver chloride paper. For those not in the know, this is the best photo paper made, and of course it's just barely being made by Kodak.
Anyway, I endlessly pore over my contact sheets to see if there is some gem I'm missing. Of course, this is a necessity, but for me this is somewhat dangerous. The more I look at them, the more I'm falling back in love with contact printing on AZO paper--meaning getting a large format camera! Well, I'm holding off--I'm trying to be strong. I really hope that the new enlarger lens will give me the prints I want and that I see in the contact prints.
That is precisely the problem--*what I see in the contact sheet*, while it is small, it looks great. I suppose what I should be doing is making my contact sheet on crappy RC paper instead of AZO. AZO paper has such a beautiful long tonal range. It's very rich paper.
I hope I get over this, because I really like shooting medium format. There's good detail, and the camera's are simple (at least mine) with excellent lenses, and I love being able to shoot the shots I want and knowing it's not costing a lot. And I'm now printing on multi-grade paper with its half steps in grades 0 to 5. AZO only comes in grade 2 and 3.
I've thought if I really feel I must get a view camera to quench my AZO thirst, I'll just get a 4x5. 4x5 sized prints on AZO are very nice. Well, we'll see...
I've been making my contact sheets of my 2 1/4 negatives on Kodak AZO silver chloride paper. For those not in the know, this is the best photo paper made, and of course it's just barely being made by Kodak.
Anyway, I endlessly pore over my contact sheets to see if there is some gem I'm missing. Of course, this is a necessity, but for me this is somewhat dangerous. The more I look at them, the more I'm falling back in love with contact printing on AZO paper--meaning getting a large format camera! Well, I'm holding off--I'm trying to be strong. I really hope that the new enlarger lens will give me the prints I want and that I see in the contact prints.
That is precisely the problem--*what I see in the contact sheet*, while it is small, it looks great. I suppose what I should be doing is making my contact sheet on crappy RC paper instead of AZO. AZO paper has such a beautiful long tonal range. It's very rich paper.
I hope I get over this, because I really like shooting medium format. There's good detail, and the camera's are simple (at least mine) with excellent lenses, and I love being able to shoot the shots I want and knowing it's not costing a lot. And I'm now printing on multi-grade paper with its half steps in grades 0 to 5. AZO only comes in grade 2 and 3.
I've thought if I really feel I must get a view camera to quench my AZO thirst, I'll just get a 4x5. 4x5 sized prints on AZO are very nice. Well, we'll see...
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