Stuck at PP Stage

[Brian Moore]

Thanks for the explanation and for re-working the image Pete. It does have a much different and sharper look to it. Funny what you say about not always knowing where you want to go with an image until you get to the darkroom stage. I used to be that way when I did woodturning--wouldn't know what shape the work was taking until the chisels staring talking to the wood. Perhaps if I did darkroom work, or even digital darkroom work, I'd feel the same.

I like what you've done here Pete. Did you add color into the mist?

 

[Pete Askew]

The colour comes from the cast introduce by the cross-process simulation. In this instance, E6 to C41 (L05).

 

[Larry Bolch]

The darkroom—whether digital or the traditional fume-room—was never intended to save you from incompetence, but rather to achieve your vision. The universe was not created to match photographic materials. In the darkroom, you adjust the photographic materials to match the universe. Henry Fox Talbot made the first negative/positive photograph in 1836. Every image after that date has been processed in one way or another. Interpretation of ones works is a fundamental skill of every photographer.

Ansel Adams said (in musical terms) "The exposure is the score, but the print is the performance." He did great camera work, but the darkroom was his Stradivarius. Time spent in achieving interpretive skills is time spent most profitably. Out-of-camera is not a virtue—it means you are leaving the interpretation to a firmware engineer in Japan, who has never seen what you are photographing. You are still shooting RAW, but leaving it up to the firmware in the camera to interpret. Even the most sophisticated cameras have very crude settings.

 

[adam hoskins]

this is my quick rendition of it for you