This is where the rubber meets the road!

Evaluating the print is perhaps the most important step next to actually making the photograph in the first place! Let’s face it, you have done a lot, spent a lot of time and, frankly a lot of money to get this far, and you are so, so, close. Now is your chance not to blow the whole damn thing.

Study the results of all your hard work. How? As I’ve discussed before, I place my prints on a strip of wood attached to the wall in my workroom and look at them long and hard under the same lighting I use in my darkroom to examine prints. Why look at them long and hard? If all is well then GREAT! But it’s quite possible they may not deserve to be seen … in their present form … or at all!

Now read that last sentence again, because it can be a difficult thing to accept.

I have written about this several times over the years, but it’s worth mentioning a few things I’ve said before.

The wooden strip is wonderful tool that can help you determine whether the print you made was a statement of what you saw in your minds eye and deserving, or whether it needs more work or isn’t very good after all. If the print does not capture what you meant to say or is disappointing for some technical or other aesthetic reason, that’s what the garbage can is for!  On this, John Sexton said, “I find the single most valuable tool in the darkroom is my trash can – that’s where most of my prints end up.”

Ansel Adams said, “Twelve significant photographs in any one year is a good crop.”  Think about that for a moment.  He made thousands of images most of us would die for, yet very few made the cut.  I’m not Adams so I have to be pretty ruthless … and so do you.

Paper and chemicals are expensive and your time is valuable.  A box of one hundred 8X10 sheets of Ilford Warmtone Variable Contrast paper alone is currently going for $160!  Think about how much you have spent just to get to this point. But settling for an also ran after spending so much money and time is the worst thing of all! It’s also costly to the long-term growth of your work .

So what to do? Take a deep breath and toss it; then think about My Step 17!

I promise it will be all right.

Stay safe,

Michael