I’m not trying to be lazy, but again here’s some really great stuff I wrote a while ago and slightly edited!

I hope most of you make proof sheets, but for those that don’t, it’s time to hop on the bandwagon! First of all, the most important reason to make proof sheets is to catalog your negatives and know what you actually have. Duh!  If you don’t have proof sheets you are setting yourself up for a lot of wasted time. Forget about making printing decisions based on viewing your negatives on a light table, or worse by holding them up to the light.  Of course that is if you can find what you’re looking for!  And if your negatives are properly developed they’re all going to look good.  So what you need is more information!

I have a simple filing system that works for me, and you might find it works for you. I have all my negatives contained in clear archival Print File Negative Preserver Pages that are stored in three ring archival closed box binders to keep any dust out.  Separate binders for each film size.  Each page is numbered and has the same numeral as its matching proof sheet contained in a separate but corresponding loose-leaf binder. With each proof sheet are print recipes and other notes for each image printed from the particular roll of film or set of large format negatives. Now that is simple and sure makes things easier to find!

Wanna turbocharge your filing system to locate that elusive negative? Make a Microsoft Word table or if you have more computer skills than me create a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. For each negative size (e.g., 35mm, 120, 4×5, etc.) that you have books for, create a simple table consisting of three columns – (1) Roll/sheet page number; Proof Sheet Title; and Year Made. You can decide how you wish to sort the columns – by year, alphabetically, etc. It’s up to you!  Then you add the information taken from your numbered and titled proof sheet pages.  Ok it’s a little bit of typing but once finished you will have a completely searchable database (using the “find” function) and you will always be able to locate that one negative you can’t seem to find!

What else is the proof sheet good for? Well several things. After knowing what you have, the next important thing to determine is what you actually want to print!  By carefully studying my proof sheet, I first decide if it contains anything worth printing.  If I think it does I take my marking pen and draw a rectangle around the image(s).  That’s a time saver too because I usually print images sometime after the proof sheets have been made. Why have to go back and do the same thing all over again?  Another thing the proof sheet tells you is whether your negative exposure/development was good or not. Depending on how bad things look, you may not want to try to print that negative (truth be told … I have made many successful prints where the proof indicted exposure issues … thank you Tri-X!).

Finally, as mentioned above, there is the matter of cropping and image size consideration.  Looking at the proof sheet really helps me here and saves me a lot of time later when I’m in the darkroom.  I think the worst thing you can do is try to make cropping decisions based on what you see projected onto your easel. Less so with image size decisions, but the proof sheet does help me to get a good idea of what I want to do here.  So in addition drawing a rectangle around any pictures I want to print, I mark any cropping to be done.  Now when it is time to print I know exactly what I am going to do and get right down to the task of making a successful image!

The above having been said, the best proof is a “proper proof”.  This is a concept developed by Fred Picker and I think it makes great sense. Making a “proper proof” sheet is the quick and easy way tell you whether your exposure and/or development are on target. Fred formalized the proper proof concept and described it in an easily understood and useable manner. He states the rationale for making a proper proof and how to do it so well that I would be foolish not to quote him verbatim.  The following can be found in the Zone VI Workshop on pages 38-39:

“A properly made proof sheet is an invaluable printing aid as it contains all the information about the negative with respect to exposure, contrast, and composition. I never attempt to print a negative until I have made a proper proof. In addition to filing and selection information, a rigid proofing procedure can be a constant check on meters and camera shutters and any manufacturing changes affecting film speed or contrast characteristics.

Test for Proper Proof Exposure

 Put any negative in the enlarger, set up for about an 11×14 print and focus. Mark the enlarger column with tape or magic marker and a corresponding spot on the movable head so that you can find this exact elevation in the future. Remove the negative and replace the empty negative carrier. Position the proofer (contact printing frame) in the center of the light cast on the countertop or easel.  Stop down the lens to f/8. Turn the enlarger off and set the timer for three seconds. Lights out except safe lights. Place a sheet of your normal enlarging (not contact) paper face (shiny) side up on the open proofer. Use your regular enlarging paper #2 grade or if variable contrast paper – not filter. Now lay the strip of (but developed and fixed) film dull side (emulsion side) down on the paper. Use the blank film from the development time test. Marks Note: This is from the development time test Picker discusses elsewhere in his book and I address in my Step 1.

 Close the glass over all and give a 3 second exposure.  Cover the right hand end of the film (about an inch) by laying a cardboard on the glass and give another 3 second exposure. Continue moving the card one inch to the left between exposures until you reach the end of the film.

Remove the paper and agitate it constantly for 2 minutes in your print developer (I like Dektol diluted 1:2 as directed). Agitate in stop bath (1-1/2 oz. of 28% acetic acid per quart – a 50% stronger solution than for film) for 20 or 30 seconds and turn on the room lights. You will see gradations from light gray to jet black in one inch stripes across the film. Locate the stripe that is the first one to match the next one in blackness.  As in the film development test, we want the minimum exposure that will produce the maximum black through the clear film. Identify the first completely black stripe – not the very dark gray one next to it. This will vary with the brand of paper, enlarger, illumination, lens opening, etc.  If the time is under 9 seconds, retest, closing one stop to refine the result.  If over 24 seconds, open one stop and retest. Fix, wash, and dry and then located the first maximum black stripe.

Write down all the information on the chart in this book. In my case I have a notebook of information that this is contained in.

Other films or other sizes of the same film will require different proofing times due to varying base densities. Test them all. Write them down on separate charts.

This is now a standard for this film and all future proofs are made exactly the same.

To make an actual proof, substitute negatives for the clear film used for the test and give the negatives the exposure you have written on the chart.

The proper proof will tell you all about your negatives. I know a professional whose proof all show the film edge as gray.  He has been underexposing his negatives – for years.”

******

So there you have it. Some very good reasons to make … and use proper proof sheets and how to file them!  The more you standardize and simplify the better off you are. Save the creative juices for what counts! If you’re not doing both of these things then you need to get crackin!  Trust me on this!

Stay well,

Michael

Two weekends ago I drove up to Asbury Park again to photograph the annual Zombie Walk. I had high hopes for the zombies, but there seemed to be a lot less of them this time around, and for the most part they were pretty tame looking. They clearly need to up their game!

Anyway, I made a few pictures. But now what? Start looking elsewhere to see what’s available. In other words Plan B … the non-zombie bystanders!

I ended making fifteen exposures with my Plaubel Makina. Talked to a few in the crowd and spent a lovely afternoon on the boardwalk overlooking a ocean. Then capped off the day by driving home with the top down!

Sometimes you need to need to find a way(s) to turn lemons into lemonade. Maybe even get some unexpected keepers.

All and all a very nice outing.

Stay well,

Michael

This weekend was gorgeous, as fall took a break and summer reappeared. On Saturday I was at the Jersey Shore to attend and photograph the annual Asbury Park Zombie Walk. On Sunday, I drove along the shore of the Delaware River with the top down to Erwinna Pennsylvania in Bucks County to see an exhibit of Paula Chamlee’s photographs, abstract drawings, paintings, and collages at the beautiful Stover Mill Art Gallery.

I’ve known Paula for about fifteen years and am very familiar with her beautiful and thoughtful large format black and white photographs. Not so much with her other artwork. This was a chance rectify that!

I’m going to cut to the chase … Paula is an incredibly gifted artist who can do it all (she’s also a terrific teacher)! The small but stunning show was a tribute to quality over quantity, shown in a beautiful setting overlooking the river below.

Included in the show where 8×10 black and white contact prints and large platinum/palladium prints on handmade Japanese tissue of striking images made in Iceland; beautiful color prints of flowers; imaginative collages composed of painted and printed papers, sumi ink, photographs and watercolor; sumi ink abstracts and a wonderful collage made up of an antique tintype photograph on pigment papers, lace and flower pigment.

A visual feast for sure and highly recommended!

You can treat yourself to this wonderful show on October 11-12, 18-19, and 25-26 at the Stover Mill Art Gallery, located on 852 River Road (Route 32), Erwinna PA.

Stay well,

Michael

Last time I discussed the importance of establishing your correct film speed and development time. It’s necessary whether you use the Zone System or not. I also mentioned Maximum Printable Density (MPD). I love MPD along with another deceptively simple approach to making good exposures and have used both techniques as an easy to use replacement to the classic Zone System.

As before, the following is taken from a previous entry.

When I was younger, my exposures were often incorrect. The results were not what I wanted, or the negatives required herculean measures to extract a good print. I heard about the Zone System and then read Ansel Adam’s book The Negative.  I couldn’t get it but mercifully found Fred Picker’s Zone System Workshop. Everything soon fell into place and all was well in my photographic world.  If you don’t own this book, it’s worth tracking down.

Key point going forward – if you don’t make correct exposures when you are in the field you have wasted your time with all your testing. The first thing on the road to exposure success is to understand that your meter is dumb and sees the world in grey – 18% grey to be exact.  That’s Zone V in the Zone System.  In the Zone VI Workshop Picker uses the example of making pictures of white and black horses using the recommended meter readings for each one.  Looking at the results, both horses are grey.  Once I saw this it all clicked.  Simple and brilliant!  The point is that aiming at your subject and relying on what your meter says may get you acceptable results but not the fidelity you are seeking in your final print.

Most Zone System guys will tell you to expose for the shadows, placing your shadow area on Zone III.  In a slight variant Bruce Barnbaum recommends placing shadows at Zone IV for greater shadow detail. 

An alternative and easy method is to hold a grey card (Zone V) in front of you, take a meter reading of it and set you shutter speed and aperture accordingly. Everything in the scene will fall into place.

My method is to do one of two things. When I am in a fast moving situation such as when making candid photographs, I take a reading of the palm of my hand, making sure there are no shadows falling upon it and open up one stop to Zone VI from what the meter says (Zone V), because Caucasian skin is Zone VI.  Then I keep making pictures without checking the light until it changes. Fast and easy and no need to carry a grey card! If I am photographing a static object like a building and there happens to be white clouds in the sky behind it, I take a reading of the brightest portion of the scene (in this case, the clouds), open up three stops to Zone VIII and make the photograph. Also fast and easy, and the heart of Fred Picker’s Maximum Printable Density (MPD) user-friendly variation of the Zone System. Note for all serious Zone System photographers: I only use Normal development times and don’t worry about making exposures for Plus and Minus development. I agree with Picker that changes in paper contrasts obviate this, but for others this may be a useful procedure.

Once you have done your film speed and development time testing, and feel confident in your ability to make good exposures you are on your way. Depending on the situation, a  simple reading of the palm of your hand/grey card or use of Picker’s MPD system takes much less time and thought, allowing you to concentrate more on the picture itself. It certainly works that way for me!

Unfortunately, many photographers treat the Zone System as a religion that takes serious and ongoing study to unlock its many mysteries. There have been weeklong workshops focused exclusively on the intricacies of the Zone System and for many becomes akin to cult worship.  The point of the Zone System is to make sense of sensitometry and apply it in order to make properly exposed negatives that developed correctly enable expressive prints. Nothing more; nothing less! The key is to find an easy and understandable way to incorporate its principles in support of your work.

Now that we have got all this out of the way, go out and make some damn good pictures!

Stay well,

Michael

This is really important if you want good quality negatives, but I think the concept scares a lot of people. Why? Fear of testing. I wrote about this a couple of times years back. Nothing really has changed so here’s what I said with some minor editing.

Truth be told, I don’t enjoy testing at all and I’m not a prolific tester.  But it’s essential to establish the proper film speed for each of the films you use and the correct development times for those films with your developer(s) of choice.  Thankfully, there are a number of ways to get the results you need. Testing doesn’t need to be intimidating and can be as simple as cutting your film speed in half of the manufacturer’s stated box speed and cutting the manufacturer’s development time by 20%; then making adjustments as you go along. But make no mistake; these tests form the basis of a solid black and white analog photographic process.  Without conducting them you stand little chance of making what John Sexton calls an “expressive print”.

Note for all the Zone System photographers: I only use Normal development times; I don’t use Minus and Plus development times.  I also use a variant of the Zone System called Maximum Printable Density (MPD) that Fred Picker developed.

I have grouped determining your proper film speed and development time together here because they form the foundation for producing a good negative that will enable you to make a decent print without having to resort to heroic measures … assuming your exposure is close to the mark.

Much has been written about these two steps, especially by Zone System practitioners. And they’re right in doing so, because establishing the proper film speed for your film of choice and the correct development time for it with your developer of choice is essential. The key however, in my opinion, is not to go crazy over this!

There are a number of ways to get the results you need. For example, many film speed tests incorporate the use of a densitometer to locate the negative that produces a minimum printable density of a Zone I exposure, which is equal to a density of .08 – .10 above “film base and fog”. That negative is the one having the proper film speed; using that film speed will ensure that your shadows are nice and luminous. Once you have established your personal film speed you can then determine what development time will enable a Zone VIII metered placement you make in the field to produce a Zone VIII print value in the darkroom. Too much development time will blow out your highlights, not enough and they will be too dark. These are the methods I used to establish my film speed and development times years ago and I still use their results. But testing needn’t be intimidating and as indicated earlier can be as simple as cutting your film speed in half of the manufacturer’s stated box speed and cutting the manufacturer’s development time by 20%; then making adjustments as you go along by examining your proof sheets.

Of the two steps, film speed testing has historically been given the greatest amount of ink.  And both often get discussed in the context of the Zone System.  I think this is where the confusion and over-complexity comes in to play. It turns off a lot of people, leading them accept whatever Kodak, Ilford and other film manufacturers say. Mistake! But it doesn’t have to be that way. The Zone System is merely a method that takes into account the basic principles of sensitometry and allows you to incorporate them into your photography.

The standard text for all of this is of course Ansel Adams’s The Negative, but after multiple readings I just couldn’t get it. Then I stumbled onto Fred Picker’s little book called The Zone VI Workshop.  All of a sudden everything became clear!  Film speed and development time testing now made sense, not to mention the Zone System itself! You can buy this monumental yet tiny book for a song and read the whole thing in less than an hour. I highly recommend it!  J.B. Harlan has written a wonderful set of work books focusing on the art and craft of large format black and white film photography, with one in particular called The Film Exposure Work Book. It contains a number of chapters that tell you how to conduct film speed and development time tests, building on Picker’s original work and the Maximum Printable Density (MPD) concept he developed to completely simplify and demystify the Zone System (more on this to come!). I own J.B.’s entire series and have had the pleasure to meet him and his wife Susan. They are both outstanding photographers and wonderfully helpful people!  Picker’s explanation of MPD and related matters can be found in his Newsletters #46, #47 and #48.  Note: Complete sets Fred Picker’s newsletters come up from time to time on eBay and are worth getting!!! I have read all 82 newsletters many times and always seem to learn something or gain some new insight with each reading.

I am not going to go over the details on how to conduct these tests beyond what I have said above. My recommendation is to get both the Picker and Harlan books and be done with it (there are also countless discussions about how to do this on the Internet that you can find). Otherwise just start by cutting your film speed in half of the manufacturer’s stated box speed and cutting the manufacturer’s development time by 20%. Then make adjustments as necessary as you go along. Even the great photographer and printer Bruce Barnbaum discusses this approach in his fine book The Art of Photography.

All of this having been said, a great many photographers, especially those that are street shooters use manufacturer’s box speeds or higher and stated development times for a grittier and/or more contrasty look and feel. Think Ralph Gibson for example. It really is all about what you want.

Bottom line – establish your foundation and don’t look back!

Stay well,

Michael

Last time I talked about the importance of making the shot, and before that discussed my new “keep-in-the-car” camera. Okay, last Monday I was driving through a part of Philly I had never been to before care of my GPS, and all of a sudden I saw this fascinating mural on the side of a small commercial building. But for all my talk I forgot to put my camera back in the car after I got it back from the shop.

$#$%^&*()!!@@

Frustrated, I continued on my way, but the image of that mural stuck in my mind and bothered me all week. I wasn’t sure I remembered its location or what the names of crossing streets nearby were. But after about 30 minutes searching the net and Google Maps I actually found a picture of the building and its address!! So on Friday I went back!

That’s right baby. I loaded a roll of Tri-X into my Plaubel Makina , put it into the car and drove back!  Even got a great parking space not far away from the location! Why? Because the picture was important to me. Yes, it was almost an hour’s drive each way, but who cares if it really matters!! As it turns out I got a little lucky as there was only one car parked in front, at the edge of the scene.

Not giving up always pays off, even if the picture doesn’t turn out to be all you hoped it would be. At a minimum you always learn something, which in itself can be incredibly important!

What if I didn’t go back. Maybe I would have decided to do it next month, or next year, or some other time and the damn thing has been painted over, or the building got torn down? I remember a story Fred Picker told in a newsletter about driving by an incredible barn. He either didn’t have his camera or for some other reason didn’t make a picture. So he came back a day or two later and it had blown down or something by a storm.

Moral of the story … if the picture is important to you go back as soon as you can and get it! I’m glad I did. Even if it turns out not to be a keeper I know I gave myself a chance and I feel a lot better for it!

Stay well,

Michael

Turns out I had to skip photographing two happenings I really wanted to go to, and as often the case it got me thinking.  Why and how do I decide I’m interested in photographing certain types of subject matter or go to certain types of places/events to photograph?  I know I’ve mentioned the importance of the “journey” a number of times here. Ok, I know … enough already. But for me it’s true … there is so much more for me than just going out and making the photograph. It’s the entire experience … the journey itself.  Even if I don’t get any keepers when I’m out there, or don’t even make a single exposure. I really love that whole experience.

So I felt bad about missing these two annual events.  It bothered me, because I’ve had success at both, coming home with some wonderful photographs. But as you can guess, there’s more to it than that. I really enjoyed hanging out at these places, talking to the people and having fun just being there, even though some I met are as different from me than anything I can think of. And that’s what’s so great!

In many ways that’s what drives me to make pictures and often steers me where to go. Usually I have no idea what the outcome will be other than the fun I’ll have, and the things I’ll learn. Then there are the times where there is someplace I want to go based on something I heard, research I’ve done, or because it makes sense as part of a project. Here’s an example … I read about this weird cemetery in the middle of the woods somewhere in Jersey. I love photographing in cemeteries, and just walking around in them.  I’m sorry if you find this a little creepy, but I find it peaceful and meditative. In any case, it will be a good adventure for me whatever the photographic outcome!

Then there are the projects. They all have specific parameters I’ve established, places I need to go and times of the year I need to be there. Some of these projects are short term, but many have lasted years and are still going on!

Thinking about this made me realize that there’s a bunch of reasons why I photograph, often with the photographic outcome being the least important one of all.

Alright, so I missed these two opportunities. They’ll be back again. That’s what my wife told me. And you know what? She’s right. Yah, maybe not be the exact same experiences and outcomes, but experiences and outcomes no matter what.

So while I feel bad when I can’t do something I wanted to do, I don’t stress about it. I know there will be plenty more opportunities. Why? Because I know why I want to photograph, when I want to do it, and where I want to go to get it done. That works for me.

How about you? Why do you photograph? Think about it. You might just get a whole new creative outlook on things!

Stay well,

Michael