Re-printing Older Work: Arches Dead Cedar

It turns out that once you print your work in the darkroom and decide you have the perfect or at least the best print you can achieve it is not over. Ansel Adams reprinted much of  his work even after a print became famous. I suppose he saw something in the subject that revealed itself later.

So it is with me. I periodically reprint past work. Mostly because my technique has improved and my taste in what I print changes. In some cases in the past I have printed much too dark to hang on the walls. This I have learned is because my lights in the darkroom are really too bright and not representative of typical lighting in the house when hung from a wall.

With respect to changing taste it is also interesting to explore a subject with both exposure and contrast. I have also taken more control of my prints and am more methodical and patient.

Arches Dead Cedar

Back in 2013 my wife and I holidayed in the Colorado and Utah not far from where I grew up. Southern Utah is a favorite place and I wanted to show her the unique landscape there. While out on a hike in Arches National Park I took along my Mamiya C220 with a 65mm lens. (since sold as I have a Rolleiflex 2.8f and the C220 was a beast to carry.) I had loaded some Ilford FP4+ film and took essentially some snap-shots on  he hike. It was a long and hot hike in July.

Because we were camping I was concerned (probably overly so) about keeping my film cool. I kept it in Ziplock bags in the cooler. Unfortunately some water leaked in and nearly ruined all my photos. On this roll there was one one decent shot I salvaged. It was of a dead gnarled cedar tree quite common in the inter-mountain west.

When I developed and scanned it I liked it immediately and printed a version that hangs in my bathroom. I liked the patterns of the wood and the range of tone expressed in the pattern and patina in the sandstone wall behind and the various textures of the surrounding vegetation. The form of the tree has a kind of dynamic structure I try and bring out with the composition. Originally I printed it at very high contrast on VC RC paper. Below is a photo of the framed print.

Original Print

I set about reprinting from scratch. I decided on an new composition printing it to 12x16" again. I also would follow my newer print methodology. I started this printing session on Ilford MGFB glossy paper. I started with a simple test strip on the #0 filter to set the base exposure. This got me to 2x ND (neutral density filter) at f11. I started out at 22 seconds but moved quickly a half stop to 32 seconds for the base low contrast exposure. I ran a full sheet of paper at 32 seconds and ran the hard #5 filter as a test from bottom to top 8-64 seconds in half stop intervals.

This allowed we to settle on #5 at 45 seconds. I was aiming for lighter and lower contrast than the original print. During development I noticed the highlight tones were not coming up so I opted for a full 3 minute development. I use Moersch ECO 4812 developer at a 1+9 strength. If I let it develop for two minutes there is a slight increase in contrast as the highlights are left slightly undeveloped. Normally this is Ok for me but this image has rich range of tones and I did not want to cheat the image of its ability to express this range.

This left me with a basic image and good local exposure and contrast. I next made a flash test print and this indicated I could use 1 second of flash to the paper.

Next I saw I needed to burn in the sand in the lower left and part of the upper left. I made this little diagram to show the areas. I guessed +1/2 stop intervals with two for the upper leftmost corner. Half stop in this case is half of 32 seconds or 16 seconds.

I burned these areas and got my first print. (Beware these are not proper scans but photos I took with my phone.)

  Here is the actual burn plan. Since I judged stops that means a darker print follows easily.

Burn Plan

So I made a print 1/2 stop darker.

• #5 45"
• #0 45"
• 1 seconds flash
• Burn plan as above but timings are 1/2 stop so 22 seconds for each half stop. 

The darker print.

Darker by 1/2 stop

Good success and not a lot of paper used up! So I wanted to explore more contrast. This I boldly decided would be #5 filter only.

 I ran a #5 test strip but need to get to 128 seconds to get a decent exposure. The hard filter has a steep curve so small increments in exposure can make a big difference. 128 seconds is ridiculously long so I removed the 2x ND filters and dropped the exposure to 32 seconds (2 stops lower). I got a good high contrast print. No flashing or burning. Very similar to the original.

High Contrast Version

I then ran another print 1/4 stop lower exposure at 28 seconds. It would need burning to be any good. The top left is washed out which is what the earlier burn plan remedies.

High contrast with 1/4 stop lower exposure

  Finally I was satisfied enough to want to try some Ilford MG ART 300 paper. I have been experimenting with this paper lately and like it for many subjects. It is highly textured being 100% rag cotton paper similar to watercolor paper. It is variable contrast but the emulsion in my experience is slightly warmer.

I ran a quick #0 filter test strip with no neutral density (ND) filters and determined if I added one ND filter I could get the same timings as the MGFB Classic paper. (This would indicate the paper is one stop slower.) I then guessed the #5 filter would be the same and used the same exposures as before now.

• #5 45"
• #0 32"
• 1 second flash
• Burn according to earlier plan. 

Wow I really nailed it.

MG ART 300 Print

I then did the 1/2 stop darker version.

MG ART 300 Print 1/2 stop darker than previous

Of the prints the MG ART 300 ones are the nicest. They seem to have a better range of tones and the texture of the paper complements the complex textures and tonal ranges of the image.