MorseBlog

Another print from this series that emphasizes negative space using film negatives created from a digital image.  I made a series of images on the same foggy morning on Lake Pend Oreille in Idaho. There was some ice on the lake and a shifting fog obscuring and revealing the far shore.  I find foggy images exceedingly difficult to print and there can be many interpretations of an image as a result. ( Here is an example of one such exploration of the range of a print's possibilities.) The difficulty stems from the lack of ability to manipulate the contrast using multi-grade paper. There is a limited contrast range achievable even from the highest contrast filter. The negative itself has a very compressed range of tone due to the subject matter. (This is perhaps where digital can excel however the limited range is inherent in the image and even digital can create visible quantization effects unless one is careful in post processing. ) There are other techniques to improve the con...

This print I call 4+1 I made last year in Holme Fen. It has stuck with me as a nice image and I have included it in my Three Wood Lands photobook . The first time I printed it I took a test print and hand colored it . It looked alright but I cropped out the flaws in photoshop so it needed to be done again at some point.  4+1 Blog Post Cover Image (Cold Tone) I had read somewhere that for hand coloring prints it is preferable to use a warm tone image. I set about combining the need to make a better hand colored version with an experiment with sepia toning and hand coloring. I made 4 different prints. Normally I make these prints for hand coloring a half or full stop lighter so the color has a chance to shine.  For all the images I used Ilford MG Art 300 paper as it has a cotton rag base and the texture is much like watercolor paper. This paper is my favorite for hand coloring with pencils as the rough texture takes the color easily. I developed them all with Moersch Eco 4812 wh...

As part of my project to make a story book , I have a vague idea of including at least one print from the black and white photos my brother took. He used a Hasselblad with two film backs so he captured black and white as well as color images.  Conceptually I thought perhaps a hand colored print would be way of doing this. My grandmother often hand tinted photos my grandfather took and I have experimented at different times both oil tints and colored pencils . Pencils offer more control and are less messy. After my first attempt with a simple cheap pencil set I bought a larger set. Some research showed these were good so I bought the set. I have starting printing on Ilford MG ART 300 paper which is 100 percent cotton rag paper like water color paper. It is expensive but I usually like the results. For hand coloring with pencils it has a great advantage of having some real 'tooth' where even FB matte paper has some difficulty getting the pencils to transfer color. I chos...

After my previous post I saw the chance to try something I had read about when researching MG ART 300 paper from Ilford. I had found one person in a discussion whose wife found the paper ideal for hand coloring with colored pencils. The paper has a strong texture or tooth. Previously when I have tried hand coloring with pencils I had found normal photographic paper resistant to taking much color. Gloss paper... forget it. Matte or Pearl is a bit better but still difficult. I was left to using oil-based tints which worked with some success. They are messy and I struggle with getting color into small areas using a cotton swab/bud. Here is an example I did a few years ago . Earlier hand colored print in oils. (link to blog post above) This time I took the lighter of the two prints I made on Ilford MG ART 300 paper reference in the earlier blog post . I used cheap colored pencils I got from a stationary store. The paper delivered on the ability to get the color onto the paper consi...

Its been some time since I have done some FB prints in 12x16" size. I like bigger print sizes but with FB there is always the drying and flattening problem. I wrote an article about a solution for 8x10" prints which I use regularly and like the results. I scaled this up not too long ago for 12x16" and my initial trial resulted in some damage to the paper in the corner. This mimicked a comment made by a reader when he had tried to scale up a similar solution. Though the damage and distortion was limited it did discourage me. I let the problem roll around in my head until I decided to do more prints. I had an unopened box of Ilford MGIV FB Classic and I wanted to try it. I decided I could reduce the paper tension by clamping the edges with less force. This worked flawlessly. Flat prints with no damage. I will give a complete report in a later post. For this I chose some photos my brother took while we were on a backpacking trip in the Maze district in Canyonlands in Ut...