The name of this post comes from a photo I described in my prior
post on Fuji G617 panoramas. I was really pleased how it came out and the way it conveyed the mood of the day. In some ways it could be seen as bleak but it also evokes a kind of uplift in spirit. For me it is a complicated image. So much so I wanted to see how to print it. In the previous post I toyed with the idea of a triptych.
Further thought and modeling of the print led me to a quadriptych (quad of course means 4 and typch is Greek for fold). The problem with 3 is the gaps between images correspond directly to the position of the sun and the farm which are the two most important visual elements. Dividing by 4 allows these to exist in whole on adjacent panels.
Printing and Scale
My next thoughts were on scale. I wanted something big to bring out the detail and I hope drama. Thinking through the dimensions of the image I came up with this. The image on the negative is about 165mm long by 55mm high. I have paper choices of 8x10, 11x14, 12x16, and 16x20. I settled on four 12x16 images in portrait mode. If I divide the image into four equal pieces I come to 41mm x 55mm or roughly a 4x5 aspect ration. This is the same as my 8x10 paper. This would have been a reasonable choice and give an overall image width of more than 32 inches. I however settled on 12x16 to give an overall image greater than 48 inches. There would be excess paper on the bottom as a 4x5 aspect ratio would give an image about 12x15 minus 1/4 inch borders.
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| Mockup of Planned Print |
Mounting and Framing
The next question for the project is framing and mounting. Estimating 51 inches by 19 inches this would be a very expensive conventional matte and frame. I have had
some success with less conventional frames that I have been happy enough to hang on my walls. I settled on building the frame myself and mount the prints on a large sheet of 1/4" MDF. I want it to be lightweight and planned to to add a thin wooden strip (6mm x 46mm 1/4" x 1.4") around the edge as part of the frame and to give the MDF rigidity. A very simple 'modern looking' frame.
For the photos I decided to trim the borders away completely and mount to 1/4" foam core board. I found given the darkness of the images that pure white borders distracted from the image. This also mitigated in favor of a darker background for the mount. So I decided on a flat black color, hoping the darkness wouldn't suck the soul out of the person viewing it!
Printing
Printing a quadriptych is a slightly different animal from a single print. Since the four photos need to appear as a single image the exposures must match. Otherwise when placed next to each other the differences will be readily apparent and destroy the unity of the image. Once that is understood it is apparent that complicated burning and dodging should be avoided. I would need a consistent system to apply across all four images. I chose Ilford MGFB Classic paper.
I started with the second image from the left. This image held the greatest highlights and most, but not all, of the dark tones. The rightmost two images have a deeper black that is the freshly plowed field. I would need to estimate from the dark tones in the image I start with to ensure room for those dark plowed field sections.
Next since I was using my 6cm x 6cm enlarger I needed to make sure I properly separate the one long image into the correct four non-overlapping adjacent images. I did this by measuring and marking the 41 mm intervals in the rebate of the negative. I had to be careful not to mark the image part of the negative. I could then see these marks on the edge of my easel blade. I also had to make sure each image was printed so the horizon lined up across all the images. I did this by measuring 3mm of image projected onto the easel blade in each image. This ensured the horizon was consistent across the four images.
I then went through a number of test exposures following the process outlined in my Evolution of a Print series
Part I and
Part II. This took me a lot of experiments and I burned through about 11 sheets of paper on the one reference image until I had something I was happy with. My 'formula' worked out to the following.
- f11 aperture
- #0 (soft filter) 16 seconds
- #5 (hard filter) 16 seconds
- 5 second post-flash (needed to bring out contrast in bright cloud sections.)
- #0 (soft filter) 19 seconds burn sky
- #5 (hard filter) 8 seconds burn sky
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| All of the test prints. |
Once this was dialed in then I repeated this exposure for the other three images. The plowed field section filled in nice and black and I was pleased with the result. I then archivally washed the prints and selenium toned them (1:19 dilution). The next steps were to flatten the dried prints using my method described
here.
Mounting
I mounted the trimmed prints using
3M PMA Positionable Mountable Adhesive on foam core board. I trimmed the boards carefully to match the print size after mounting them.
Framing
I cut and assembled the MDF and wood as described above. I used a number of small blocks of MDF to glue the wood strips of the frame to the MDF back to form the frame. I then painted the MDF and frame in flat black. I left about 1 1/2 inches around the entire image and spaced the images 1/2" apart so the images more easily form a single visual unit. I also attached the hooks to the back as shown below.
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| Example of MDF blocks used to glue frame to backing (back of frame) |
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| Mounting hooks attached with small plywood blocks glued to frame and back. |
Below is a photo I took of the finished article. I have not positioned and adhered the prints to the frame here but it gives a good sense of the final result. It is very effective in person. Despite being a rather gray and somber scene it beams with the light from the sun and the size (over 4 foot across) really emphasizes the scale of the subject. A very pleasing result.
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| Final Framed Result |
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