Printing Recent Holme Fen Images: Sept 2020
My last visit to Holme Fen left me with some good images I wanted to get printed in the darkroom. I face a number of choices around which paper to print on and what size or sizes to print. My current favorite paper Ilford MG Art 300 I am concerned may not do well with images that have lots of small detail or lots of complexity due to the texture of the cotton rag paper base. So I chose to print some images on Ilford MGFB Classic paper to confirm or deny my feeling on this.
I also printed the same image in different sizes or crops. This is driven by a number of factors. First I still like looking at bigger prints. However bigger prints mean bigger frames and more space on the wall. There is a limit to how many of these prints I can display.
Recently I have been making my own small simple frames ranging from 4x4, 8x8, 9.5x9.5, and 9.5x12 inches. These frames are more affordable (and fun to make) and I can fit a lot on a wall or bookcase. I have also made the frames so that I can replace the photo with a different photo with little effort. This gives me another range of target sizes. Many of these are square and so a different crop is required. I also have a photo album of my better work I am building over time. I need prints that fit well to this book format which is 420mm x 350mm (approx. 16.50" x 13.75"). Finally I have made note cards which I might do with some of these images. Slowly my print flow is emerging that I print the same image in different sizes and crops based upon different needs. As a result I have a simple technique that helps with this that I will outline in another post here.
The first print I did was the skinny birch trees. I printed this first on Ilford MGFB Classic on 12x16 inch paper first. The print was straightforward with no extra burning or dodging.
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| Skinny Birches (Ilford MGFB Classic 12"x16") |
Next was the gnarled birch image. Again I started by printing this on Ilford MGFB Classic paper again at 12x16 inches. It required a 1 stop burn on the ground in the foreground and a 1/2 stop burn in the upper left corner to even up the tone there. Again I was really happy with this print.
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| Gnarled Birch (MGFB Classic 12x16") |
I printed it again on Ilford MG Art300 paper and found the print as compelling. My fear that the texture of the paper might interfere with the texture in the bark and small leaves in the canopy was not borne out.
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The scanned images above would indicate a significant difference in contrast with the MG Art 300 paper having less contrast. This is due to the way the paper scans however. The texture causes extra light to reflect on the scanner reducing the contrast. Side-by-side there is not as noticeable a difference.
The most significant difference is the whiteness of the whites. The MG Art 300 paper does not have any brighteners like the FB paper. So the white is the white of the cotton fibre and the transparency of the emulsion. We usually think of cotton as very white however one of the whitest substances we know of is barium sulfate or what is called baryta. Barium sulfate is considered so white (devoid of color cast or tint) that it is used metrology for color systems as a reference for white. When the cotton rag-based paper is placed next to the baryta paper suddenly it looks somewhat yellow and less bright. As a testament to how human vision works to achieve what we call white balance the further I move the Art 300 print away from the MGFB Classic print the more the color moves to a perception of pure white again.
The next print I made in the 12x16 size was the fern and moss print. Again I printed this in both papers and this print didn’t require any extra burning or dodging. In the end I don’t like this image as it is. There is too much moss that lacks visual interest. I made a square crop in an 8x8 format (again in both papers) the image is 5x5" giving a nice border. This works much nicer so is my preferred version of the print.
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| Moss and Fern (MGFB Classic 12x16") |
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| Moss and Fern Framed (MGFB Classic 8x8") |
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| Moss and Fern Square 5x5" image 8x8" paper (MG Art 300 unframed) |
This brings to a satisfying conclusion this series of prints. I have a few more I want to print as well as some from a previous trip. For me the final proof of a photo is how it looks and feels in my hands.
I have learned that the scale of an image can be important. For instance a lot of intimate landscape that has small subjects can benefit from being printed at near life size. This seems to make the image more immediate and accessible. I was reminded of this recently on a TV program about Audubon who made his famous prints of all the North American birds. He decided to illustrate them at 1:1 scale and so printed them on about 40”x20” paper.
Print Notes
Skinny Birches
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| Skinny Birches (Ilford MGFB Classic 12"x16") |
- Ilford MGFB Classic
- 11x15” on 12x16”
- 150W
- 0xND
- f16
- Ev 5.4
- #00 22 seconds
- #5 32 seconds
- #00 burn lower right corner 16 seconds
Gnarled Birch
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| Gnarled Birch |
- Ilford MGFB Classic
- 11x15” on 12x16”
- 150W
- 0xND
- f16
- Ev 5.4
- #00 27 seconds
- #5 11 seconds
- #00 burn ground 27 seconds
- #00 burn upper left corner 16 seconds
- Ilford MG Art 300
- 11x15” on 12x16”
- 150W
- 0xND
- f16
- Ev 5.4
- #00 54 seconds
- #5 11 seconds
- #00 burn ground 54 seconds
- #00 burn upper left corner 27 seconds
Moss and Fern
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| Moss and Fern |
- Ilford MGFB Classic
- 11x15” on 12x16”
- 150W
- 0xND
- f16
- Ev 5.3
- #00 32 seconds
- #5 11 seconds
- Ilford MG Art 300 variant
- F11
- All else as above
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