hello all what does everyone do when you stop "seeing" and go back to just "looking" at the world. i have been shooting for about 2 years. i have read alot, A ADAMS the camera, the negative, the print, scores of magazines and internet articals, but it seems as though my creativeity has been surpressed. i still see shots in my mind but i can't get the print that i want from a lab (without paying big bucks) and i don't have my own darkroom yet, and in my reading i have found out that the real magic of b/w is in the darkroom. it seems as though i have a good eye (been told that from some pros they said just to shoot more) but i think that i have goten discoureaged by not being able to control the printing. i will get me a darkroom soon but how do i resolve this creative conflict and has anyone else been through this or something like it. thanks rodney

-- rodney carver (carcon@spinnet.net), April 15, 2000

Answers

You do everything you can to get that darkroom! In the mean time, enroll at your local community college and use their darkroom. Not a great solution, but better than nothing. If you live in a major metropoliton area you might be able to find a rental darkroom. Still not great, but again, better than nothing. Unless you print it, it will not be completely "yours".

-- J.L. Kennedy (jlkennedy@qnet.com), April 16, 2000.

All very true. A darkroom is something every photographer should aspire to have. But if not possible and no Community College facilities available to you then the next best thing is to become very aquainted with the printer at your local lab. If they do hand enlarging I'm sure that you can get close to what you are after by just getting to know the printer on a more personal level. Most of these guys print for professional wedding and portrait photographers and these guys are in bussiness. They don't accept mediocre work so they get to know the printer so that they can get on the same wave length. If all you can afford are machine prints then you need to get yourself to a place that has darkroom facilities. But remember that the darkroom is only an aid to your image. The image itself is what is important. And the light needs to be right even for the pros to make great images. No darkroom tech can make a silk purse out of a crappily lit scene no matter how good they are. I'm pretty good and I have a hard time making good prints from bad lighting situations. If you want great prints they have to start with great potential and everything should be optimized all throughout the process. And get to know that printer. James

-- james (james_mickelson@hotmail.com), April 16, 2000.

The secret to getting great prints is to have it on the negative. Henri Carti-Bresson, unquestionably one of the giants of photography, never goes near a darkroom. If you have read all those Adams books, you have missed the concept of "visualization." See the picture in your mind's eye and on the ground glass, focussed and cropped, before you snap the shutter. Develop the negative (per the Zone system, or other) so that it can be printed easily, with minimum fuss. When you are able to do that, you may need your own darkroom.

-- Bill Mitchell (bmitch@home.com), April 16, 2000.

Bill

While it is true that HCB didn't care for darkroom work, it is probably also true that his shots were printed by experienced printers rather than the one-hour lab at the corner. And knowing (from an interview I read) how little HCB cared for the technicalities of shooting, I am pretty sure that a fair lot of his images needed some "fuss" at the printing stage, too.

As for Ansel Adams: Although it's apparently true that you can't print what's not in the negative, Adams always also stated that the negative is only the score, and the print is the performance. He did use a lot of "fuss" in the darkroom, too. So I don't think Rodney missed a point in AA's books, but maybe you did. (BTW: Rodney talkes just about that point of vusialisation.)

Now for Rodney: If you get a chance to get to a darkroom on a regular basis, take it. The equipment need not be so expensive (try ebay), and the gain in fun and quality of the prints is immense.

If the darkroom is impossible, a negative scanner and digital manipulation of your images might be another way to get what you want (although I have no experience there).

After reading a lot of stuff by the masters, I got discouraged, too, at times. Too much theory may spoil your uncompromised natural view of things. Yet, a certain amount of theory is needed to put the image seen by your inner eye on paper. I guess every photographer (except maybe a few natural talents) goes through this from time to time. There are several ways to deal with it, such as dropping photography for a while, starting something new and unknown (such as your own darkroom), "cross training" with colour instead of b&w, etc. You will certainly get over it.

-- Thomas Wollstein (thomas_wollstein@web.de), April 17, 2000.

Shoot something totally different. If you usually shoot nature, shoot nothing but candid people awhile. If you're a people shooter, shoot wildflowers in the wild awhile. Do something different. If that dosen't work, don't shoot anything awhile. Just put it in the closet for a couple of weeks. Just get out of the rut you're in. Works for me.

-- Joe Cole (jcole@apha.com), April 25, 2000.

I bought a FULL darkroom (safelight, easels, timer, enlarger, etc) used at a low price- keep in eye on the paper.... but also... if you can't afford or are uninterested in an actual class at a community college (which allows access to a darkroom) then call the college and ask if they need volunteers (to mix chemicals, clean up, etc). Not only then do you have access, but you also learn the steps to running your own darkroom. If you are having horrible success at a lab maybe you should consider holding onto your film until you can process them yourself- that's an important part too.

-- Erica Musser (artfisch@thedigitaltribe.com), April 29, 2000.

I don't know where you are, but our local library also has darkroom space available.

-- fred (fdeaton@hiwaay.net), April 29, 2000.

Rodney , relax, your hooked. After 30 years of "Seeing",then "looking", don't matter any more. For a month leave the hardware at the ranch. Go to your old haunt's , landscapes , street's , still's , don't matter. Sit , stare , wonder , it don't matter. You are the best photographer that ever lived. All you desire is to share your vision of what you "see" with the rest that cannot. Beleive me and more , the Darkroom will come.

-- Dan Kowalsky (dan0judy@bellsouth.net), May 21, 2000.