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Sow's ear syndrome |
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What gives black and white photographs their quality? Barry, can you let me have a really nice colour picture?', he asked. 'But David, you know I'm a monochrome photographer', I said. 'Yes I know, but we are colour printers, and we have to advertise that fact', he said. 'But you are printing our calendar in four colours, aren't you David?' 'We are, but it's from twelve of your monochrome pictures, and potential customers just aren't going to buy colour printing on the strength of that. I want to do a limited edition print run of 250 from an original colour print signed by the artist as a promotional gift this Christmas to important prospects. If you can't do it, I'll just have to get someone who can. It's not going to be worth our while to do the joint venture on the calendar without this'. 'Hell!', I thought, 'he's got me. I am not going to find another printer at this stage prepared to give me half of his run of calendars from twelve of my prints printed with my name instead of his on the front. And I'm committed to customer's orders with it now'. So that's how I came to print the toned monstrosity. I'd got my arm up my back. If I wanted my calendars, I'd have to swallow my aversion. I looked for a suitable neg. and found the one I'd made on XP2 of traditional corn stooks in West Somerset. 'This can be made to look like a chocolate box picture', I thought. The first thing to do was to diffuse it. 'Can't have it looking as though I took it through a sharp Zeiss lens that I saved up for ages to buy', I thought. Black nylon net held two inches below the enlarger lens saw to that as I printed on to Multigrade III Matt finish. The next thing was to thiocarbamide sepia tone it indirectly all over. I applied some of Paterson's sepia tone modifying solution to give a cooler brown tone by brush in dilute form to the more distant parts to give a feeling of recession. After washing the print, I then masked the roof of the small house in the centre and applied gold toner to it repeatedly until it turned the sepia tone already there really red. Peeling off the mask, I then dipped just the top of the print up and down in a dish of gold toner to put less vivid red tints into the sky area. Another wash followed. Now it was the turn of the hedgerows, I carefully applied green toner to these with a fine brush. Yet another wash. Then using a broad water colour wash brush, I swabbed very dilute green acrylic paint over the pre-wetted area of the hills - just enough to give it a tint. When the print was dry, I stood back to look at it. 'Wow. Hideous', I thought to myself. 'Wow. What an impressive picture', said David. 'Just the sort of thing we want'. I smiled sickly, and tried to sound pleased. A couple of weeks later the phone went. David again. 'The prints are done. Can you come over and sign them?' 'Are my batch of the calendars done?' 'I'll arrange that they are immediately after you have done the signatures.' 'So, no sliding out of it then', I thought inwardly as I actually said, 'right I'll be over on Wednesday then'. I walked into David's office, and there the prints were piled on the table with a pen next to them. 'David! What's this at the bottom of the print?' 'What's what at the bottom of the print?', he said, face all innocent. 'This title', I said. 'I didn't give it a title'. 'Ah, that', he said nonchalantly, ' I thought it would look better with one'. 'But David, for goodness sake 'Harvest Dusk'! Why didn't you ask me first? I never give titles like that. It's crass, and clichéd, like the worst thing you would see at a camera club'. 'I thought that up', he said colouring a little in the face, 'and I thought it sounded quite attractive'. Next Page >> |
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Seaweed, Pembrokeshire: Ilford Delta 100, DiXactol© two-bath developer, Ilford Multigrade FB paper, Neutol WA developer 1:14 @ 24C, selenium toned. Page 1 of 5 |
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