Printing Nature

Today I printed my nature photographs. I used my contact sheet to see which picture I thought would come out the best. I choose 3 negatives that I like an extra amount. 1. a hawk flying in a cloudy sky, 2. a mountain with a little cabin in the foreground, and 3. snagged trees against a cloudy sky. Before printing the pictures I had to make the developer and fixer that I agitate my prints in. For the developer its 3 ounces of straight developer diluted by 27 ounces of water. Then, for the fixer its 6 ounces of straight fixer diluted by 24 ounces of water. The developed and fixer are different from the developer and fixer used to develop my roll of film.
The steps to printing photographs:
1. Expose the special photo paper to light.
2. Put the paper into the developer and agitate for one minute.
3. Put the paper into the stop bath and agitate for 10 seconds.
4. Put the paper into the fixer and agitate for 30 seconds.
5. Put the paper into water and wash for 5 minutes.
6. Put the paper into a drying rack and wait for it to completely dry.
When exposing the special photo paper there are many different elements. They are, how long you let the light hit the paper, how open the aperture is because the more open the aperture the more light hits the paper, using a filter or not, dust or scratches on the negative, and the focus. The more light that hits the paper the darker the print will be. The aperture can open from a 2-11 range. 2 lets in the most light and 11 lets in the least. Filters can range from 1-5.5. The larger the number the more contrast is added to the print. to make sure there is no dust or scratches on the negative I blow it with high pressure air blower. Finally, making sure the picture is in focus so, it doesn't come out blurry.
For my “Hawk” picture I used a 3.5 filter to bring out the large contrast. I used a 4 aperture, and left the paper under the light for 18 seconds. There was dust on the negative and the print was too dark so, I had to use the compressed air blower to blow off the negative and changed the aperture to 5.6, but kept the time the same. With the changes the print came out very nicely. For my “Mountain with the Cabin” picture I used a 3.5 filter just to make sure the black and white tonal range really came out in the print. I used an 8 aperture, and left the paper under the light for 16 seconds. Unfortunately, the negative had dust on it, and the print was too contrasted with the tonal range so, that print did not come out well. I blew the negative with the compressed air blower, changed the filter to 1.5, opened the aperture to 5.6, and kept the time at 16 seconds. That print came out too dark. Next, I changed the aperture back to 8, kept the filter at 1.5 because the tonal range was good, and changed the time to 14 seconds. That print came out too light. Finally, I kept the filter, and the aperture the same but changed the time back to 16 seconds. That print came out perfect. For my “Snagged Trees” ” picture I used a 3.5 filter to bring out the large contrast. I used an 8 aperture, and left the paper under the light for 18 seconds. Then, I went through the developer, stop bath, fixer, and water steps to complete the printing process. I only had to do this once because my measurements with time, aperture, filter, and the absence of dust on the negative made the print great. Tomorrow I hope to move on to shooting my next theme: abstract objects.