What average time you needed for make a final print?

[DimasShishkin]

What average time you needed for make a final print? I don't have professional equipment and for make final print I need average time around 2 or 3 hours (print only, excepting toning or drying). It's many or not?
What you algorithm of geting a final print?
When you have a negative. Then, do you make a contact print? Or just proof print only, and then final print? What you means of evaluating negative?

My sequence of activity not ordered. I am from Russia, and understanding yours sequence of activity could help me make my "process" more knowledgeable and predictable.

I read books of A. Adams and some others, but opinion of practicing at that time, very important for me.....

Thanks a lot!
Sorry for my English language.

[2F/2F]

Minimum time for me for doing archival fiber printing with five copies from an easy neg is probably an hour. Harder negs can frustrate me so much that I spend days, so there is really no way to time it. I guess average would be an hour and a half to two hours for a series of five archival-processed fiber prints.

[darkosaric]

Hi,

what size is your print? For 27x40 cm print I need also about one - two hours. First I scan negatives, and then decide what to print bu looking on computer. Then I make a test with small paper (cca 10x15 cm) on one or two most important part of image: exposing 10sec, 20sec, 30 sec or similar - to get exposure time right. After that I print final print. But sometimes when print dries I look at it - and print again.

This is with perfect negative - where no burning and dodging are necessary.

regards,

[Mustafa Umut Sarac]

Your english skills are better than mine and I have 1400 posts. So you can post more. When I was working at a photograph studio , I made 100 000 school children portraits in 33 days , with a manual controlled machine , and I was printing hundreds of wedding prints , every night. And the 35 mm customers prints daily. I was standing on the machine 14 hours a day , 7 days a week.

[jordanstarr]

You guys work fast. I need about 4 hours a print. I make about 3-5 test strips per print, then make a work print, then a final. Then bleach, tone and spot (spotting comes after the drying obviously, but I factored in about 15-30 minutes a print). In an 8 hour session I only get 2-3 prints. I spend a lot of time looking at my work prints saying "what if I did this....", so that there is little, if any improvement. There's nothing worse for me than going back again and again to improve a print. I am pretty meticulous when it comes to final/exhibition prints.

[jnanian]

What average time you needed for make a final print? I don't have professional equipment and for make final print I need average time around 2 or 3 hours (print only, excepting toning or drying). It's many or not?
What you algorithm of geting a final print?
When you have a negative. Then, do you make a contact print? Or just proof print only, and then final print? What you means of evaluating negative?

My sequence of activity not ordered. I am from Russia, and understanding yours sequence of activity could help me make my "process" more knowledgeable and predictable.

I read books of A. Adams and some others, but opinion of practicing at that time, very important for me.....

Thanks a lot!
Sorry for my English language.

hi

no need to apologize for your english.

when you get more practice you will be faster, i can't really explain what i do very well because i don't really think about it when i print.
learn a system that works with you, and your film+paper
... practice makes perfect.

[Monito]

Take whatever time you need to make the quality you want. Aim for quality first, speed second. Speed comes with experience. It's fairly standard to make a few test strips, a work print, a trial dodged & burned print, and then the final print.

I can make any number of prints as quickly as you want if you don't care about quality.

Much depends on who the client is. If the client is your Aunt who just wants some snapshots of her dog, then perhaps it would be faster. If you are the client, preparing prints for a gallery show of your work, then it can take forever or nearly that long.

There is almost always room to improve quality. Aim at that and you'll get the greatest satisfaction.

[DimasShishkin]

Thank you guys!!!
In two last years I always think about how I can doing acceptable print. And now I use a Medium Format Camera. Now I can make a acceptable negative. Now I can make a acceptable print. And I think about how I can use my time more effectively.

Harder negs can frustrate me

Yes. In last day i was print such negative..... At the end, I see in to print and understand that they too heavy (more black then needed) fore example...... I waste 3 hours uselessly..... I think that I'm stupid..... 3 hours uselessly..... And its occasionally reiterate...... Or I reprint My "Prints" in a few days or weeks.

But now I see that I'm no one...

Hi,

what size is your print? For 27x40 cm print I need also about one - two hours. First I scan negatives, and then decide what to print bu looking on computer. Then I make a test with small paper (cca 10x15 cm) on one or two most important part of image: exposing 10sec, 20sec, 30 sec or similar - to get exposure time right. After that I print final print. But sometimes when print dries I look at it - and print again.

This is with perfect negative - where no burning and dodging are necessary.

And now I see that 2-3 hours upon 1 print (30*30 sm) is not many.

Your english skills are better than mine and I have 1400 posts. So you can post more. When I was working at a photograph studio , I made 100 000 school children portraits in 33 days , with a manual controlled machine , and I was printing hundreds of wedding prints , every night. And the 35 mm customers prints daily. I was standing on the machine 14 hours a day , 7 days a week.

It's very impressive!

hi

no need to apologize for your english.

when you get more practice you will be faster, i can't really explain what i do very well because i don't really think about it when i print.
learn a system that works with you, and your film+paper
... practice makes perfect.

In this moment I learn my film+paper..... But I have some troubles with finding point near pure white and pure black with some detail and this troubles bring me reprint..... But i hope that A. Adams help me:

As the final step in evaluating the negative, I repeat that it is best to use a soft grade of paper to make a proof or first print. The print may be visually flat, but the purpose is to reveal all the information available in the negative, especially the texture and detail in the extreme values. This stage is important not because we may perceive something unexpected, but because we will be able to judge the expressive potential of different areas in relation to our original visualization. From this point we can increase the contrast as necessary in progressive trials, and use local controls like burning and dodging, and others.
I find it far better to work from softer papers up to the appropriate contrast grade than to make the first print too harsh; it seems to be difficult to “work down” in contrast, just as it might be difficult to adjust to a string quartet after listening to a brass choir!

[DimasShishkin]

Take whatever time you need to make the quality you want. Aim for quality first, speed second. Speed comes with experience. It's fairly standard to make a few test strips, a work print, a trial dodged & burned print, and then the final print.

I can make any number of prints as quickly as you want if you don't care about quality.

Much depends on who the client is. If the client is your Aunt who just wants some snapshots of her dog, then perhaps it would be faster. If you are the client, preparing prints for a gallery show of your work, then it can take forever or nearly that long.

There is almost always room to improve quality. Aim at that and you'll get the greatest satisfaction.

Thanks, it's sensible advice......
My client is I'm. ))))))
But now I prepare 15-17 prints for exhibition.....

This topic for me is important source of information. Opinions of people who lives in others countries very important.

[Ian Grant]

It depends on the negatives but I can turn out about 16 different exhibtion prints in a printing session of about 5-6 hours, there would usually be a couple of copies of each image.

Ian