The Tombstone Portfolio

Every photographer who has ever developed their own film and printed knows what I mean when I say that the testing is over, printing begins. If I didn't make that abundantly clear whooping it up in the last post. My theoretical process is functional. One can set the densities of a negatives in an ordered way through visual inspection and arrive at a predictable print time and tonal range. In a nutshell.

The negative I posted a few articles back can be compared to the print that it made, and pretty the subsequent prints thereafter. That print was the sweet spot. Each print now may differ a minute or two, depending on interpretation of tonal values, which for me is when I see a Zone 8 slip into the texture of a Zone 7. I would also mention here again that toning will alter the print image. Palladium toning tends to lighten up darker areas of a print, meaning the blacks. If the black is well burned in it will remain, although perhaps not as deep. A gold toner would strengthen any black, deepening and enriching.

This print was a new one, a wider angle shot of the horse's head, posted earlier. Here, again, I will add two minutes to the print time, to bring in the fuller textures of the horses. I pulled the print as the man on the left was almost entirely black and I didn't want to lose any more detail. All that opened up when the print went into the palladium toner. Next time.

Palladium toned Salted Silver Print
"Hitching the Team" ~ 8"x10" ~ 1/5
Tombstone, Arizona