Big prints

[richard littlewood]

I'm just putting a bit of a feeler out here to guage any interest in this idea.
Basically I've got the facilities to make B+W prints up to 40"x30" in the darkroom. These are FB prints made the 'traditional' way via negs, enlargers and chemicals. There are usually a few paper types/surfaces, and toning options, and negs from 6x7cm to 5x4" can be used. I imagine a day in the darkroom with a chosen neg, deciding how to proceed with it, testing, printing, and toning, so at the end of the day there is a finished big print (spotting apart) that is ready to take home.
I've not gone into the pricing of this yet, and I'm not interested in having negs sent to print, I suppose what I'm offering is the chance to have a hand in making a big FB print off that certain special neg. Perhaps a rare experience in times when a big print is increasingly digital.
I'm based in west Yorkshire 1m from the M62.
Anyone interested?
Richard

[DJ]

Richard,

I think that's a great idea. You see a lot of photographers these days doing Photo Days and Tutorials in the field, I think your "Darkroom Day" could be quite successful, especially with the increasing move towards digital meaning fully equipped darkrooms are harder to come by.

There's a whole market of "indulgence day" outings, including driving sports cars, cooking with chefs, chocolate making, yachting etc, I think a day of making a large print in the traditional ways in a darkroom would be a really great idea, especially as most people don't have the facilities to do so. They also get to take home a print instead of just memories of the day. Perhaps you could market your idea to those companies who run these types of schemes and get on their books, I'm sure you'd have a positive response.

As I'm currently afflicted by the recession I wouldn't be able to participate in such an outing at the moment, but in more affluent times I would definitely consider this, far more interesting than some of the other "days" on offer.

I really hope you make a success of this. Good luck!

[richard littlewood]

DJ Thanks for that. I suppose there will always be a limited amount of folks interested in an idea like that, and I'll bet there is a large percentage of the population that have never seen a negative!
I just imagined the big darkroom print would have appeal to most film photographers, and especially large format users. Personally I think all film photographers working in black and white should have at least one 40"x30" done in their lifetime!
Richard

[Marizu]

That sounds interesting (finances permitting). I'm not too far away.
I've got a 5x4 enlarger but I've never printed big with it. I think I need to figure out some tubes for paper development.
keep us informed if you have further thoughts about this.