What I have learnt.
One of the most difficult things I had to learn about black and white darkroom printing is to recognise good from bad prints and know how to make any print into a good print. For me this was just a matter of time. Working on this project with such intense volume and seeing and talking about prints, good and bad, every day was one way to do this. I have found that anything is possible using no-one digital development it just needs practice, practice and more practice. The 2 most common features that could be improved in the prints I didn't like were;
Low contrast – it is much easier to make low contrast prints but high contrast gives more striking prints. This is something I have been working on and I have visually developed my own process of creating these type of images.
Prints that are too dark from over-exposure - you should usually just be able to see detail in the highlights (light areas) and in the shadows (dark areas). I have thought about ways to create striking differences between light and dark areas, so my images can retaine the best parts of both. The strong detail captured by a dark low key image but the subtle differences in shape and form that is only captured with a high key image.
