Darkroom Workshop: 31 July 2019

Darkroom Workshop: 31 July 2019

Led by Dave Butcher 

I had identified a need to refresh and improve my film and printing skills. From the Ilford website I located Dave Butcher who runs darkroom workshops and arranged to complete a workshop day with him.

His background is described on his website:
https://www.davebutcher.co.uk/darkroom-workshops/ accessed 1/08/2019

“Dave Butcher is a black and white specialist with a worldwide reputation for his landscapes and city shots. He is an Ilford Master Darkroom Printer and still exclusively uses medium format Mamiya 7 film cameras and makes traditional silver gelatine darkroom prints.”

Dave “worked for Ilford Photo Ltd. for 21 years… This included as a photographic research scientist, technical service manager, regulatory affairs manager and project management… (he) managed the Ilford photographic printing department, and setup and edited some Ilford technical newsletters.”

Dave began the workshop with an overview of the techniques he uses for printing. These included various types of toning which are techniques I have not used before. He also described the main technique he was planning to demonstrate in the workshop – that of split grade printing. This is a technique new to me, and involves making a print on multi-grade paper with two exposures using different contrast settings. In this way the high contrast exposure can ensure the black parts of the image have a dense black, while the low contrast exposure ensures an adequate range of mid-tones in the image.

In the darkroom, Dave demonstrated printing one of his images in this way and then we printed some of my negatives.

These included these two images I have shown before:

I had identified a need to improve the quality of the printing and am very happy with the greater contrast and range of tones in the final 14×11 inch prints. I have scanned these and reproduce them here, although the quality of the reproduction in this way does not show the detail as well as the actual print.

Hague Lane 2. Silver Print 28cm x 33cm

Towards Pingot Lane 2. Silver Print 28cm x 33cm

I think that my objective of improving my film processing and printing skills has been met and now I need to practice and review any further learning in this area. I have also been able to print some images which I may include in my next assignment “The Decisive Moment” and aim to submit this in this medium.