Silver Gelatin Prints from Paper Negatives? Good Idea or Not?
I'm taking part in a group photography exhibition at the end of this month. I'm doing my print now because I go to Canada on Friday and get back the day of the exhibition.
The photo I submitted is a collage of a digital photo and a film photo that I took. I'm not posting it on the web because it contains a nude figure and although it's not an explicit image I don't want to post it.
I shot the model in a studio using a black background with a medium format camera. Then I embedded the figure onto a photo I took at an aquarium of kelp. I titled the piece "Seaweed Princess." My ultimate idea is to do a paper negative on rag paper and then apply watercolor paint.
A paper negative is pretty much the same thing as a film negative. One has the inverse image just like film. But paper negatives are contact printed. That means the negative sits directly onto the photographic paper instead of using an enlarger to put the image onto photographic paper. Because it is a contact negative, the negative needs to be the same size as the desired final image. This is making for a kind of strange workflow.
Studio: film (analog)
aquarium: digital
composite: digital (scanned the film, used photoshop) (technically a finished image)
print out paper negative (digital to analog)
create photo from negative (analog)
paint???? (analog)
post the finished image on web? (back to analog)
So far, I have done some tests with paper negatives but I'm not sure if I am happy with the results. The model's skin tones and shadows come out pretty nicely so I am happy with that, but the kelp is losing some of the gradation in the leaves that makes movement of the current visible.
By nature, a paper negative is pretty contrasty so I should expect to lose some subtlety. I think I will continue with completing the project, but I will probably exhibit a printout of the digital image. This is closest to the image I submitted for curation for the exhibition except that I indicated I planned to make a paper negative.
But here is where I am having a big artistic quandry-- Why do I feel the need to create a silver gelatin print? I have some answer to that but I wonder if I am just being snobby? I fact that it is a silver gelatin print makes me feel that it has more artistic value instead of just churning out a digital print. Am I over-rating the silver gelatin? Am I just making more work for myself?
The photo I submitted is a collage of a digital photo and a film photo that I took. I'm not posting it on the web because it contains a nude figure and although it's not an explicit image I don't want to post it.
I shot the model in a studio using a black background with a medium format camera. Then I embedded the figure onto a photo I took at an aquarium of kelp. I titled the piece "Seaweed Princess." My ultimate idea is to do a paper negative on rag paper and then apply watercolor paint.
A paper negative is pretty much the same thing as a film negative. One has the inverse image just like film. But paper negatives are contact printed. That means the negative sits directly onto the photographic paper instead of using an enlarger to put the image onto photographic paper. Because it is a contact negative, the negative needs to be the same size as the desired final image. This is making for a kind of strange workflow.
Studio: film (analog)
aquarium: digital
composite: digital (scanned the film, used photoshop) (technically a finished image)
print out paper negative (digital to analog)
create photo from negative (analog)
paint???? (analog)
post the finished image on web? (back to analog)
So far, I have done some tests with paper negatives but I'm not sure if I am happy with the results. The model's skin tones and shadows come out pretty nicely so I am happy with that, but the kelp is losing some of the gradation in the leaves that makes movement of the current visible.
By nature, a paper negative is pretty contrasty so I should expect to lose some subtlety. I think I will continue with completing the project, but I will probably exhibit a printout of the digital image. This is closest to the image I submitted for curation for the exhibition except that I indicated I planned to make a paper negative.
But here is where I am having a big artistic quandry-- Why do I feel the need to create a silver gelatin print? I have some answer to that but I wonder if I am just being snobby? I fact that it is a silver gelatin print makes me feel that it has more artistic value instead of just churning out a digital print. Am I over-rating the silver gelatin? Am I just making more work for myself?