Hi there

Can anyone help with with advice on how to produce a print that looks like a pencil drawn and shaded portrait. I have tried under-developing the print but this usually results in a streaky image.

Many thanks

Kind regards

Ian

-- Ian MacDonald (IanMMacd@aol.com), August 09, 1999

Answers

I am not sure whether I fully understand your intentions, but based on your initial experience, I would suggest trying

1) under-exposure and normal development,

2) normal exposure and development plus reducing,

3) development with dilute developer, possibly applied using a brush.

-- Thomas Wollstein (thomas_wollstein@web.de), August 10, 1999.

in Photoshop or with real negatives, you can try sandwiching the negative with its inverse (a positive). the effective multiplication of the two inverse tonal values results in only mid-tones being printed. slight offseting or reduction of one image can produce a distinct outline. Photoshop allows experimentation, and is much easier to develop a methodology and then transfer it to the darkroom if you are so inclined. using gaussian blur and then extract contrast boundaries might work for you. Hedgcoe offers some illumination on various techniques.

-- Daniel Taylor (aviator@vernonia.com), August 10, 1999.

It is sometimes possible to produce such effects through solarization, though the process is difficult to control and requires much experimentation. I have a lengthy article on print solarization on my site at http://unblinkingeye.com. It is also possible to produce such effects by making lith negatives and sandwiching them to produce posterization effects. There is a Focal Press book by O.R. Croy that explains how to do this--unfortunately I am not at home and cannot pull the book of the shelf to get the title. I searched the Focal Press site, and it seems the book is now out of print, but you should be able to find it on the used market.

-- Ed Buffaloe (edbuffaloe@unblinkingeye.com), August 18, 1999.

Over expose 2 stops and over develope 50%. long exposure under enlarger or contact printer. Dilute the paper developer and increase development time. Soft line drawing effect. Need more? Lengthen deveopment of neg and agitate like hell. Big grains in neg. James

-- james (james_mickelson@hotmail.com), August 21, 1999.

Take James' advice and use T-max 3200, you'll get charcoal effect, beautiful.

-- Lot (lotw@wxs.nl), August 21, 1999.

We used to expose onto Lithographic film, then obtain a negative from that. One possibility.

-- August Depner (apdepner@uswest.net), August 28, 1999.