[rollei_list] Printing 120 and Pringing 35mm Negatives
- From: Marc James Small <msmall@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 01 Apr 2005 14:35:57 -0500
I am a "cusp child": at 55, my earliest photographic experiences consisted
of making contact prints from 6cm by 9cm negatives from a Voigtl=E4nder
Bessa. but I had moved to 35mm by the late 1960's and all of my darkroom
days for twenty years were spent printing 35mm negatives.
Those a few years older than me would have started with either true Large
Format or a Press Format such as 4" by 5". So, their experience would have
been to move down in format when 35mm became the norm, while my own
experience was the reverse, in that I only moved to printing 120 negatives
about 15 years ago. =20
For me, this was a most liberating experience. 35mm negatives print
nicely, for sure, but there are severe limits on enlargement before
highlights block up and the like. 120 was freedom: I could print a
portion of a Rolleiflex negative without being limited by concerns over
this and found my prints distinctly better. =20
I have found the same result with scanning negatives: I enjoy much more
overall quality with a 6cm by 6cm negative than with the little bittie 35mm
negative. I am not condemning 35m work, and I still regularly shoot in
that format, but, damn!, what a wonderful experience it was to suddenly
realize the freedoms afforded me by that 120 negative with its much greater
ability on gradation control and the like.
Marc
msmall@xxxxxxxxxxxx=20
Cha robh b=E0s fir gun ghr=E0s fir!
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