When I jumped into my car at 8:45pm last night, headed to the craft store (that closes at 9pm and I live, apparently, 12 minutes away from) because I was out of spray adhesive, I realized that I have so much to learn before I exhibit my work again.
Lesson one: plan head.
Actually, I learned that when I ran out of ink on Friday after planning to hang my work on Saturday. I love living in a relatively rural area and I love my Epson R1900. However, I do miss being able to pick up an ink cartridge at the local store. That just isn’t an option so my lack of cyan turned into a three day delay.
Small problems, enlarged
The second thing I learned is that small problems on screen turn into huge ones at 12×18 inches. The Pentax K10 that I had been so excited to lay out about a thousand dollars for became a nightmare when I realized, slightly after the warranty had expired and thousand of frustratingly blurry images had been recorded, that the mirror box was defective. I would take a photo that looked perfectly sharp in the viewfinder only to discover later that I had not gotten when I thought. If I focused on the front of a flower and confirmed focus in the viewfinder, I would discover later that focus lay just behind where I had thought. Focusing on someone’s eyes usually resulted in photos with no discernibly sharp area, and one very confused photographer.
I told myself that I needed new glasses or was relying too much on the shake reduction or just plain didn’t know how to use my camera. In hindsight, I can’t believe that after spending eight years delving into the world of photography using nothing but a Pentax K1000 and A 50/2.0 (fully manual setup), I questioned my ability to focus a camera over and over again instead of considering seriously that my camera was defective. The result is several photos that I just had to include in the exhibit that are not in perfect focus.
There is no such thing as a free pixel
I have read just about every article I can find on resizing and interpolation. In the end, the photo printed from a 6×7 negative blows away what I have shot with my old 6 megapixel Pentax *istDS. Don’t get me wrong, the 6MP file produced some adequate results. Intellectually, I know that if printed at 300 dpi the largest size a 6MP file will produce is 10×6.75 inches. However, I have heard ad nauseam that 6MP is enough for larger prints. Ken Rockwell even wrote an article titled The Megapixel Myth professing his belief that if you cannot make posters out of your 6MP files, there is something wrong with you. Poppycock. I am looking at a 12×18 inch photo right now taken with a 6MP camera through a Pentax 31/1.8 Limited (arguably one of the best autofocus lenses ever made) stopped down to f8, and it lacking. Sure, it is fine once you take a step back, but part of the joy in good photography is drinking in the detail with your face three inches away.
I was right. Matte is awesome.
Half of my photos were created with my Epson R1900 and half were printed on traditional silver gelatin paper by my local printer, PFS Photo, since my enlarger is still packed up and waiting for some plumbing work in the darkroom. The PFS (film) photos are on a matte or luster paper, mine are glossied for all they are worth despite my lifelong love of satin and luster finishes. The glossied photos looked so beautiful, so high in local contrast and so sharp, until I mounted them. The matte prints look flawless. The glossy ones show every imperfection in my beginner’s mounting technique. I thought the added gloss would be added pop, but I should have listened to me old bias for a more subdued finish.
