Three hours, no films to process – let’s get printing. And so it was that I walked out with 18 10×8″ prints in my file (admittedly quite a few of them I prented twice – one for the workbook, one for the wall…)

I started off with some prints of some steel rope from the dockyard, trying to find the ‘right’ tone rather than end up simply end up gravitating towards my preference for high contrast. I think my high-contrast print went a little too far but I still like what it does to the image. It seems that contrast changes very steeply between grades 4 and 5 and it’s a bit hard to keep it in check – but that’s definitely the end of the range I tend to end up.

It was good, then, that one of the hut door images I printed worked perfectly at grade 5. As soon as the test strip came up, I knew I had what I wanted – the negative space with only minimal detectable detail, but with the rust and flaking paint represented just about perfectly. So, I racked off all three images in the series at the same settings, much more bleached than last week’s print – as can be seen by comparing this print with the previous version. I’m liking the new style – both the fact that it’s more minimalist and the fact that it pulls the three images together.

Anything else on top of that was a bonus, but I also managed a better print of the boats from last week plus a shot of the beach huts and an abstract image of leaves which is growing on me considerably.

All in all, another good week. Hurrah.