I find myself spending 4-5 hours at a stretch in the darkroom, but barely have 25 prints to show for it. This makes my productivity seem extremely low (5 prints per hour? 12 mins per print?). And this is without any dodging, burning, flashing or other fancy operations. Just straight work prints, trying to do a set of 4R prints from my roll. I know some people can spend hours over one print, dodging and burning until they get it right-- but this is different. When I want to do my 16x20, I can take hours or days-- but work prints should be faster, right?
Does anyone have tips on how to increase productivity?
I suppose it's possible to throw all the exposed paper into a paper safe and develop them in a batch, and thus save a little process time. But the problem is, without developing the prints after exposing, how will I know whether the exposure was right to begin with?
I'm using a long process that includes two fix + selenium toning + khca, so that takes a little longer. Chemical setup and cleanup prob takes up about 1/2 hour min, with the no of bottles and trays I have. Not much I can do about these fixed setup times, unless I change process, of course.
Does anyone have tips on how to increase productivity? It's not a subject much discussed in B&W forums anywhere.
Does anyone have tips on how to increase productivity?
I suppose it's possible to throw all the exposed paper into a paper safe and develop them in a batch, and thus save a little process time. But the problem is, without developing the prints after exposing, how will I know whether the exposure was right to begin with?
I'm using a long process that includes two fix + selenium toning + khca, so that takes a little longer. Chemical setup and cleanup prob takes up about 1/2 hour min, with the no of bottles and trays I have. Not much I can do about these fixed setup times, unless I change process, of course.
Does anyone have tips on how to increase productivity? It's not a subject much discussed in B&W forums anywhere.