Is the spot light or dark? [ https://webionaire.com/2011/02/07/spot-out/ ]

\\\ dust on neg during exposure: of the camera film, or of the print. A speck of dust on the film during exposure becomes an unexposed area of film: it is clear, usually base clear. It will print black, so can’t be spot-toned out. While dust on the negative during printing blocks, dodges light from the paper, making a lighter spot. These are the most common dust problems. Dust on the negative can be seen using a “raking” side light. I use a small led penlight to see them, then using a small 000 synthetic brush, lightly touch them. They cling to the brush tip and are removed. I don’t use a clean-room, instead I clean the darkroom. The procedure used for making masks and seps is different. For a different time.

beware: the expert that can’t tell a black spot from a white spot.

Hammond: “Today many portraits are made on small films and the prints are made by projection and therefore somewhat different methods of retouching have to be used. Chemical reduction on negatives now is often used instead of etching with a knife, and enlarged negatives are often made from the small original negatives. (1941)

Cass: p81. four types of scratches on negatives

• very fine. apply retouching fluid to base and emulsion
• definite scratch; like hair or dust line. Can be abraded.
• large scratch. gouge on emulsion. this can be opaqued on the base of the negative
• ong vertical or horizontal scratch caused by processing or camera.. on base of negative and appears white on the print.use soft eraser, gently erase down the line on the base side. this diffuses the scratch. clean the grit with toothpick skewer, then apply retouching fluid. color scratches are finished on print.

References

• Hammond, The Art of Retouching and Improving Negatives and Prints, 1948
• Cass, Retouching from Start to Finish, 1986
• Reed, Photographic Retouching, Kodak No. E-97, 1986
• https://webionaire.com/2015/08/13/the-adams-retouching-machine/(opens in a new tab)

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” I know … was with …. learned how from …. Winogrand”  

He taught me how to inspection develop 8 rolls at a time in an open sheet film tank and I have seen his negatives. Very full toned. Unfortunately it appears that whoever developed his remaining rolls posthumously didn’t know that the development times needed to be reduced between 30-50 percent depending on the conditions he was photographing in. Expose for the shadows, develop for the highlights.”

Develop by Inspection:

which of the negatives on the roll is being considered the prime, ie, main negative being inspected. Is it in the middle of the roll, leader, or trailing frame?

Class Time with Garry Winogrand (1974 – 1976)

if you photograph in Texas a lot, then your pictures are going to look a lot like Texas. — Winogrand

“If students were taking Garry’s class to learn photographic techniques and methods, they were sorely disappointed. Garry didn’t teach much technique. That was left to the PJ side of the photography world or to his “TAs”. You have a lifetime to learn technique, he seemed to be saying, but I can teach you what is more important than technique, how to see; learn that and all you have to do afterwards is press the shutter.” — Garza (74-76)

https://sites.utexas.edu/photo_utaustin/history/ Garry Winogrand was the next leader of the photography program, from 1973–78. Winogrand was an equally acclaimed, though fundamentally different type of photographer. Along with his European counterparts such as Henri Cartier–Bresson and Robert Cappa, Winogrand captured pressing social issues and anxieties of his time. However, unlike Cartier–Bresson, Winogrand wasn’t looking for a decisive moment. No moment is most important, he said. Any moment can be something. Winogrand’s critiques in class often involved cut-throat edits and critical, obtuse comments while students sat in a room filled with cigarette smoke, drinking copious amounts of coffee.

First encounters are, like cameras, all about the surface of things; getting beyond means taking yourself further. Become the artist you say you are.