Comment by heliographe
7 hours ago
If you’ve gone all the way to shooting medium format and learning how to develop film, I can’t help but encourage you to get into printing black and white as well.
(color is IMO less interesting - more finicky, less creative latitude)
It’s a minimal investment of time & money (even simpler if you have a community darkroom near you - there are more than you might think!), and it’s both more creatively rewarding as a process than what you get working digitally, and for IMO a better result (you need a really high quality printer to match what standard b&w printing gives you).
Prints also make for great gifts - people just aren’t used to seeing 8x10 printed portraits anymore, and I’ve had friends/family members moved to tears when presented with a framed print of their family.
Oh and there’s also always large format ;)
Oh, for sure I shoot B&W. I think I do prefer it to color. I just don't make prints any more. I think I am too spoiled by the tweaks you can do with levels/curves in the digital domain.
And then I have also dabbled this year in dye-sub prints on metal — and that also begins with a digitized image. (I have found friends and relatives really like the dye-sub prints.)
Large format is still in my future. I do have a few pieces of hardware is all (a Copal shutter, etc.).