Vince68 Loc: Wappingers Falls, NY

Welcome to UHH Tim.

NickM Loc: S. Texas

Really look forward to you sharing your work and extensive experience here. I just joined in January also.

TimHGuitar Loc: San Francisco, CA

I had a photolab business for many years and made photographic prints for marketing purposes for the most part. Some of the clients I had wanted large amounts of large photos, oftentimes over 100 each. The sizes ranged from 16" x 20" to 6' x10'. Needless to say, with so many prints to make from a single negative, I worked hard at trying to make the perfect negative. Burning and dodging large prints became an issue early on. So I developed a method of film masking in order reduce the amount of burning and dodging while still obtaining a good print.
I had, in many ways, my own "trade secrets." I would film mask color transparencies and then make color internegatives and then mask those internegatives so that no burning or dodging was necessary. None of my clients knew what we were doing in order to make their prints. On a few occasions when clients left to use another lab they would complain to me about the drop in quality. Of course, I knew this would happen, but in most cases I simply didn't care, because so many advertising departments would mistreat us in the printing trade. All they cared about was the cheapest price.
When I retired I decided to dedicate myself to only printing black and white silver gelatin prints (like I did when I was a teenager) and to share my trade secrets. I started a youtube channel where I try to explain how I worked, both behind a camera as well in the darkroom. I retired in 2015 and started the channel in 2016. If you search (in youtube) for "Timi Hall Film Photography" you can watch the videos I have there. I started with 14 videos but since I had so many questions from viewers, I added more and more videos. Still, I don't post much on there. It's not for beginners, but I do try to answer everyone's questions. The videos are pretty technical, but it is by no means rocket science. And I try to share what I know when using film and chemicals to make fine art photographs. I figure there's enough expertise in digital to be found on youtube, but darkroom technicians like myself are all dying out, and I wanted to help keep it alive.
So you can visit youtube if you want some direct lessons on film photography. Of course, many of the lesson are related to digital photography as well. I will post a couple of prints I made. Original photography is by Robert Cameron.