On workshops and learning from books: A good workshop will teach things
that may take years of expereince to learn, or at the very least allow
you to start getting good results much quicker. If you're not afraid of
getting frustrated and making a few more mistakes learn from books, I've
done both. A lot depends on the process, its difficulty and costs. I took
a platinum and palladium printing workshop. I learned a great deal, while
not an overly complicated process I would not have tried it on my own for
fear of totally wasting a signinfigant amount of cash. I am teaching myself
gum bichromate printing, its slow and involved - and I haven't got a good
a really good print yet, but I like the challenge and its not costing me much
money.
I took a few very good workshops, that were not expensive. This got me
interested and convinced me that I could do it on my own. My advice is to
start with a simpler process. Cyanotype is one of the simplest. Cyanotype
paper is available commercially under the name of "Sunprint". Or you can
easily prepare it your self.
On darkrooms. Its not necessary to have a true darkroom, I am using a darkened
room (bedroom with window blocked out). Most alternative processes are not
as sensitive to light as silver-gelatin processes - so you can get away with
a less than ideal darkroom - though you still must be careful. The trick of
coarse is to get large negatives by some other method. I print 4x5 negatives
that I process in a real darkroom.
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Gord Holtslander Department of Biology
HOLTSLANDER@SKYFOX.USASK.CA University of Saskatchewan
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
Tel (306)966-4433 S7N 0W0
Fax (306)966-4462 Canada
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