PLATINUM & PIXELS
Test Print: Hand-coated Platinum / Palladium Print
Digitally enlarged negative from Leica M9 image file.
Yes it’s true, I’m back working in the darkroom but that does not mean that my M9 is up for sale.
Far from it.
When I first bought my M9 in 2010, it did not take long for me to realize that a new world of opportunity had opened up. The option to make exceptionally good, digitally enlarged negatives for platinum printing, from the incredible image files produced by my Leica M9.
After making a few tests I was convinced and I started making plans for a new darkroom that very day.
It took a little while, but my new darkroom is ready and after almost nine years without a darkroom of my own, I am now able to bring together the best of the digital world, with the best of the analogue world, all in one very exciting workflow.
The M9 allows me to work in exactly the same way as I do with my film M6s and it captures exceptionally sharp, high resolution image files that I can then work on with a software combination of Adobe Photoshop Lightroom, Nik Silver Efex Pro, and Photoshop, to produce a high quality, precise, digitally enlarged negative, on my Epson printer.
This negative is then used to make hand-coated platinum / palladium prints.
Platinum prints are renowned for their luminous tonal range and unmatched archival permanence but it is a contact print process that requires the negative to be the same size as the desired print. For a Leica photographer this was always a bit of a challenge prior to making digital negatives. I did make some enlarged negatives using an analogue process in the late 90’s and into the early 2000’s, but it was always a difficult and frequently unsatisfactory process, unless I was making the negative from the long discontinued Scala film by Agfa, which worked brilliantly. Digital negatives from the M9 have brought that brilliant world back and with it, my ultimate image making workflow.
With the darkroom only recently completed I am really just beginning to get comfortable with the entire process and am now focused on producing limited edition platinum prints from my Mile Zero: A Place Uncertain project.
Down the road I plan to offer personalized workshops and custom platinum printing but for now, stay tuned for updates as I pull these wonderful handmade prints from the dark.
QG
