Printing Process

After developing your film, there are two opportunities for printing: one, traditional print developing in the dark room; two, using the scanner and creating a digital file from the negatives. Although there are two options, it is better to use the traditional print developing for higher quality photos.

Process for traditional printing:
1. Prepare the chemicals for the processing trays in the right proportion and temperature.
2. First, view the negatives and see what type you have. If the negatives are too light or too dark, it is important to realize this in order to choose the correct filter for developing.
3. Lay the negative down to fit the size of the printing paper on the enlarger. 
4. Make sure the room lights are off and the safelights are on in order to protect the paper.
5. Turn on the enlarger and focus the image.
6. Use test strips to decide the exposure you want to use for developing. After viewing the test strips, you can decide the combination you want to use for time and filter.
7. Take out the sheet of printing paper, making sure that light isn't exposed. Make sure the red filter is fit correctly.
8. Expose the paper for the correct amount of time, evaluating the brightness and contrast.
9. Place in the chemicals to finish the process to develop, stop, and fix the photo.

Precautions:
1. It is important that the negative is perfectly clean, making sure not to touch it with your fingers.
2. Be careful not to accidentally expose the paper.
3. You must wash the paper with fresh water after the process, or else after time it will turn black.


Process for using a scanner to print pictures:
1. Make sure you have a good computer, as well as a scanner for transferring the negatives to create a digital file.
2. Set the scanner to reduce the grain, and also insert the mask of contrast. Change the resolution, and preview the photo.
3. Open your picture with photoshop.
4. If you want, you can crop or rotate the photo.
5. Use + C to crop the image.
6. Use Control + L / Apple + L to view and control the levels of the photo. Set the level and decide the contrast and light for the photo.
7. Control + M / Apple + M controls the curves, which gives you the opportunity to change the contrast and brightness. Shift + Apple + M is the automatic contrast, and if you decide it is too much, Shift + Apple + F reduced the contrast.
8. Go to image if you want to resize the photo after scanning. It is important to change the resolution at 300 DPI if you want to print the image, 72 DPI if you only want to view the image on the computer screen.
9. If you are not sure of the right contrast, use the Shift + Apple + L for automatic contrast. If you want to reduce the effect of the automatic contrast, press Shift + Apple + F.
10. If you ever want to recover the previous image, Apple + Z / Control + Z undos the last action.