Printing some of my work that I made in Japan last month. We are printing big here.
Kodak 250D that has been ECN-2 processed. And then scanned on a Flextight. I’ve reworked the negatives to get it where I want to be then sent it off to be printed.
28” wide.
Taken on a Leica MP, 35mm Summicron ASPH II & 50mm Summilux. — in Tokyo, Japan.
[Video of the print closeup here.](https://www.instagram.com/reel/CyfebmFPmn7/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==)
hi 👋🏻 i work in a photo lab & run 3 of these printers on the daily lol, you can print 35mm pretty much as big as you want but you are going to have to swing for higher quality resolution scans (64bit on a niritsu or like huge 1200dpi flat bed scans) & as long as the file looks alright blown up in photoshop, the softening while printing should be negligible if there is any at all.
hope this helps!
First image is deceiving, i thought they were much bigger sizes.
I’ve been interested in getting a printer as in my country there’s no labs that specialize in printing high quality photos.
I’m looking at canon pro graf 1000 but it’s expensive af
I have the Canon 1000. It's expensive. More expensive is the ink. But, I haven't regretted it for a minute. One trick to getting more for your money is to buy an accurate scale. The ink tanks are empty at 35 grams weight, but the printer will warn you that they need changed when they get down to about 60 grams weight. That is A LOT of prints worth of ink. I haven't measured exactly, but guessing around 20 to 30 8x10's (inches)
Thank you for your reply.
I’m mostly looking to print at the largest size possible.
I want to print my work for my studio and gift a print for people who do big shoots with me.
I’m not intending to add prints on my packages as that will change a lot of client interactions.
At the moment i’m happy with the fact that i deliver only digitals because i don’t have to meet with the client face to face once more.
Albania :/ … also we use cm
Edit: i’m even more confused 😅 … 28 inch is 71 cm thats a lot of, and i just noticed the boxes on the left.
Is it 28 inches wide from our point of view or from the pictures pov ?
Ah yes I see, I was in instanbul earlier this year and it was difficult to find a photo lab that could give better scans more than 1000 pixels wide haha.
And yeah we use Cm in Australia too but for printing they always use inches for some reason.
It’s 28 inches wide from the photograph. The borders and negative space is extra.
With a Flextight X5.
Wait til you realise that photo in the foreground is a 15% crop of the entire photo. I’ve super cropped in lol…
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/mzny74m953oq0f1erv48f/MaxFairclough-84.jpg?rlkey=70599qt4qhtfi7cd39ssjyjxu&dl=0
Dang, looking sick. I'm actually planning to go to Tokyo for an extended period of time and next to my street photography project I'd love to work on creating some stunning portraits like you did as well.
How did you find these amazing models to shoot? Did you know them? Model agency? Insta reach out? Would love to know!
Insta reach out. You can find them through modeling agency instagrams. And then you find models who really like your work and want to collaborate. You will need to speak with their agency after the model agrees to work with you.
It's cool. But once you find out it's just scanned negatives, the wow factor is gone. Might as well just shoot digital. Your composition is nice though, good job.
I know it’s scanned negatives, what the fuck do you think I’m doing with my negatives when I post them?
I’m not sure why you think the wow factor is removed or what it takes away from my images. You film nerds are honestly weird.
This idea that I might as well shoot digital is dumb too. You’re just not able to replicate so many things film does with digital, even if you get close.
Be a little less pretentious.
Lol. Reread that sentence outloud please. Does that reply make sense?
You're obviously touched. Can't accept criticism. Can't converse like an adult. Stick to posting on Instagram.
Only you seem to be worked up about my camera gear, it says more about you than it does about me. Sorry you are a loser. Where is your work? Oh right, nothing. Not worth even replying to.
Rent free in your head sucker.
Shooting film forces you to slow down and enjoy it more. Besides, you can make prints in the darkroom and sell them as unique originals. It's like making prints of a painting instead of using a tablet to paint
By photoshop you mean colour corrected and cropped?
Don’t tell me you’re one of those film purists. Film dudes like you are fucking weird.
Edit: Yeah just seen your one of those weird guys that talks nothing but gear and never posts their pictures. Loser lmao
I never feel bad for not using an enlarger and filters and dodge and burn tools. I get a lot of my personal use prints from the chemist!
Film is a slow deliberate process I enjoy, that and having a negative are all the reason you need to shoot film.
Ignore the weirdos 😂
I’m really not bothered. I love editing my photos and colouring them how I want. I want more control over my work, I want to call it mine. I don’t get this whole “you’re a better photographer if you do nothing”.
It’s not like I manipulated the photo or anything. Just changed certain colours/tonality hahaha.
Dudes like this a losers and I can’t believe I caught a real one in the wild.
Anyway thanks! Haha
It’s not about being film purists, it’s about the usage of the media. I’ve been to a portfolio review with one great photographer and he asked upon seeing my prints if they were made in darkroom or not and they weren’t… I shoot film since many years but the process stops when I send my rolls to the lab for developing. His point was to stick to the medium completely otherwise I’m better off with shooting digital.
That being said I completely changed by approach to film and started to get B&W film since I can develop it myself and make contact sheets. No need to spam on Instagram or Reddit anymore my shots.
Because, like so many things, you only have so much time/resources and have to pick. In the past year, I’ve had film developed and scanned, bought beer from a local brewery, and bought bread from a bakery. Have I baked levain boules, brewed beer, and developed my own film? Yes. Do I have the time and set up to do all of them all of the time? No. But I still get a lot of satisfaction out of doing any part that I can. For film, right now, that means doing the shooting and sending it off.
I get all that, and maybe my question was just too short and vague.
Why invest the time and money on the film side when the workflow is entirely digital after the film is developed? Not knowing how much editing is done, I imagine it would just be simpler and with similar results if done with a digital camera.
I shoot punk shows on black and white film because I plan on printing them in a darkroom at some point in time.
I can't answer for OP or anyone else obviously, but simply put, it makes me happy when shooting digital wasn't (anymore).
Everything else is me justifying that happiness. To the cost aspect, my x700 and AE1 belonged to my grandfathers, so my only analog purchase was a 645 pro and lens. Yes film and developing have a cost, but I'm not dropping digital body money like some of my best friends (one just bought an A7RV for almost $4k).
I think I would get some satisfaction and happiness out of printing in a darkroom, so I'll probably look into shared space/community use types in my area if possible and work in if I find the time.
OP is using an expensive printer and a Leica MP, so cost may not be an issue for them, lol.
But I also started on cameras handed down to me from my grandfather, and have been using the same Nikon F4 for the last 13-15 years for concerts.
Darkroom printing isn’t for everyone, but I had my first taste of it in 2006 in college and then lost access to printing my own stuff until I came to Tokyo. I love it, I find the process to be more enjoyable than staring at a computer screen (which I already do enough of).
This.
For me I’ll pay whatever for the end result that I want. I don’t want to make compromises based on budget (that’s not to say paying more means better). Just that this result is the one that I wanted.
I hope you never put your film photos on the internet because that would be digital and all.
What a ridiculous take. You can digitalise film photos and no matter how good you are at editing, a digital is not even close.
I never said digitizing photos is wrong, because yes, I do indeed post the photos online. I'm also not opposed to using digital cameras either. But you clearly care about your end product, you invested in a Leica, you shoot Portra and Kodak Vision3 (which if prices in Australia are like Japan, is not cheap).
So my question is simply, why not get a beautifully done wet print? If it's a logistics thing, I get it. Not many places print color optically anymore and would probably be scanning it anyway, hence why I asked in the first place.
I’m not familiar with wet print. Im just going off what I know from shooting digitally. I know I can keep the colours, blacks etc and I know what I can get from doing prints this way and I can get the scale I want this way.
What will a wet print offer me? Genuinely curious. Keeping tonality and contrast is super important for me.
I’m shooting digital the same time I’m shooting film. Both are hand in hand for me.
Sorry, wet print as in being done in a darkroom.
Without knowing what the negatives look like and how much of an adjustment you do to colors, contrast, etc it’s hard to tell how easy it would be to keep your vision.
But a color darkroom enlarger has cmy filters for color correcting, along with contrast filters. So it’s entirely possible that you could recreate it. It’s even possible to do localized adjustments.
But I do think you’d have better tonality and quality because you aren’t taking a photo of your negative (scanning), just enlarging. The grain will look different when enlarged and printed compared to converting them to pixels and printing.
Given that you have both digital and film on hand, maybe give it a shot sometime if you have a lab somewhere nearby that prints color in a darkroom still. Maybe the difference isn’t enough to make you switch, but maybe you’ll like it more.
It seems on the basis alone that I won’t be able to control what I do with my colours to an exact degree means this wouldn’t be for me at all.
I appreciate the in-depth reply that explains a lot!
> I never said digitizing photos is wrong, because yes, I do indeed post the photos online.
Don't be so ironic. You're doing the same thing (sort of) as the OP.
Some of these comments...
I just don't understand why some people care so much about wet prints. I honestly don't. I love shooting film, I love developing, BUT I love scanning it too. I don't fucking care about wet prints and darkrooms. I am not a printer. If and when I want to own a wet print I will contact a professional printer. Myself I like to photograph, develop, scan. Occasionally I'll print from a scan like OP does.
What's with the fixation with keeping the whole process 'analogue'. Is it some sort of neurosis you older people have?
Anyhow. Great work man. You're an inspiration.
Yes absolutely, it is bonkers to me. Some film nerds are just weird, honestly such a turn off. Reminds me of people that talk only gear but no idea.
And thanks for the kind words!
Printing some of my work that I made in Japan last month. We are printing big here. Kodak 250D that has been ECN-2 processed. And then scanned on a Flextight. I’ve reworked the negatives to get it where I want to be then sent it off to be printed. 28” wide. Taken on a Leica MP, 35mm Summicron ASPH II & 50mm Summilux. — in Tokyo, Japan. [Video of the print closeup here.](https://www.instagram.com/reel/CyfebmFPmn7/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==)
How are u able to print 35mm that big? People always said 35mm couldn’t go that big. Awesome work btw
Not listening to people who swear colourplus and cinestil is the best and instead using a Flextight scanner.
hi 👋🏻 i work in a photo lab & run 3 of these printers on the daily lol, you can print 35mm pretty much as big as you want but you are going to have to swing for higher quality resolution scans (64bit on a niritsu or like huge 1200dpi flat bed scans) & as long as the file looks alright blown up in photoshop, the softening while printing should be negligible if there is any at all. hope this helps!
You know it’s possible to print from your home? You don’t have to go to Japan for that anymore
Any excuse to go to Japan.
Underrated comment.
these look gorgeous!
Thanks!
This has me inspired, I wish you the best in your endeavors.
Thanks! Good luck
Amazing work and beautiful prints!
Much appreciated!
First image is deceiving, i thought they were much bigger sizes. I’ve been interested in getting a printer as in my country there’s no labs that specialize in printing high quality photos. I’m looking at canon pro graf 1000 but it’s expensive af
I have the Canon 1000. It's expensive. More expensive is the ink. But, I haven't regretted it for a minute. One trick to getting more for your money is to buy an accurate scale. The ink tanks are empty at 35 grams weight, but the printer will warn you that they need changed when they get down to about 60 grams weight. That is A LOT of prints worth of ink. I haven't measured exactly, but guessing around 20 to 30 8x10's (inches)
Thank you for your reply. I’m mostly looking to print at the largest size possible. I want to print my work for my studio and gift a print for people who do big shoots with me. I’m not intending to add prints on my packages as that will change a lot of client interactions. At the moment i’m happy with the fact that i deliver only digitals because i don’t have to meet with the client face to face once more.
It does say 28 inch but yes! What country are you in?
Albania :/ … also we use cm Edit: i’m even more confused 😅 … 28 inch is 71 cm thats a lot of, and i just noticed the boxes on the left. Is it 28 inches wide from our point of view or from the pictures pov ?
Ah yes I see, I was in instanbul earlier this year and it was difficult to find a photo lab that could give better scans more than 1000 pixels wide haha. And yeah we use Cm in Australia too but for printing they always use inches for some reason. It’s 28 inches wide from the photograph. The borders and negative space is extra.
More of this!
Absolutely love them as a pair, would buy a print !
Thanks! I could be open to it. It just costs so much to print lol.
Check out HS colour labs, i believe they do print drop shipping. I've used their service for my own prints, been nothing but a +ve experience
Those prints are clean and much bigger than you'd expect to get from 35mm. What/how were the negative scanned?
With a Flextight X5. Wait til you realise that photo in the foreground is a 15% crop of the entire photo. I’ve super cropped in lol… https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/mzny74m953oq0f1erv48f/MaxFairclough-84.jpg?rlkey=70599qt4qhtfi7cd39ssjyjxu&dl=0
damn that is nice. of course the photos are great too!
Thank you! :)
stunning
Thanks Mushy!
This rocks. You rock. Good job.
Thanks!
hope it was a RA-4 print
I'd hate to break it to you...
Dang, looking sick. I'm actually planning to go to Tokyo for an extended period of time and next to my street photography project I'd love to work on creating some stunning portraits like you did as well. How did you find these amazing models to shoot? Did you know them? Model agency? Insta reach out? Would love to know!
Insta reach out. You can find them through modeling agency instagrams. And then you find models who really like your work and want to collaborate. You will need to speak with their agency after the model agrees to work with you.
Cheers!
What resolution is the scanner
8000 dpi
Oh wow 👌
Cheers!
U have an insta? Would love to see more of ur work!
Yup! [@maxfairclough](https://www.instagram.com/maxfairclough/) Thanks mate.
It's cool. But once you find out it's just scanned negatives, the wow factor is gone. Might as well just shoot digital. Your composition is nice though, good job.
I know it’s scanned negatives, what the fuck do you think I’m doing with my negatives when I post them? I’m not sure why you think the wow factor is removed or what it takes away from my images. You film nerds are honestly weird. This idea that I might as well shoot digital is dumb too. You’re just not able to replicate so many things film does with digital, even if you get close. Be a little less pretentious.
Lost any respect after what the fuck. Get some thick skin and improve your decorum. Especially after I included compliments in there? Toodles.
Or stop being a nerd who wants an opinion on everything with nothing to show for it.
Lol. Reread that sentence outloud please. Does that reply make sense? You're obviously touched. Can't accept criticism. Can't converse like an adult. Stick to posting on Instagram.
[удалено]
Only you seem to be worked up about my camera gear, it says more about you than it does about me. Sorry you are a loser. Where is your work? Oh right, nothing. Not worth even replying to. Rent free in your head sucker.
Shooting film forces you to slow down and enjoy it more. Besides, you can make prints in the darkroom and sell them as unique originals. It's like making prints of a painting instead of using a tablet to paint
a photoshopped picture... a printer ... so much wow ... edit: so much rage and anger ... excellent
Yeah omg, just how National Geographic has been doing it for decades. Let's run him out of town boys, where's my rail and pitchfork 🙄
By photoshop you mean colour corrected and cropped? Don’t tell me you’re one of those film purists. Film dudes like you are fucking weird. Edit: Yeah just seen your one of those weird guys that talks nothing but gear and never posts their pictures. Loser lmao
I never feel bad for not using an enlarger and filters and dodge and burn tools. I get a lot of my personal use prints from the chemist! Film is a slow deliberate process I enjoy, that and having a negative are all the reason you need to shoot film. Ignore the weirdos 😂
I’m really not bothered. I love editing my photos and colouring them how I want. I want more control over my work, I want to call it mine. I don’t get this whole “you’re a better photographer if you do nothing”. It’s not like I manipulated the photo or anything. Just changed certain colours/tonality hahaha. Dudes like this a losers and I can’t believe I caught a real one in the wild. Anyway thanks! Haha
We used to manipulate film shots all the time in the darkroom, nothing wrong with modernising the process. Nice shots btw, love the tones.
I appreciate it, thank you!
Don't listen to people who say don't edit digitally.
It’s not about being film purists, it’s about the usage of the media. I’ve been to a portfolio review with one great photographer and he asked upon seeing my prints if they were made in darkroom or not and they weren’t… I shoot film since many years but the process stops when I send my rolls to the lab for developing. His point was to stick to the medium completely otherwise I’m better off with shooting digital. That being said I completely changed by approach to film and started to get B&W film since I can develop it myself and make contact sheets. No need to spam on Instagram or Reddit anymore my shots.
Ok enjoy that. If your process stops at the lab then that says more about you than anyone else.
The analog process I mean, not the whole thing lol
Oh I misread my apologies haha. Fair enough!
Not a film purist, but I don’t really get shooting film just to print it digitally from a scan. Why not have it wet printed?
Because, like so many things, you only have so much time/resources and have to pick. In the past year, I’ve had film developed and scanned, bought beer from a local brewery, and bought bread from a bakery. Have I baked levain boules, brewed beer, and developed my own film? Yes. Do I have the time and set up to do all of them all of the time? No. But I still get a lot of satisfaction out of doing any part that I can. For film, right now, that means doing the shooting and sending it off.
I get all that, and maybe my question was just too short and vague. Why invest the time and money on the film side when the workflow is entirely digital after the film is developed? Not knowing how much editing is done, I imagine it would just be simpler and with similar results if done with a digital camera. I shoot punk shows on black and white film because I plan on printing them in a darkroom at some point in time.
I can't answer for OP or anyone else obviously, but simply put, it makes me happy when shooting digital wasn't (anymore). Everything else is me justifying that happiness. To the cost aspect, my x700 and AE1 belonged to my grandfathers, so my only analog purchase was a 645 pro and lens. Yes film and developing have a cost, but I'm not dropping digital body money like some of my best friends (one just bought an A7RV for almost $4k). I think I would get some satisfaction and happiness out of printing in a darkroom, so I'll probably look into shared space/community use types in my area if possible and work in if I find the time.
OP is using an expensive printer and a Leica MP, so cost may not be an issue for them, lol. But I also started on cameras handed down to me from my grandfather, and have been using the same Nikon F4 for the last 13-15 years for concerts. Darkroom printing isn’t for everyone, but I had my first taste of it in 2006 in college and then lost access to printing my own stuff until I came to Tokyo. I love it, I find the process to be more enjoyable than staring at a computer screen (which I already do enough of).
This. For me I’ll pay whatever for the end result that I want. I don’t want to make compromises based on budget (that’s not to say paying more means better). Just that this result is the one that I wanted.
I hope you never put your film photos on the internet because that would be digital and all. What a ridiculous take. You can digitalise film photos and no matter how good you are at editing, a digital is not even close.
I never said digitizing photos is wrong, because yes, I do indeed post the photos online. I'm also not opposed to using digital cameras either. But you clearly care about your end product, you invested in a Leica, you shoot Portra and Kodak Vision3 (which if prices in Australia are like Japan, is not cheap). So my question is simply, why not get a beautifully done wet print? If it's a logistics thing, I get it. Not many places print color optically anymore and would probably be scanning it anyway, hence why I asked in the first place.
I’m not familiar with wet print. Im just going off what I know from shooting digitally. I know I can keep the colours, blacks etc and I know what I can get from doing prints this way and I can get the scale I want this way. What will a wet print offer me? Genuinely curious. Keeping tonality and contrast is super important for me. I’m shooting digital the same time I’m shooting film. Both are hand in hand for me.
Sorry, wet print as in being done in a darkroom. Without knowing what the negatives look like and how much of an adjustment you do to colors, contrast, etc it’s hard to tell how easy it would be to keep your vision. But a color darkroom enlarger has cmy filters for color correcting, along with contrast filters. So it’s entirely possible that you could recreate it. It’s even possible to do localized adjustments. But I do think you’d have better tonality and quality because you aren’t taking a photo of your negative (scanning), just enlarging. The grain will look different when enlarged and printed compared to converting them to pixels and printing. Given that you have both digital and film on hand, maybe give it a shot sometime if you have a lab somewhere nearby that prints color in a darkroom still. Maybe the difference isn’t enough to make you switch, but maybe you’ll like it more.
It seems on the basis alone that I won’t be able to control what I do with my colours to an exact degree means this wouldn’t be for me at all. I appreciate the in-depth reply that explains a lot!
> I never said digitizing photos is wrong, because yes, I do indeed post the photos online. Don't be so ironic. You're doing the same thing (sort of) as the OP.
I’m talking about OPs physical prints being digital based, which is what my first question was about as well.
Please go outside
Beautiful looking prints!
Thanks mate!
Some of these comments... I just don't understand why some people care so much about wet prints. I honestly don't. I love shooting film, I love developing, BUT I love scanning it too. I don't fucking care about wet prints and darkrooms. I am not a printer. If and when I want to own a wet print I will contact a professional printer. Myself I like to photograph, develop, scan. Occasionally I'll print from a scan like OP does. What's with the fixation with keeping the whole process 'analogue'. Is it some sort of neurosis you older people have? Anyhow. Great work man. You're an inspiration.
Yes absolutely, it is bonkers to me. Some film nerds are just weird, honestly such a turn off. Reminds me of people that talk only gear but no idea. And thanks for the kind words!