My First-Ever Colour Darkroom Prints

One of my photography goals for this year is to print more of my work. Printing is such a rewarding experience, and looking at a physical print instead of a screen is such a pleasure.

With this goal in mind, I thought it's finally time to learn how to do darkroom prints properly. Back when I lived in Germany, I've already dipped my toes into black and white printing in my makeshift darkroom in my bathroom.

To learn hand printing properly, use professional equipment and also try colour printing, I decided to book a hand printing workshop at Rapid Eye in London. During this three-hour one-to-one course, I've learned the basics of colour hand printing in a darkroom.

I've started by creating contact sheets and learned how to dial in the exposure time and how to correct colour casts.

After that, it was finally time to create my first full-size print! While creating this print I've also learned how to use a pre flash to reduce the overall contrast of the image and soften the highlights.

It was even time for creating another full-size print whcih turned out great.

Also, here are a few impressions from the Darkrooms at Rapid Eye.

To wrap it up, here's a little video of one of my final prints coming out of the processing machine. Pure magic!

Now it's up to me to practise what I've learned and do more printing!

Thanks!
Jan - @jan.onfilm