Printing! Yay!

The next step after developing your film is to choose what you want to print. This is what I was most excited about! As I was taking the photos I couldn't wait to see how they turned out post-processing. After you have developed your film and left it to dry the next step is to cut up your strip and place the negatives in their negative sleeves. This is the first time that you can kind of get a good look at what you have as long as you have a good light source to be able to see through the negatives. Then it's on to contact printing. The contact sheet provides you with the information that you need to be able to decide what images you are going to enlarge, and it's the first time you see your images in positive form. Then you can select your favorite images and enlarge them! Now, this process seems pretty easy but it takes a large amount of trial and error. When printing you must ensure that you are achieving the right amount of light exposure, contrast, and timing. As well as centering and creating the right amount of border and cropping that you want to achieve with your final image. Once you find your perfect settings it's time to print the image! After exposing the photo paper to the light projection of your negative on to developing the image on the paper. It is so fun to watch the image appear as you run it through the developer. Once developed, stopped, fixed, and rinsed you get the first good look at your image. Yay! Then it sits in the wash for a few minutes and is hung to dry. Once dry you have your first successful (or not successful) print! Yay!