Stir in a bit of Purpose

[perfect_quotes id=”735″]At a celebratory gathering in July, I took a portrait of my brother-in-laws family.  While just a bit on the dark side, the picture itself was fantastic.  Every person had a wonderful smile.  i had captured the moment on digi-film.  It became immediately apparent that this was the Christmas gift for them this year.  Fast forward to December.

In the interim, I had wrestled to tame a picture of a couple of trees [ see https://sierrafallcolors.com/2013/12/01/good-soup-takes-3-days/ ].  Getting those colors right and printing on 11×17 proved quite a challenge.  But people are a different thing, and 11×17 was not big enough since I wanted a frame with matting that showed 10×14.  I needed a bigger paper that would hang nicely.

I decided on Hahnemuhle’s Fine Art Baryta 13×19 since that is what I was using in 11×17 format.   I started to print what I thought would be wonderful on the 11×17 and got dark, sickly green instead of rich tans.  My problem?  I forgot my mantra: Three days to good soup…

But when I bought the 13×19, it became so clear that I’d better pay attention.  So I printed lots of 5x7s, adjusting temp and tint to get nice tans and a garden of greens.  It took quite a few attempts to get the skin tones correct.  But once those was close, it became a matter of brightening up everyone since the Baryta prints a bit darker.  Then to the Baryta 11×17 to print lots of images on one sheet to adjust the exposure.  Well, the range was good and the brightest was the one I liked.

So the one and only 13×19 I produced was the one that made it to my brother-in-laws, nicely framed showing 10×14.  I was very directed and printing became very methodical.  When they opened the picture, I let out a sigh…

The lesson was quite startling.  I really needed a good print.  I didn’t have time.  I didn’t mess around.  The 13×19 rolled out of the printer.

PURPOSE:  The spice that makes life a tasty dish…