Dave Butcher College Darkroom Black and White Printing Courses

Price: from £500 plus expenses

If you would like me to come and give a black and white darkroom printing masterclass, with a similar content to an Ilford Darkroom Masterclass, or something completely different to fit in with your syllabus, then I accept private bookings.

The cost is £500 for 1 day plus expenses (I live in the Peak District near Buxton). Multi-day rates are available and booking 3 or more days can be particularly cost effective (£1000 for 3 days). The days can be booked over a period of weeks to fit in with your timetables, rather than consecutively, if this is helpful to you and your students. This is a good way to include many students at reasonable cost.

I would usually show a few prints to start with to demonstrate what can be done in the darkroom, then into the darkroom for a demonstration of split grade printing, which is the easiest way to make good prints fast, then the rest of the time is spent with me helping the students to print their own negatives.

Here is a typical 1 day Masterclass as requested by Leicester College for each of the last 3 years:

• 15 minute introduction to black and white using prints to support what I am talking about.
• 20 minute demonstration of split grade printing using one of my negatives.
• 1h 15m helping students to print their own negatives. I also help setting up enlargers and with any basics such as focussing, lens apertures, using paper easels, as well as print evaluation.

This is repeated 4 times through the day with each group having up to 16 students.

The largest single group so far had 32 students, the most students tutored in 1 day was 56. From the numbers you can see that it is a very cost effective way per student to have some expert tuition in some of the darkroom basics.

As an Ilford master Printer I have a very generous agreement with Harman Technology (the parent company of Ilford Photo)  to provide free of charge Ilford black and white printing materials. This includes paper and chemicals for my demonstration as well as for the use of students. For these Masterclasses I use Ilford Multigrade RC paper, Ilford Multigrade developer, Ilford Ilfostop stop bath and Ilford Hypam fixer. I can also run groups using Ilford FB paper but this requires good print washing facilities and an FB print dryer. The value of these free of charge materials is usually at least £150, so it is quite a commitment from Harman Technology to support traditional darkroom training courses.

If time allows, or you opt for more than 1 day, I can also talk about my photography, equipment for black and white landscape and city photography, setting up a business, exhibiting, having work published, etc.

Contact me directly to discuss your requirements: Tel. 01663 733771 or Mobile 07976 872 679 or email mono@davebutcher.co.uk