Light and Dark

As a former professional photo printer, I'm rather fascinated by how these two photos were made.  Did the lab have some sort of  automatic printing machine that pulled the film through the enlarger,  making all the prints, using the same setting, or did the printer look at the negs, make a quick guess as to the proper exposure length and F-Stop?  Whatever the method, the results left something to be desired.

The labs I worked in were considered custom labs.  I'd put a neg in the enlarger, make an exposure, dodge and burn as necessary, and keep working until I got a good all around print.  Every once in awhile, we'd get a client who asked for a machine print.  We didn't have any printing machines like the ones found at the Photo Hut, so I'd put the whole roll on a light table, make an estimate and then print every frame the same.  In time, I became so practiced that I could get a good custom print on the first couple of tries, and I could get that good middle ground estimate for an entire roll with little more than a quick glance.

Now, there is always some confusion as to why F-8 has a larger opening than F-16.  It's quite simple, F-Stop stand for fractional stop.  F-8 is one eight the focal length of the lens, and F-16 is one sixteenth.

Stamped on the back, "A Madson Print, DEC  31, 1935, CHICAGO."