I could pick the film, develop it myself. Pick the photo paper. Use the enlarger to expose, focus, burn, shade, double expose etc. etc.
It was all very intuitive. I have a photo of a tree and I want the nice silvery white you get with it and the rich blacks, and I am looking for a tool or something where I can essentially emulate the chemical darkroom process.
I am ok with GIMP and Darktable but I don't know how to get them to act the same as, for example, choosing a specific type of photo paper, or leaving it in the developer a bit longer.
I have tried to search for something like this but I can find nothing. Thank you!
I did a little darkroom work a long time ago, i dont remember and couldn't characterize what the effects of different papers or overdeveloping would be, now. The digital generation would express it with a different vocabulary, and it seems to me what you need is a translator/ phrasebook.
My search results [1] make me suspect the actual techniques of "darkroom effects" are lost knowledge now.
[1] http://faculty.purchase.edu/michael.bell-smith/cwd_gte_2012/...