IMO
The problem with getting great tones at both ends has always been a fact of being second generation or third from the original scene with our prints as well the image is now being viewed with reflective light.
Our eyes adapt to shadows and highlights when viewing a scene, and as we all know our problem is to put back on paper believable tone to show a viewer the scene we originally saw .
Zone System of expansion and contraction has proven to be a valuable way of working around this problem, Pyro, Stand development , two other valuable ways.
In the last few years of printing I think the Split Printing method has allowed us printers to get even closer.
My goal is to use a filter that allows me great highlight and midtone separation and I work this first, then with a much higher filter I try to work on the lower tones that give much better shadow separation.. Then by combining 00 burns and 5 burns.. the 00 to place tonality just under specular highlight regions, and as well use the 5 to darken any black areas in these highlight regions, Incredible highlight separation can be achieved.
I feel a combination of good film, good exposure control, good developer and methods followed by good printing practices and toning, I am getting better at placing a fuller range of tones on paper than I could achieve some 10 years ago.
I just am trying to say , and maybe poorly , that Silver Prints have a range that many pt pd printers{myself included} can be envious of , and not the reverse as I sometimes here in discussions about pt pd.
Carbon.. another story, I think this process if mastered has the most potential of any monochrome process that we are all working with.
More videos like Andrews are encouraging and as well appreciated as they help tremendously in visualizing other methods, we may not have thought of in our own darkrooms.
I think contact printing is wonderful, don't get me wrong, but you do miss some of the intricate details or efforts dodging and burning affords one with enlargements, internally and locally within a scene. I feel my sweet spot for a 4x5 negative is either a 16 x20 or 20 x24 image, I am able to see the image on the easel and work the tools comfortably.
When contact printing there is no reference point other than looking straight down and hoping you get the burns and dodges right.
If one is doing straight , straight printing with very little manipulation then I would do everything contact, but thats just not for me.
Bob, the question I posed was not about the maximum black at all, or the ability of a process to achieve a certain total range of density tones, but about the nature of how the tones render, e.g. the "magical" tonal rendition Jim also reported for carbon, next to the known properties of pt/pd.
My question specifically referred to whether these ways of rendering the tones, as so much loved by their respective printers, is inherent to the process, or is actually for a big part simply caused by the fact that many alternative processes are contact printing processes, generally not suitable for enlargement printing.
Hence I also referred to the fact that in my own experience with silver gelatine printing, and justly reported by many others here on APUG, there is something about the way contact printing deals with tones, that is difficult to achieve through enlargement printing... Highlights don't blow out easily, shadows seem to have more detail, even when using a silver gelatine paper if you contact print.
