Did b+w prints (it's been 20 years) QUESTIONS

s......o some of you may know I've been getting myself set up again for some film development and b+w printing on a Durst 605M i got and cleaned up from the local photo society club...

so I'd like to ask some newbie questions cos i just can't remember.....I'm doing 6 x 6 (not 35mm)....and by the way I did it in the bathroom all cramped up!!!!!

1. lens aperture....I have a Schneider 80mm 5.6 lens....I stopped down to f11 not cos I knew that was the right thing to do but cos I remembered thats what I used to do.....trying to get the lens sweet spot as opposed to anything else......

QUESTION.....does the aperture chosen affect contrast or anything else i cant remember??????

2. Safelights....I have the red one....i read on the Ilford paper I have to use the amber/brown one....I had no choice....prints seem to be fine....any comments? Due to limited space safelight is not more than 1.5/2 metres away

3. anti-newton glass - crucial or no???? don't know the glass is the Sivogla AN i see on ebay for this and other enlargers......

4. black touching up paint - ..whats it called so i can get some.....

5. Resin coated paper ILFORD - fix times 1 min and wash times 1 min....thats what they say.....do you guys use more time??

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2. I used a red about two feet away due to less space than you have on Ilford wt rc paper. No fogging.

4. They make spotting dyes and even pens now.

5. I fix for 1.5m and wash a lot longer than one minute. More like 10-15. Might be overkill but the water runs through my tray and there are generally two prints in the tray at a time and I cycle them through as I print.

1. and 3. Don't honestly know.

1. usually, 2 stops down from wide open is the optimal aperture for enlarging lenses. If your enlarger is properly aligned and the negative stays flat, you should not see any real difference in the results whether you use f8 or f16. The f-stop range is useful for managing the length of time of your exposure.

3. Anti-newton glass for the top glass in a glass negative carrier. It helps reduce the likelihood of newton rings appearing in the print. Not a pretty sight. If you use glassless neg carriers, not an issue, only flat negatives become an issue.

Bob

sperera said:

does the aperture chosen affect contrast or anything else i cant remember??????

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It shouldn't. Optimally, it affects only the exposure. In practice, there'll be a small effect on sharpness and vignetting, with best results near the middle of the aperture range.

2. Safelights....I have the red one....i read on the Ilford paper I have to use the amber/brown one....I had no choice....prints seem to be fine....any comments? Due to limited space safelight is not more than 1.5/2 metres away

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Red safelights are safe with almost all B&W papers, the only exceptions being those with full-spectrum sensitization, which are made to make prints from color negatives. Those papers should normally be used with no safelights, or perhaps with a very specialized one. Amber safelights are safe with many, but not all, B&W papers. Basically, the amber safelights emit light further into the green range than do red safelights, which means they can fog some variable contrast (VC) papers. If a paper is safe with an amber safelight, it'll be safe with a red one.

1.5-2 meters away sounds like a safe distance, but this will vary with the safelight and paper. If in doubt, perform a safelight test.

3. anti-newton glass - crucial or no???? don't know the glass is the Sivogla AN i see on ebay for this and other enlargers......

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Glass carriers in general help keep the negative flat, but whether they're "crucial" or not depends on how picky you are about your prints, and also on how large you print. (A small variation in sharpness you might not notice in a small print might become objectionable in a bigger one.) OTOH, glass carriers also provide additional surfaces to which dust can adhere.

If you use glass carriers, AN glass is helpful, but I'm not sure just how helpful it is. Certainly if you see moire patterns in your prints you should get some AN glass.

5. Resin coated paper ILFORD - fix times 1 min and wash times 1 min....thats what they say.....do you guys use more time??

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Both these times vary with both the fixer and the paper. Some fixers, such as TF-4, work very quickly and have very short fix times (1 minute or less). TF-4 also has very short wash times. Broadly speaking, you get quick fix times with rapid fixers, which are usually made from ammonium thiosulfate, and longer fix times with fixers made from sodium thiosulfate. Rapid fixers usually ship as liquids and non-rapid fixers usually ship as powders.

You get short wash times with alkaline fixers that lack hardeners, used in conjunction with RC papers. Acid fixers, fixers with hardeners (which usually require acid fixers), and FB papers all increase wash times. Generally speaking, most recommendations I've seen are for 5-minute or shorter wash times with RC papers, with FB paper wash times ranging from 20-40 minutes. FB paper wash times can often be reduced by using a hypo clearing agent, but I don't think I've seen recommendations for under-20-minute wash times even then.

thanks for taking the time to respond guys.....appreciate it....you have helped me a lot.....

Never used a red safelight. Most paper manufacturers of VC paper say amber, why not get one? Otherwise and anyway do some testing as in Ralph Lambrechts book. Slight fog is not easy to detect in finished prints, just makes them look a bit dull. This takes time and bother, but if you're going to all the work to make a print why not make the best you can?

Christopher Walrath said:

I fix for 1.5m and wash a lot longer than one minute. More like 10-15. Might be overkill but the water runs through my tray and there are generally two prints in the tray at a time and I cycle them through as I print.

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Chris

Overwashing is an issue with RC. Small amounts of fixer are actually extending the life expectancy of the print. Also, the edges of the print start to peel from the base after 8-10 minutes. I would not wash an RC print longer than 4-5 minutes. If you want a longer print life, tone it!

I use Hypam at 1+4 and only need to Fix MGIV RC for 30sec

I then wash under running water for 90 to 120sec

I need glass to support my 120 Negs in the Carrier to keep them flat enough during an enlargement - I found they have a tendency to sag from the heat of the lamp - but this is very much dependant upon your particular enlarger set up.

I also had troubled with Newtons’ Rings if I didn't use AN glass - but sadly would often not spot the Newtons’ Rings on the print until after I had produced the print.

The problems with Newtons’ Rings would vary with the weather, warm & dry seemed OK but cool/cold and wet and I was in trouble.

However, I did find trying to keep 4 glass surfaces clean, dry and dust free a major pain in the behind.

Good luck and have fun

Martin

Martin Aislabie said:

I use Hypam at 1+4 and only need to Fix MGIV RC for 30sec

I then wash under running water for 90 to 120sec.

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Martin

For archival purposes, I recommend to fix for 1 minute, wash for 1 minute at 20°C, tone in selenium or sulphide and wash for 4 more minutes. Otherwise, treat the print in Sistan after a 4-minute wash.

1. Stopping that lens down to f/11 is perfectly ok. F/8 and F/16 are fine too. There's usually no problem with diffraction when going down 2 or 3 stops from wide open. Softness due to diffraction is dependent upon the actual size of the iris opening, not the f stop which is nothing more than a ratio: focal length / aperture size. A lens with a focal length of 80 mm. will have a smaller f number than a shorter lens given the same sized opening. That's why you can stop long lenses down a lot more before diffraction problems begin to show up. As far as the aperture used affecting the contrast, no that's not a problem. I'm guessing that it might be if your exposure times are so long that reciprocity failure sets in, but I've never seen that happen with exposure times up to 2 minutes. Most of my exposures run from around 10 to 45 seconds, so I haven't really though about testing for the problem.

2. Red safelights are fine. They may even be more safe than the standard OC spec safelights usually recommended by the paper manufacturer. The reason many manufacturers recommend the OC spec safelights is that it is much easier for humans to see under those conditions, while still being safe for their variable contrast papers. I'm using 3 Kodak beehive type safelights equipped with red 1A filters and 15 watt incandescent lamps with all kinds of papers and orthochromatic films and they are safe. The distance from your workspace is good. The minimum recommended distance is usually specified at about 4 ft or 1.4 meters. You're good there. The only reason to switch over to the OC spec. safelights is if you're having problems seeing under red light.

3. AN glass is always good to have if you're using a glass type negative carrier, but not always completely necessary. A lot depends upon they type of film and the weather conditions. Films that have a very smooth and almost shiny emulsion side (think Kodak's TMax films) benefit the most. I use glassless carriers myself. I don't see much, if any difference in sharpness for the print sizes I make, and it's 4 fewer surfaces to keep dust free.

4. Touch up paint to use where? Rustoleum is good for just about any metal surface.

5. Resin coated papers, Ilford's or any others for that matter, because the support does not absorb any water, develop, fix, and wash out far more quickly than fiber based papers. Only the solutions that have absorbed into the very thin gelatine emulsion need to be removed. Two to four minutes in the wash is usually sufficient. If your tap water is very cold, it can take a little longer.Water penetrating the edges can be a problem if you overdo the wet time, but you relly need to overdo it by a lot. I've left prints sitting in a tub of water for an hour with no apparent damage. At worst, if you see a tiny bit of de-lamination at the corners of the print, it's a simple matter to trim the edges down a little bit to remove it. You are leaving a border, right?

fschifano said:

Softness due to diffraction is dependent upon the actual size of the iris opening, not the f stop which is nothing more than a ratio: focal length / aperture size. A lens with a focal length of 80 mm. will have a smaller f number than a shorter lens given the same sized opening. That's why you can stop long lenses down a lot more before diffraction problems begin to show up.

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Frank

Good note, but I don't think this statement is correct. Since diffraction is an angular deflection, it is the aperture vs. projection-distance that counts, and therefore, it IS the f/stop that counts. See the graphs attached.

Not necessarily to be recommended but on a night school B&W printing course we students all tended to leave our early evening prints in the communal water bath for maybe an hour or more while we got on with other prints. Prints were eventually passed throught a heated roller RC dryer. I used Ilford RC paper. Never noticed any problems.

pentaxuser