Electronic flash and paper negs

[Soeren]

Hi All.
How is paper going to respond to electronic flash? Is it doable/usable/practical to light with strobes when shooting on papernegs?
Anything I should consider before shooting?
Best regards

 

[jnanian]

hi soeren

i am by no means an expert in any of this, just enjoy fooling around and experimenting.
it is definitely do-able to use a daylight flash. you might have to bracket your exposures a little bit ( iso 6-25 ).

are you going to be in a "studio setting" or outside ?
sometimes the burst of light from an electronic flash will lead to extreme contrast, but as a "fill" it could be helpful
to brighten the deep shadows. i use electronic flashes ( and their modeling lights ) often ... but have only done this in a studio type setting.

i hope you post some of your results !
john

 

[Soeren]

Hi John. In the beginning Im thinking a "Studio setup" though with a single SB26. Later I might try it outside. Id love to post some results but my old paperonlyscanner is outdated and I can't download the one driver that probably could have worked so until I get an Epson V700.........
Best regards

 

[banana_legs]

Hi soeren,

I did some experiments to determine reciprocity failure effects and not only looked at long exposures, but also very short ones. Down to 1/250 sec of illumination, the negative responded at my rated exposure (EI 6 through a yellow filter for Ilford MGIV paper). with shorter illumination times, a 'reciprocity' like effect seemed to take place and therefore with a flash gun which has a very brief light, you may either need multiple flashes, or a much brighter flash than anticipated. I did manage to get successful images using flash illumination, but with my flash heads, needed about an extra 3 stops of exposure (8 flashes, each at the metered level). It was difficult to measure the exact flash duration unfortunately in order to generate a definitive behaviour curve for the paper.

Best regards,

Evan

 

[Toffle]

I am very interested in this as well, as I just added a flash sync to my externally mounted Packard. For a studio type setup, I'll have a main and two slaves. (all with different refresh rates) Lots of variables to consider...