enlarging Emaks 20x24

[mcfactor]

I was just wondering if anyone is enlarging to 20x24 with this paper. I have contact printed on 8x10, but it seems really slow compared to Ilford Gallerie. I am worried that times for a 20x24 will be too long (Im printing 4x5 negs). Has anyone printed on larger paper? And, if so, were the times normal?
Thanks

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

I haven't printed that large on Emaks, but you could test it out with your setup and negs by enlarging to 20x24" and just printing an 8x10" segment as a test. I have a fairly bright enlarging head, so I wouldn't be too concerned myself about excessive enlarging times at that size.

 

[mcfactor]

that's a really good point, I hadn't thought about that. Thanks, i'll try it!

Still interested in knowing whether anyone is printing on 20x24 Emaks

 

[Zvonimir Ervacic]

I was just wondering if anyone is enlarging to 20x24 with this paper. I have contact printed on 8x10, but it seems really slow compared to Ilford Gallerie. I am worried that times for a 20x24 will be too long (Im printing 4x5 negs). Has anyone printed on larger paper? And, if so, were the times normal?
Thanks

20x24 from 4x5 is 5x enlargement. I never tried to print 20x24 but with 645 negative I do 6-10x enlargement. Exposure time for it with my condeser enlarger with 150W reflector bulb is from 30 sec for Efke negative to more than 3 minutes for Kodak TriX400 since huge difference in B+F and depends if it is Emaks Soft, Normal or Hard paper.

It is from the memory. I'm working on a point light source enlarger head so my darkroom is out of order for a long time now. :-(

Pozdrav,
Zvonimir

 

[mcfactor]

Yeah, that makes sense. I'll try David's idea this weekend and report back. Im using an Ilford multigrade head (earlier generation) on an Omega D2 and I have a feeling that the color of the light is limiting the sensitivity of the paper, i.e., the paper should be most sensitive to blue light, but the closest I can get is magenta (#4 filter), so I some of the light is being 'wasted'.

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

Can you turn off the filtration? That would give you the most light.

 

[mcfactor]

I can use the focusing light for it, but i dont think there is anyway to time it (other than my hand, of course). I remeber finding it strange when i got the enlarger that there was no non-filtered light.

 

[MattKing]

Is it the Multigrade 400 head? If so, the manual recommends using the 1 1/2 contrast setting for graded papers.

Matt

 

[mcfactor]

Yes, it is. I know that with Ilford Gallerie, the grade 4 setting provides the fastest exposure, but I found the times excessively long for the Emaks paper. I will be in the darkroom this afternoon, so I will try different grades and see what happens. thanks.

 

[edtbjon]

It's quite normal for Emaks, being a chlorobromide paper, to be much slower than Galerie. Emaks was the paper which made me get my film development times properly adjusted, so that I didn't have to expose the paper for 5 minutes with the enlarger lens wide open.
At the time (back in the 80'ies), I started using Emaks because of the pricetag, but soon found out what a lovely paper is was/is. It just took a lot of learning. Part of the fun (or frustration) was that non-consistency in between batches (read "boxes"). Same label, different sensitivity and contrast. Lovely warmish tone which reacts vividly to different developers and toners.
While Galerie is a lovely paper too, it was a more "modern" product, which was easier to use. But on the other hand, it's very hard to tweak the tones on Galerie.

//Björn

 

[mcfactor]

I printed on the 20x24 emaks this weekend and had not problem whatsoever. The paper was very much in the normal range, around 50 secs at f/11. And the prints looks absolutely beautiful! the tones and just great, very rich. The difference was, I used a newer multigrade head that had the option of exposing with unfiltered light.

What I need to figure out now is how to get my old ilford multigrade head to print without any filter and still be timed.