I photographed a scene with an extremely large luminance range requiring less development. The negative came out great with detail across the entire scene. The problem is enlarging it. When I print to squeeze all of the tones on the paper the resulting image is very flat. When I increase contrast then I get highlights or shadows going pure white/black. Are there any enlarging tricks that will allow me to get both fully detailed prints AND more apparent contrast?
To me it doesn't seem like there is really a cause to treat. It's just a high contrast scene. There isn't a whole lot you can do that won't require some amount of printing work.
The real problem here and with printing in general is the inability of paper to reproduce the dynamic range that can be recorded on film. Darkroom manipulation (burning, dodging, masking, reducers) is the only real way to get maximum shadow and highlight detail without sacrificing contrast.
cliveh - the contrast has to go somewhere. There's no free lunch when the contrast in the scene is high. Whether you have a contrasty negative and print it on low contrast paper, or a low contrast negative to print on normal contrast paper, either way you've compressed the contrast of the original scene somewhere (on the film or in printing).
The film can record the wide range, but developing to lower contrast will compress the resulting density range of the negative to better "fit" the scale of the paper. It usually isn't the entire answer though, especially if the photographer wants snappy "local contrast" in the print.
I photographed a scene with an extremely large luminance range requiring less development. The negative came out great with detail across the entire scene. The problem is enlarging it. When I print to squeeze all of the tones on the paper the resulting image is very flat. When I increase contrast then I get highlights or shadows going pure white/black. Are there any enlarging tricks that will allow me to get both fully detailed prints AND more apparent contrast?
We do! I'm no digital expert but as far as I know the dynamic range of a single digital exposure is quite a bit less than that of a general purpose film, hence the multiple exposure-HDR digital technique.
Spot on. One time I got a satisfactory result on blown highlights by flashing the paper before exposing the negative. Tere is testing involved to get the right amount of flasing. It took me 4 hours of tests and tries to make a final print that accomodates a large contrast scene otherwise well captured on film.Recording the information is rarely the problem. It's getting it all onto the printing paper which poses the challenges. But it can be done. Burning/dodging, different types of masking techniques etc. Depends on how complicated the picture is.
I do not have much experience dodging or burning beyond the odd shadow or highlight. It appears I need to bite the bullet and get a large box of RC paper to practice with.
I photographed a scene with an extremely large luminance range requiring less development. The negative came out great with detail across the entire scene. The problem is enlarging it. When I print to squeeze all of the tones on the paper the resulting image is very flat. When I increase contrast then I get highlights or shadows going pure white/black. Are there any enlarging tricks that will allow me to get both fully detailed prints AND more apparent contrast?
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