The price you got for Ilford MGIV is GREAT! Take it. It's one of the finest photo papers there are. And it will tone if you ever get into that, you can ask me how later. I've attached a scan of a split toned print to this message just to prove the point.
Regarding film. Continue with Plus-X and D76. If you know how it works and it's not broken - don't try to fix it. Rodinal is a different creature. Now you're changing films and going into printing at the same time. Bad idea.
It's not until you actually print your negs that you come full circle and can understand what you did to your film when you processed it and how you need to tweak it. When you break new territory, keep as many things as you can constant.
What else is that Ilford is consistent, meaning it will stay the same from box to box.
Finally, one piece of advice. It's better to get one fantastic print out of a box of 50 sheets of paper than a handful or more of average ones. Challenge yourslef to print less. Spend time with one negative at a time, at least in the beginning. Always always always do your utmost with each print, don't settle for 'good enough'.
I understand that your school might have different expectations, though, and they may want to see 10 prints for critique. In my opinion, that could be too many for a box of 50 sheets.
Peter Schrager's advice is a good one. If you use a thin strip to test with you will end up doing a full sheet that will need re-doing anyway.
My method - I print one full sheet too dark and one too light on purpose, and go from there. Usually I use three or four sheets to get to the end result.
You can also use smaller pieces of paper, like 5x7 (of the same kind) and dial in the contrast and use that as your 'print map'. When you then increase your magnification to the larger paper, you have a really good idea of what you need to do. You will have to adjust your exposure time, of course, because the light intensity is spread over a larger surface area. And you may need to tweak your contrast also as there is a clear difference in viewing a 5x7 compared to an 11x14.
But usually you can, after a while of doing this, directly translate your exposure times almost mathematically from 5x7 to 11x14 fairly painlessly, and that way you do all of the 'wasting' on smaller and much less expensive paper.
- Thomas
Regarding film. Continue with Plus-X and D76. If you know how it works and it's not broken - don't try to fix it. Rodinal is a different creature. Now you're changing films and going into printing at the same time. Bad idea.
It's not until you actually print your negs that you come full circle and can understand what you did to your film when you processed it and how you need to tweak it. When you break new territory, keep as many things as you can constant.
What else is that Ilford is consistent, meaning it will stay the same from box to box.
Finally, one piece of advice. It's better to get one fantastic print out of a box of 50 sheets of paper than a handful or more of average ones. Challenge yourslef to print less. Spend time with one negative at a time, at least in the beginning. Always always always do your utmost with each print, don't settle for 'good enough'.
I understand that your school might have different expectations, though, and they may want to see 10 prints for critique. In my opinion, that could be too many for a box of 50 sheets.
Peter Schrager's advice is a good one. If you use a thin strip to test with you will end up doing a full sheet that will need re-doing anyway.
My method - I print one full sheet too dark and one too light on purpose, and go from there. Usually I use three or four sheets to get to the end result.
You can also use smaller pieces of paper, like 5x7 (of the same kind) and dial in the contrast and use that as your 'print map'. When you then increase your magnification to the larger paper, you have a really good idea of what you need to do. You will have to adjust your exposure time, of course, because the light intensity is spread over a larger surface area. And you may need to tweak your contrast also as there is a clear difference in viewing a 5x7 compared to an 11x14.
But usually you can, after a while of doing this, directly translate your exposure times almost mathematically from 5x7 to 11x14 fairly painlessly, and that way you do all of the 'wasting' on smaller and much less expensive paper.
- Thomas