ChrisC
Member
Hey everyone.
Tonight I decided I'd finally build up the courage and do a few prints for the first time to get the hang of everything. After about 2 pages of test strips, and a couple of full page prints, I got a reasonable print, but I still wasn't totally happy with it.
It came out quite grey. There were no real blacks nor whites, nor was there alot of contrast (which is quite different from the negatives). I also found I was exposing the paper (what I think was) way too short. f11 for 3.5 seconds. It only took around 15-20 seconds for the image to appear pretty much properly exposed in the developing tray too, which I know is too short. All of these times are considerably shorter than the beginners guide on the Ilford website (which I had printed off and was constantly refering to).
For what it's worth, I'm using Ilford MGIV RC paper, and Ilford Multigrade paper developer.
Any hints, tips or solutions would be tremendously appreciated. As it is I'll probably be racking my brain over it all day at work tomorrow
Thanks again, and all the best,
Chris.
Tonight I decided I'd finally build up the courage and do a few prints for the first time to get the hang of everything. After about 2 pages of test strips, and a couple of full page prints, I got a reasonable print, but I still wasn't totally happy with it.
It came out quite grey. There were no real blacks nor whites, nor was there alot of contrast (which is quite different from the negatives). I also found I was exposing the paper (what I think was) way too short. f11 for 3.5 seconds. It only took around 15-20 seconds for the image to appear pretty much properly exposed in the developing tray too, which I know is too short. All of these times are considerably shorter than the beginners guide on the Ilford website (which I had printed off and was constantly refering to).
For what it's worth, I'm using Ilford MGIV RC paper, and Ilford Multigrade paper developer.
Any hints, tips or solutions would be tremendously appreciated. As it is I'll probably be racking my brain over it all day at work tomorrow

Thanks again, and all the best,
Chris.