Hardest VC Paper?

[hywel]

I've got this negative, going to print over most of the frame about Grade 1 or 2 on Ilford MGIV except that I've got a black object against a black night sky in the corner and I really need the object to show up and stand out. I can see some detail in the negative. I've started out split grade printing it with all the G00 dodged but when giving it enough G5 to get Dmax in the sky I haven't got quite enough contrast to show the object. So the question that occurred to me, as a way to help this situation, and I am just on the edge of being there, is which Variable Contrast paper has the hardest G5?

As, if I get it to work, I'm really really going to like this picture I'd prefer a Fibre paper but to be honest to get the picture to work I'll take anything.

Thanks,

Hywel

 

[Neal]

Dear Hywel,

Try printing only that portion of the negative to see what it takes to get the desired effect. If you can see it in the negative, you should be able to print it.

Neal Wydra

 

[Martin Aislabie]

Have you tried Ilford MG FB in a stronger than recommended develper (say 1+3 against 1+9) and then rubbing in warm neat dev over the affected area

I use cotton wool balls soaked in warm neat dev and cycle them through as they cool off pretty fast in the cool diluted stuff

With the stronger dev you need to shorten the dev'ing time and over-expose the print - just like you would for a negative

Also don't give the problem area any G0 only G5

Good luck

Martin

 

[gainer]

There is another trick that might be worth a shot. Use a sheet of glass or an easel you can allow to get wet. Immerse the paper in developer before exposing it and squeegee off the excess. Now you have an equivalent of printing-out paper which is self masking. The shadow area you want to hold back will develop first. Give an exposure that you would if exposing for that shadow. Let it sit a while to build up density. Complete the exposure for the highlights and see what happens. It's been a while since I tried it, but IIRC it works best on FB paper.

 

[Mick Fagan]

Gadget Gainer, now that is an interesting trick, I'll keep that one in the memory bank.

Mick.

 

[hywel]

Thanks for the ideas, looks like it's gloves on and a bit of a messy night in the darkroom tonight.

Hywel

 

[jfish]

Using only a blue filter...Rosco #80?..., the kind you can use for printing, on that area will give you the most contrast available on a VC paper. Just do a test strip of that area with that filter and see if that gets you what you need. You might have to do some localized bleaching to "open up" the detail you want. Just because it's on the neg doens't mean the paper can handle it. In a 10 stop normal sunny day scene, the film can handle about 7 stops and the paper 4. You get a lot of compression as you go from the scene to the neg to the print.

Hope that helps.