High contrast print developers

[Ian Grant]

Have you compared ID-14 to Tetenal Dokumol?

Tom.

Dokumol according to Tetenal produces a long gradation. So that's the wrong aproach, isn't it a low contrast developer for getting tonal results from high contrast materuals ?

Ian

 

[Tom Kershaw]

Silverprint gives this description for Dokumol:

'More contrasty and colder developer still than Eukobrom. Cold-working liquid print developer, giving very cold tones on bromide paper, and relatively neutral tones on chloro-bromide papers. Supplied as liquid concentrate diluting 1+9. Also a useful graphic arts developer when trying to get the maximum contrast from sheet film, such as Adox 100 print film'

Tom.

 

[Ian Grant]

Strange Tetenal say "Tetenal Dokumol liquid, Special developer for all b/w papers and document films. Produces a very high gradation.
Dilution: 1+6 up to 1+9".

High gradation should mean more gradation, ie a longer Tonal scale, perhaps Tetenal are using the wrong wording if they mean contrast. So yes if this is the case it might get you a half grade or so increase in contrast.

The Ilford ID-14 formula certainly gave nearly a full grade increase in contrast with Ilfobrom & early Ilfospeed, so it is possible to gain a raesonable increase in contrast by switching developer.

Ian

 

[CBG]

Contrast building ideas ....
. . . . Adjust PH with more carbonate. or stronger ...
. . . . More bromide or Benzotriazole.

Emergency contrast building ideas ....
. . . . Stronger developing agent - amidol, pyro ...
. . . . Masking to boost contrast.
. . . . Selenium, tone the neg to pump it up.
. . . . If the neg is heavy, use a cutting reducer first.
. . . . Dupe the neg and process to give the dupe some ooomph.
. . . . Scan the neg and fiddle in photoshop.

And desperation contrast building ideas ideas - when nothing is working, what's to loose???
. . . . Warmer temperature processing. I have no idea if this would work.
. . . . Ultra long exposure to invoke reciprocity failure and add contrast. Ditto.

Best,

C

 

[Ian Grant]

Far easier and much more reliable just use a developer designed specifically to increase print contrast. All the major manufacturers published formulae to do this.

Ian

 

[Nicholas Lindan]

PE - a Graded paper with two spectral
sensitivity peaks. I've never taken note of that.

Some graded papers also have humps in the HD curve - indicating multiple emulsions.

I'm not sure that some of the paper sold as graded isn't really just VC paper with pre-adjusted ratios of the emulsions.

It would be interesting to see if these 'graded' papers change contrast with filtration. Especially interesting to see if they change contrast if used with blue-spectrum-heavy actinic cold light heads.

 

[Keith Tapscott.]

Some graded papers also have humps in the HD curve - indicating multiple emulsions.

I'm not sure that some of the paper sold as graded isn't really just VC paper with pre-adjusted ratios of the emulsions.

It would be interesting to see if these 'graded' papers change contrast with filtration. Especially interesting to see if they change contrast if used with blue-spectrum-heavy actinic cold light heads.

An interesting theory Nicholas, please post your findings here on apug.

 

[Photo Engineer]

I have never seen any indication of a graded emulsion being able to respond to filters like a VC paper. This does not mean it cannot happen though.

I can say that humps can take place if a paper is made from a blend of similarly sensitized emulsions and this would indicate a bad blend or a bad emulsion.

PE

 

[Ian Grant]

It is known that this can happen, it's documented somewhere. Back in the 20's or 30's it was notice that a paper behaved differently (contrast) depending on how it was being tested and they discovered this was due to the colour emission of the light sources.

Ian

 

[Photo Engineer]

Well, if you wish to go further on that, if you look at a wedge spectrogram or a whole list of them such as published in Mees and James, you will see that the two regions of the spectrum depicted often image at different contrasts. This is well known. In fact, some sensitizing dyes are strong inhibitors wrt the original sensitivity curve and act as an antifoggant as well.

This is a far cry from actually having a company blend the emulsions to make a graded paper. Thus far, I have not seen that happen. But I agree that the contrast of an emulsion might change contrast as light wavelength changes.

PE

 

[Tom Kershaw]

ID-14 is listed as a film developer on www.digitaltruth.com . Is there anything in the formula that needs to be changed in order to achieve good results with paper development?

 

[Ian Grant]

ID-14 was called a "Press developer" and formulated for higher contrast in negatives and more usually prints, . So no changes need to be made for papers. For papers use at 1+1 or for softer prints 1+2

Many formula were once listed for dual use for press negatives (glass plates) and prints, but most gave higher grain and with the advent of cut film and a move to MF and then 35mm for press work went out of favour as film developers.

Ian

 

[Ray Rogers]

This is a far cry from actually having a company blend the emulsions to make a graded paper. Thus far, I have not seen that happen. But I agree that the contrast of an emulsion might change contrast as light wavelength changes.

PE

Yes.　I recall that there are 2 "grades" (2 and 3 I belive) of a "single" variable contrast paper actually on the market; struck me as very curious; I am not making a call as to wether it is a blended emulsion however.

And... yes, also very curious is that what Ian described was actually known much earlier than even the dates mentioned....


Ray

 

[dancqu]

I recall that there are 2 "grades" (2 and 3 I belive) of
a "single" variable contrast paper actually on the market;
struck me as very curious; ... I am not making a call as
to wether it is a blended emulsion however.

IIRC, Fuji Rembrandt. Two Grades. I mentioned it in
a previous post this thread. Perhaps Ron will shed some
light. Why two Grades of a VC paper? Is that an answer
to certain inherent VC deficiencies? Dan

 

[Photo Engineer]

Dan;

IDK. Dikenson and Zawadski refer to VC papers in an article and some of them have pretty poor curve shape, but IDK for sure that is what Ray is referring to.

Graded papers with B and G sensitivity will have about 1 stop higher speed than those with just blue sensitivity. Brovira was orthochromatic. And, it used Erythrosine, which at least one person here on APUG claimed was impossible!

PE

 

[Ray Rogers]

IIRC, Fuji Rembrandt. Two Grades. I mentioned it in
a previous post this thread. Perhaps Ron will shed some
light. Why two Grades of a VC paper? Is that an answer
to certain inherent VC deficiencies? Dan

I do not recall the thread, but anyway the concept is interesting to me... make all "graded" paper variable contrast.

This allows one to access the desired contrast by either of two methods... ie, with and without filtration.

Does that put Fuji at the top of the evolutionary tree?



Ray

 

[dancqu]

I've not used the paper but their VC is likely GRADE
2 & 4. Seems reasonable. Those two Grades
should make 1 through 5 an easy reach.

At that it would still be a VC paper and I'm not
about to forgo my very well lighted Graded
paper darkroom; a quite bright yellowish
orange. Dan

 

[2F/2F]

In response to the OP, I find that A+B developer for the analog print industry is a good tool for this. You have to experiment to find a dilution that is not too fast acting, and you have to learn to stop development at the right time, but it certainly adds contrast like a mofo. It will turn any slightly exposed bit of photo paper pitch black if you let it work long enough! You can use it alone, or add it to your standard print developer. I find using it alone to be easier to figure and easier to repeat. Often, I will use it just to get the shadows dark, then stop it, and use normal developer as needed. Very helpful tool for printing the crummily exposed low/no light shots that I shoot so much.

 

[paulie]

use a condenser enlarger, i only use my colour head for colour prints and use the condensor for my b and w .

this will allow you to use your neg correctly

 

[Ian Grant]

Most condenser enlargers use a diffuse bulb and so offer very little increase in contrast compared to a colour head.

Ian

 

[Tom Kershaw]

Preliminary Observations

After printing the low contrast negative(s) with both Kentmere Fineprint gloss and ILFORD MULTIGRADE IVFB Gloss here are some observations:

1. The different characteristics of the papers give widely different contrasts at the same filtration. At 90, 105, 120, and 150 CC magenta (range tested) the ILFORD paper delivers very much higher contrast than the Kentmere paper at 200 CC magenta adjusted for density.

2. ID-14 developer at full strength would appear to give higher contrast, even to the Kentmere paper, but paper choice made a more significant difference. ID-14 developer may give more flexibility printing low contrast negatives on the ILFORD paper as the filtration settings on the enlarger can be lower.

Prints were slightly under 11"x11" from 6x6 negative; and standard developer was Fotospeed PD-5 @ 1+9 dilution.

These results may indicate that Kentmere Fineprint Gloss is not capable of achieving very high contrast either under my procedures or in general. However the prints were made with a colour diffusion light source rather than a black & white condenser head with variable contrast filters inserted.

Equipment: Meopta Magnifax 4a, 'COLOR 3' head. Schneider Componon-S 80mm f/4.

 

[Photo Engineer]

The article in Photographic Techniques that I have referred to before, by Dickinson and Zawadski, shows that manny VC papers have such poor VC characteristics that they are not of professional quality for many print contrasts. They show curves of several products but do not name them. I believe that only two papers in their test procedure passed and would get what I would call a high quality mark.

VC papers are not easy to build. I think that Kodak, Fuji and Ilford had/have the best going.

PE

 

[john_s]

Some graded papers also have humps in the HD curve - indicating multiple emulsions.

I'm not sure that some of the paper sold as graded isn't really just VC paper with pre-adjusted ratios of the emulsions.

It would be interesting to see if these 'graded' papers change contrast with filtration. Especially interesting to see if they change contrast if used with blue-spectrum-heavy actinic cold light heads.

The Aristo VCL4500 is a two-tube VC head. The blue tube gives high contrast, the green tube gives low contrast. From the VCL4500 instruction manual on the subject of graded papers:

<start quote>
Graded papers primarily like the blue energy spectrum. You can now select maximum blue, blue with adjustable intensity or blue and green combined. In the blue adjustable position you can set the intensity level to control printing speeds or adjust for dry down time. You can also print with blue and green combined and may find it possible on some papers to achieve plus or minus a half grade by adjusting the blue green ratio.
<end quote>

I have wondered about this. Has anyone any experience of this apparently bizarre concept?

 

[Photo Engineer]

Luminos and Kentmere papers that I have tested are both blue and green sensitive. They do not vary contrast as a function of color of light. All the extra sensitivity does is give them a bit more speed.

PE

 

[Tom Kershaw]

Luminos and Kentmere papers that I have tested are both blue and green sensitive. They do not vary contrast as a function of color of light. All the extra sensitivity does is give them a bit more speed.

PE

Referring to Kentmere VC or graded papers?

Tom.