How to lower contrast on grade 2 paper

darkosaric · Oct 12, 2013

Hi all,

I have a lot of fix grade 2 papers, and sometimes final prints have too much contrast. Is there some paper developer that will lower the contrast, or maybe some other method can be used (beside developing negative with less contrast)?

thanks,
Darko

wildbill · Oct 12, 2013

dilute the developer.

cliveh · Oct 12, 2013

Have you thought about flashing the paper?

Bob Carnie · Oct 12, 2013

Selectol Soft .. basically a metol only dev.

darkosaric · Oct 12, 2013

Thanks for fast replays . Did not think about flashing the paper, never tried, will give a one go. Right now I am using developers from Wolfgang Moersch (Sepia paper developer and ECO 4812), I will try to dilute them to half of recommended minimum to see if I get lower contrast. Selectol Soft: I should mix it myself, or I can buy it somewhere?

DanielStone · Oct 13, 2013

darkosaric said:
....Selectol Soft: I should mix it myself, or I can buy it somewhere?

there's some good info here :
(there was a url link here which no longer exists)

Selectol(not selectol-soft) is a really nice developer, similar to Dektol. Kind of an "in-between" I've found.

cheers,
Dan

Bill Burk · Oct 13, 2013

Also, you can dodge to make it seem like there is less contrast...

doughowk · Oct 13, 2013

Since you are already familiar with Moersch products, would suggest his Separol Soft by itself or as 2nd bath. I also use a RH Design pre-flasher.

David Allen · Oct 13, 2013

Depending upon how much you want to reduce contrast you can use one (or more in combination) of the following:

Soft developer
Water (hot) 750 ml  Metol 12 g  Sodium Sulfite 36 g.  Sodium Carbonate 30 g.  
Cold water to make 1 liter stock solution.

In use you dilute the stock 1:2 with water to make your working solution.

and/or use a water bath - develop for 1 minute and then place in a bath of plain water for 1 minute and return to developer if necessary.

and/or pre-flash the paper (learning to do this has particular benefits as you can selectively soften parts of the image of desired.

Best of luck,

David
www.dsallen.de

Doremus Scudder · Oct 13, 2013

I've had real good luck with Selectol Soft, sometimes in conjunction with water-bath developing as detailed above, to reduce contrast by a paper grade or more. More often, I use Selectol Soft in tandem with another harder-working developer (e.g., Dektol) to get intermediate contrast on graded paper. This was a more common practice before VC papers became mainstream.

The Moersch Separol Soft will work like Selectol Soft in this regard and may be easier to find in Germany. You can mix your own as well using David's formula or just Google for Ansco 120 or Selectol Soft substitute.

Flashing is a useful tool, but reduces highlight contrast in the process. This is often desirable, but sometimes not. All three tools together can squeeze a lot of contrast on to grade 2 paper.

One more technique to reduce contrast is selective latent image bleaching, or SLIMT. The basics for reducing print contrast are outlined here: http://unblinkingeye.com/Articles/LatentImageBleach/latentimagebleach.html and on David Kachel's site here: http://www.davidkachel.com/assets/nw_strry.htm

That should be more than enough to get you going.

Best,

Doremus

darkosaric · Oct 13, 2013

Thank you all, I have more than enough to try now

Rafal Lukawiecki · Oct 13, 2013

Which brand of paper is it? Some graded papers respond to light filtration a little bit like VC. For example Ilford Gallerie can be manipulated about 0.5 grade up/down by using yellow (green) vs magenta (blue) filtration, with white light getting a half-way result.

darkosaric · Oct 14, 2013

Rafal Lukawiecki said:
Which brand of paper is it? Some graded papers respond to light filtration a little bit like VC. For example Ilford Gallerie can be manipulated about 0.5 grade up/down by using yellow (green) vs magenta (blue) filtration, with white light getting a half-way result.

It is Fotokemika Emaks paper. I have Ilford filters, and color head in Focomat V35.

Rafal Lukawiecki · Oct 14, 2013

Darko, I've not tried this with Emaks, only with Gallerie, and I've reports from others that this technique also worked with later Agfa papers. I'd love to hear from you if it worked with Emaks, please let me know if you tried.

darkosaric · Oct 15, 2013

Rafal Lukawiecki said:
Darko, I've not tried this with Emaks, only with Gallerie, and I've reports from others that this technique also worked with later Agfa papers. I'd love to hear from you if it worked with Emaks, please let me know if you tried.

I will try it next week or so and let you know

darkosaric · Oct 24, 2013

Rafal Lukawiecki said:
Darko, I've not tried this with Emaks, only with Gallerie, and I've reports from others that this technique also worked with later Agfa papers. I'd love to hear from you if it worked with Emaks, please let me know if you tried.

Hi,

I have tried it - with Ilford 00 filter and without filter - I got same result. Only with 00 filter I needed 3 times longer exposure. Did not tried other procedures yet.

regards,

AgX · Oct 24, 2013

darkosaric said:
Selectol Soft: I should mix it myself, or I can buy it somewhere?

Selectol Soft is less common in Germany than Tetenal Centrabrom S, which also can yield a 1 grade lower contrast.

Rafal Lukawiecki · Oct 24, 2013

darkosaric said:
I have tried it - with Ilford 00 filter and without filter - I got same result. Only with 00 filter I needed 3 times longer exposure. Did not tried other procedures yet.

Thanks for trying and reporting. I'll put Emaks into "doesn't work with" column in my notes... Good luck with selectol-soft.

coa_lund · Nov 3, 2013

I use 3 different developers to change contrast, centrabrom (soft), dektol (normal), and documol (high kontrast). I van also switch from condensor light to color head or cold light to löser contrast
Carl

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk

RalphLambrecht · Nov 3, 2013

darkosaric said:
Thanks for fast replays . Did not think about flashing the paper, never tried, will give a one go. Right now I am using developers from Wolfgang Moersch (Sepia paper developer and ECO 4812), I will try to dilute them to half of recommended minimum to see if I get lower contrast. Selectol Soft: I should mix it myself, or I can buy it somewhere?

mix it yourself or ask Moersch to do it for you;I'm sure he will.

Jim Noel · Nov 3, 2013

if you are going to use any soft developer, it should be used prior to the normal contrast developer.

AgX · Nov 6, 2013

RalphLambrecht said:
mix it [Selectol Soft] yourself or ask Moersch to do it for you; I'm sure he will.

As said above, in Germany one easily can get Tetenal Centrabrom S.

Thomas Bertilsson · Nov 6, 2013

darkosaric said:
It is Fotokemika Emaks paper. I have Ilford filters, and color head in Focomat V35.

Emaks works wonderfully using the water bath method. Just use a tray of plain water next to your developer tray. Develop the print for a minute, and go to the water bath and submerge the print. This allows highlights to continue developing while developer activity exhausts in the shadows.
You can go back and forth if you don't get it right on the first attempt.

darkosaric · Nov 7, 2013

Thomas Bertilsson said:
Emaks works wonderfully using the water bath method. Just use a tray of plain water next to your developer tray. Develop the print for a minute, and go to the water bath and submerge the print. This allows highlights to continue developing while developer activity exhausts in the shadows.
You can go back and forth if you don't get it right on the first attempt.

I had tested this method, and it is working pretty good. Together with proper exposure (some dodging and burning) - I am getting much better results.

How to lower contrast on grade 2 paper

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