IN CONQUEST OF CONTRAST

I have found that I prefer a generously exposed neg developed to a gamma around 0.5 or a tad more. I use VC papers and find the use of slightly higher grades produces results more like my prints on graded papers in the old days.

Bill Burk said:

Do you know the double-exposure trick from Fred Picker? Shoot the forest on partly cloudy day. Wait for bright sunshine and expose just enough to properly expose the highlights. Then wait for cloud cover to make the sun disappear and expose again, longer for the shadows.

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I have not read any of Picker's stuff, but I have done similar things -- for example, I find that a partially cloud-blocked sun is fun to work with. Also when making long exposures under the redwoods, the sunlit areas move around wonderfully...I have made many relatively short exposures onto a sheet of film, allowing the light to shift and change between each exposure, sort of like painting with light.

Vaughn

Scanned 5x7 carbon print:

David Lyga said:

Ahh, but, dear Bill Burk, the grade two is subjective!!

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I could clarify. I use Ilford Galerie 2 and 3, which is different from all the rest.

My plan to make easy to print negatives is obvious. I picked two negatives that made me sweat when I was printing them. One a little "hot" for Grade 2 and one very thin that barely made it onto Grade 3. If I never have to print a negative worse than those, I'll be happy.

I made my target right in the middle of those two negs. Next thing I knew, I ran out of Grade 2 paper.

Bill Burk said:

I could clarify. I use Ilford Galerie 2 and 3, which is different from all the rest.

My plan to make easy to print negatives is obvious. I picked two negatives that made me sweat when I was printing them. One a little "hot" for Grade 2 and one very thin that barely made it onto Grade 3. If I never have to print a negative worse than those, I'll be happy...

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Have you tried to split the grades using two developers; Selectol-soft followed by Dektol? Nice for those negs that fall between Grades 2 and 3. I have selenium toned negs to bump up their contrast a half-grade also.

And I have been known to bump up contrast by giving a light bleaching to well-exposed but low contrast negatives to deepen the blacks -- then selenium tone to boost up the highlights. But this was for contact printing using non-silver processes.

Galerie Grade 3 Glossy was my main paper/grade for neutral toned images back in my silver gelatin days...20 yrs or so ago (Portriga Rapid 111, Grade 3 for warm tone images).

dpgoldenberg said:

There is nothing magical about a gamma of 1. Gamma is the slope of the linear region of the characteristic curve when the exposure is plotted on a log base 2 scale versus density, which is a log base 10 scale of the fraction of light transmitted. The numerical value of the slope depends on the bases of the two logarithmic scales, which are arbitrary: 2 because we like to think in terms of doublings and 10 because that's how many fingers most of us have.

David

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Oops! This is not quite right. Gamma is the slope of the linear region the exposure is plotted on a log base 10 scale. So, gamma=1 does have special significance: A ten-fold increase in exposure results in a 10-fold reduction in the fraction of light that passes through the negative. But, I think that my original point remains valid, there is no simple or general relationship between gamma and human visual perception.