Inspection Light

I am building a new darkroom after a twenty-year hiatus. Examination of my earlier prints show that I tended to print too dark. What is a recommended wattage/distance formula for black and white print evaluation?

RalphLambrecht's book "Way Beyond Monochrome" has an answer to this question (in both editions). Now if I can just find the right page!

He has posted about that here on APUG as well.

Ah ha - I've found a reference. See his post (#21) on this thread: (there was a url link here which no longer exists)

For future reference, he posts:

"Tom

I think every printer battles this or similar effects. Here is what I do to print with more confidence for the right highlights:

1. Exposing for the highlights is the best method IMHO.
2. Never evaluate a wet print in the fixer or the wash.
3. I hand squeegee the print off and hang it at a dedicated evaluation board.
4. The board is illuminated with a 100W bulb at 6 feet (EV7).
5. I use test strips of the same area which have a 1/4" white gap between them. This is how they come out of my test-strip printer.
6. The white gap is the white reference for me. All highlights are evaluated against it.
7. I print until my brightest highlights are just above Dmin.
8. The final conformation is done with a dried test strip (microwave oven), which typically causes me to reduce the exposure by 1/12 stop.
9. Now let's take care of the shadows with contrast."

Another point of reference is Ansel Adams book The Print. In it he recommends* the ideal light intensity falling on a (dry) print to be within the 80-100 ft-c (foot-candle) range.

I have used this value in my own darkroom with some success. During my participation in the Blind Print Exchange here on APUG I sometimes include this value as a recommendation for display of my submissions.

Ken

* On p.164 in the section on print display.

I watched a video on Ansel Adams and he would take a wet print into the kitchen, tear it in half to make it smaller, and put it in the microwave to quickly dry it. Then he looked at it under what would be considered "normal" display lighting to compare the dry half to the wet one, for some reason. I use a hair dryer, which is a little harder on the ears, and just turn on the light in the bathroom, which is my darkroom, to see what it looks like. Always wondered why Adams didn't just put a microwave in his darkroom so that he didn't have to traipse all through the house and into the kitchen w/ that big wet print, but maybe he wanted a snack.

Fred Dusel said:

I am building a new darkroom after a twenty-year hiatus. Examination of my earlier prints show that I tended to print too dark.

Click to expand...

Maybe you just had better eyes.

Ideally prints should be evaluated under the same light intensity as they would experience when being displayed. Thus if the print is to be submitted to a gallery or a show you need to know that light intensity

Drying the test strips in a microwave before making your final prints will make a world of difference. I agree with Ralph; it's generally about 1/10 of a stop for me.