Anyone has tips on how to evaluate black and white 120 negatives after development with naked eye without going through scanning or printing?
When I started printing 60 odd years ago my mentor had me look at my negatives on a light table after I printed them to see what those that printed easily on #2 paper looked like. After several months of doing that he turned it around and had me look at the negatives first and try to predict which would print easily on #2 paper. To this day when I look at my old negatives the "easy" ones just look right.
When I switched to scanning and inkjet printing (due to living for a while with two people and three cats in a 12' by 16' home) I found that the easiest of my old negatives to scan and print were those that I had to print on #3 paper back in my darkroom days.
Where could I get a reference sheet of negatives for Tmax 100 and Tmax 400 where the exposure is perfect?? Does anyone sell like three sheets for two that would be over and under exposed a little as well as normal?I'm curious to know, what your goal of 'evaluation' is?
If it's simply to know if your negatives are well exposed, then it should be fairly self-evident.
If it's for general printing purposes, then having a reference sheet of negatives could be helpful.
If it's for specific printing purposes, then you won't truly know until you contact or proof print.
In any event, scribble processing notes on your neg. files.
Where could I get a reference sheet of negatives for Tmax 100 and Tmax 400 where the exposure is perfect?? Does anyone sell like three sheets for two that would be over and under exposed a little as well as normal?
Why? If you bothered to take the photo, go ahead and at least make a contact sheet. If they are others' negatives, make a contact sheet anyway. Inspection might give you information about exposure, but may not readily reveal the subject or composition.
What does #3 paper mean to someone who doesn't print? What do you look for in the negatives?
Before the advent of Variable Contrast silver papers, you bought paper in specific "grades". Grades 0/1 were lowest contrast, grade 2 was normal ... all the way through grade 4/5/6 which were highest contrast. The paper contrast could be varied slightly with more- or less agitation and/or some variation in development chemistry, but to a large degree, the grade was the grade was the grade.
You had to calibrate your negative that would print properly with your preferred paper type and grade.
These days, this is largely irrelevant. VC papers can take on any grade between very soft and very hard. More importantly, you can vary the contrast in particular areas of the same print by changing the
ratio of hard- to soft light as you dodge and burn.
You've nailed it chuck. I haven't made contact sheets in years, albeit that i shot a lot of LF. I just look at negatives for flaws, composition and general contrast. In the long run it's saved me expensive paper. Like you say, with modern VC papers and VC enlarging heads or color heads it's a lot easier than it once was. Over time, just like looking at an upside down image in a view camera, reading the negative becomes normal.
It's pretty pointless, isn't it, to say not too dense, not too thin, not too contrasty and not too flat unless there is a common frame of reference. I don't think you can evaluate a particular negative without printing or scanning it unless you have previously looked at a lot of prints or scans and associated prints and seen what works for you.What does #3 paper mean to someone who doesn't print? What do you look for in the negatives?
I've used this site as a internet reference over the years: Assessing Negatives - ephotozine
It isn't perfect, but it is helpful and usable.
The biggest aid is that when you get in hand a negative of a subject with normal contrast and a normal distribution of tones, and you are able to reasonably easily obtain from it an end result that also shows normal contrast and a normal distribution of tones, you should set that negative aside as a control reference - a "Shirley" negative in old time (Kodak supported) lab parlance.
With such a reference at hand, your visual comparisons will be much better.
I still make contact sheets just to get a sense of the composition and possible cropping options.
I do sometimes scan negatives when I am in a hurry to understand what's going on. However, this has two disadvantages. First I do not have a good film scanner, so the best I can do is lay the negative down on a flatbed and put an LED light table on top of it for scanning. This only sort of works since my office grade scanner tops out at 1200dpi and hasn't really got the dynamic range needed to scan a negative well.
Also, I do a lot of Pyro-based staining developers and I have no easy way to have the scanned image account for the stain (if someone knows how, I'd be indebted).
I've never been much a fan of RC papers, but I am going to start using exactly that for contact printing. It's far cheaper than good fiber paper and dries quickly - perfect for contacts.
P.S. The finest paper I ever used - by far - was a grade paper. Zone VI Brilliant graded fiber based paper was a joy to behold. I've never seen anything even close to it since. That paper surface and Dmax with a VC emulsion would be the best paper ever made...
I've used this site as a internet reference over the years: Assessing Negatives - ephotozine
It isn't perfect, but it is helpful and usable.
The biggest aid is that when you get in hand a negative of a subject with normal contrast and a normal distribution of tones, and you are able to reasonably easily obtain from it an end result that also shows normal contrast and a normal distribution of tones, you should set that negative aside as a control reference - a "Shirley" negative in old time (Kodak supported) lab parlance.
With such a reference at hand, your visual comparisons will be much better.
I make a contact sheet at grade 2 or 3, depending on the weather, when I got up and the phase of the Moon. That gives me a rough approximation of what I can get. Then I pick one of the negatives and go to split grade printing as the starting point.
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