LPL C6700 dichroic for b&w prints

Neal said:

Dear Laci,

Consider freeing yourself from the idea of paper grades. or at least try to for a bit. You will soon find the setting on your enlarger that you consider "normal" for your film/exposure/development habits. Then just dial in more or less contrast as you desire. If it turns out that doesn't work for you just stop.

Good luck,

Neal Wydra

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Laci Toth said:

Hi everyone,

I’ve a few thoughts about filtration control, multigrade filters and so on when using LPL C6700 dichroic enlarger for b&w prints.
How should I set the filtration control and the white light focus lever? Is there a different contrast chart for each enlarger or there is a general rule for this?
The manual says that in the case of b&w printing I’ve to retract all the filtration control or use the white light focus lever. Is that means that the white light focus lever alone could control the contrast even if I don’t use the filtration control?
I previously (2 times) used colour head on a different enlarger and a contrast chart was given and it worked.
Also if I’d like to use multigrade filters should I retract the colours and use the white light focus lever or using the filtration control and the multigrade filters at the same time could even give better/ interesting results? I know that dichroic head is for avoiding filters I’m just wondering if I can change/boost up the print?

Thanks!

Laci

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RalphLambrecht said:

dichroic enlager heads make for an ideal B&W enlarger with the finest contrast control

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jimjm said:

I have an older version of your enlarger, the Saunders/LPL C670 with the same dichroic head, and have been using the Ilford contrast settings as noted by others above. I haven't needed to use separate Ilford MG filters for years.
I use the white light lever to make it easier to focus and compose the image with the filters out of the way. Once ready to print, just flip the lever to engage the filtration you have set, stop down the lens and insert the paper in the easel.
You can use single or double filtration, but double will require longer exposure times. I usually use double filtration as it gives me enough time for dodging and burning, if needed. Depending on the density of your negatives and the enlargement magnification, you may prefer one method over the other.
Printing with white light (no filtration) will equate to about Grade 2 contrast, but exposure times may be very short.

For split-grade printing and dodging/burning, it's been absolutely perfect. Very easy to apply multiple contrast values in one print.

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jimjm said:

If you decide you enjoy the craft of printing and want to learn more, I would recommend books by David Vestal (specifically the Art of B&W Enlarging), and several books by Eddie Ephraums and Tim Rudman.
Have fun!

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Paul Howell said:

I just bought the same set up to print color. While waiting to gather up color paper and chemistry I have been printing B&W using the color head. I don't have a color head for my other enlargers and use Ilford VC filters, I printed the same negative on my D3 with VC grade filter and the Color Head set up for VC grade 2. I've been using the Kodak setting which I think is the same filtration as Omgea, and found a very, very close match. Next I compared with a few sheets of grade 2 Slavich paper I have left, the Slavich printed a little more contrast than the Ilford VC filtes or the 6700, I think Slavich is a little contrastey than other grade 2 papers (not that there are many left). I've only split printed one negative, could not tell difference between split printing and printing grade 2. I thought the condenser would print a little harder than the diffusion head on the 6700, not that much of a difference I've scaled my negatives to print grade 2 so at least in my case not much difference printing with VC filters or a color head, grade 2 filter goes in the Variable Condenser between the condensers and have at it. For those who do a lot of split printing I can see the saving in time.

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bdial said:

If you use the dual filtration method, your exposure times will be fairly consistent across the middle grades which makes it easy to switch grades without a lot of exposure time testing. Working that way means that even for grade 2, you use filtration so that if you consequently decide to switch to 2.5 or 3 for the negative you can use the same exposure you stated with.

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