Multigrade filters. How do you talk about them while you teach?

When I studied Photography (1990's) I was told multigrade paper was a lot better than when it was a new thing, but today's multigrade paper is amazing. A big difference.
We can now have a contrasty negative and print it with a seriously low contrast filter, and it gets very well printed, instead of showing a "suspicious tone" as my old teachers used to say.
Even if adjusting scene's contrast for each sheet development is the thing, it's hard to deny that carrying a medium format camera for mixed scenes is these days more possible and inviting than ever.
Lately I have not felt totally fine when telling students about the most precise zonal approach as the only possibility, so I'm trying to tell them about a system that works well for both sunny and overcast scenes in the same roll.
Of course cameras and handheld meters' readings require to know very well what to do with them, but once we expose correctly, and once highlights are fine after development, couldn't we talk about -no matter the film and developer used- a system in which we use certain filters for sun negatives and certain filters for soft light negatives?
Which filters are you using often for both types of scenes, in case you've considered interesting to optimize the process for mixed scenes?
Thanks.

What I mean is, using roll film as a single sheet for a sunny scene development (placing shadows, short development), and, inside that soft roll, exposing some overcast scenes too, generously, so tone and whites are OK, after a contrasty filter.

I am starting to do this with FP4+, by the way. With Perceptol 1+2. Grain is small and sharp for FP4+... And sunlight is very well controlled with slightly reduced agitation: I see no need for 1+3.
About my question:
One thing that would be great to read here, is which filter is common for you when the sunny scene has no fill in the shadows at all: not from any cloud (totally blue sky), not from floors, not from walls... That's the strong contrast case, but it's common.

michael_r said:

What I would teach would depend on the context/class, but basically I would say mostly expose and develop normally.

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Hello, Michael.
I agree. If we want both types of scenes well printed, after a single development, it's the sunny scene the one that rules the system, unless someone wants blocked shadows and burnt highlights.
In my case it's after liking the tone of high contrast scenes, that I decide how to expose for overcast scenes inside the same roll.

IMO it's harder to master a system for mixed scenes, than using the zone system for single scenes metered for a precise sheet development.
With today's paper, the zone system can be used in a less than precise way while contrast filters help us print well, but in the very different case of mixed scenes, we do need to be really precise because we need both contrast extremes very well printed, and that means both exposing and developing perfectly, and knowing how to meter and expose for those two different situations.
In general I don't seek great prints, as I don't consider them useful unless the photographs are great. Decent prints from great photographs seem more interesting.
When we go too far from direct prints, we go far from what the field Photography means to me.
I do think any printer can do more with a better negative than with a worse one.
Of course a bit of dodging and burning can be well used to make the print look like reality.
But changing reality and its contrast, in the darkroom, to call attention, is not my field.

I would teach enough of the Zone System to demystify it. Enough sensitometry to show them you get nothing under a certain amount of light no matter how you develop, and that it’s nice to have a negative print on Grade 2 filter.

Then I would open the door to printing with whatever negatives you happened to make teaching how to judge what filter grade would work.

Everything should come together

Bill Burk said:

I would teach enough of the Zone System to demystify it. Enough sensitometry to show them you get nothing under a certain amount of light no matter how you develop, and that it’s nice to have a negative print on Grade 2 filter.

Then I would open the door to printing with whatever negatives you happened to make teaching how to judge what filter grade would work.

Everything should come together

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Totally agree, Bill, great post.
All should be explained together, and then, after the students understand the zonal base, we can start working on different negatives to understand filters: only the printing stage offers the last part of the best tonality, if we were able to make a good negative.

I wouldn't tell them one anything.

My pottery class had 2 teachers, depending on what day it was. One wanted to show us everything needed to make test tiles, keep concise notes, etc. The other teacher could be counted on to reply to almost any question...I don't know what that might do. Why don't you try it and see?

Guess which teacher got us moving forward faster, and which was more fun? The one who didn't "teach". What we knew was experiential, that stuff is real, in the real world. This goes back to allowing people to fail too, because maybe that particular failure is success on a new, unexpected level, one that we don't understand yet?

Or, that's a good way to deflect criticism! Probably best to never do that anyway, maybe find the good, and comment on that? Creativity and art are fragile things. One unkind word or bad initial experience can kill it in the bud.

I wouldn't tell them. I would show them.
Use as examples three negatives. One with low mid-tone contrast, one with middle mid-tone contrast and one with high mid-tone contrast.
I would then show them how the negatives print with each of a low contrast filter, mid-contrast filter and high contrast filter and then do my best to help them see those differences.
After that, you can start talking about how lighting conditions, subject characteristics and developer characteristics contribute to those mid-tone contrasts.
But the critical part is getting them to see those very important differences.
You can deal with the lessons on contrast for the shadows and contrast for the highlights in later sessions.

I teach high school photography. You have to do mostly showing rather then explaining, otherwise you'll seeing nothing but a bunch of yawning kids, itching to look at their phones. I show examples of what the filters can do. Must of the students are amazed that one can change the look/contrast of an image just by changing the colour of the light.

I develop the film for the preponderant scene contrast level on each specific roll. But there is likely to be one or two shots on each outside the contrast range of the others. That's just a fact of life with roll film, versus sheet film where you can develop every single sheet as needed. Today's excellent VC papers allow recovering the odd duck or two on the pond much easier than it once was. Camera "contrast" filters have nothing to do with that, but have their own purpose in terms of lightening or darkening color areas selectively on panchromatic film.

But in terms of teaching, just getting students to the point of knowing how to mix solutions correctly and not contaminate them or let them go exhausted, as well as how to develop evenly and consistently, would seem challenging enough. Gotta get to first base first. The Zone System itself has a thousand variations, and can get confusing for beginners. It's actually quite simple once learned; but I left it in the rear view mirror long ago. Take what you need from it; leave the rest behind if you never use it; and never make a religion out of it.

Meh.
Expose and develop properly. That should automatically give you a grade 2 print, which is basically a print without filtering.

Any other filter is basically saving your ass because of improper exposure or development

When I taught at one of the local community colleges, I started with paper, used a step wedge to find the correct exposure and time in developer to obtain best range of tones for both graded and VC paper. Made sure that the students understood wet vs dry down, how glossy vs semi gloss and matt finish and different brands of paper affected the desired choice of grade. Then tested film to match the paper tested tones for grade 2, followed by teaching visualization to change paper grades to obtain desired values. When I got promoted in my day job to management I no longer had time to teach one of the instructors taught BTZS, his student's work was really impressive, but the math concepts overwhelmed some students.

I think the Zone System is helpful to learn how to see (visualize) in black-and-white. The tonal scale is one of the most important expressive elements in black-and-white photography, so engaging with it is crucial IM-HO. Still, I think it should be introduced after the basic procedures and concepts have been learned.

As far as exposure and development go, I think it is important to understand the principles and the interworking of the two, but I wouldn't start beginners out with all the ZS testing and calibration at all. Learning the basics of how to expose enough to get the information you want on the negative and then how to develop for a time that allows you to make a good print from the resulting negative is enough for a 101 course. In that context, demonstrating what severe under- and overexposure do, and what severe over- and underdevelopment do and showing how to avoid them is important.

Next would be dealing with how contrast range in a scene can be manipulated by development and enlarging filtration on VC paper in order to get prints with a full range of tones.
Emphasizing that there is a generous, but not overly-large window of exposure/development combination for any particular scene that will enable such a print to made is next. Then showing how finding the overlapping, smaller, window of exposure and development that will work for a roll of film with scenes of many different contrast ranges on it. Introducing the concept of "normal" contrast range for a scene and "normal" development to get that contrast range to print well on a middle ("normal") contrast-grade paper is important at this stage. Once that is understood, the concepts of more-or-less-contrasty-than-normal scenes is easy to understand, which logically leads to a discussion of contrast controls, both in film development and at the printing stage (filtration for VC papers).

Metering needs to be presented in the context of the type of meter being used. Dealing with high-contrast scenes is quite different using an averaging meter vs a spot meter (and basing your exposure on a shadow value) or using incident metering techniques. Since most students will be using in-camera metering, that would be my starting point, deviating from that for those individuals that either had different meters or were interested in more advanced techniques.

Getting good results quickly and easily is the best way to nurture interest and fuel the desire to learn more on the part of the student. Once this interest is there, then the basic concepts of tonal reproduction using the simplified Zone System can be introduced. Hopefully, at this point, students will be interested in rendering parts of a scene in particular shades of grey and will then embark on the journey of learning to visualize. That's more than enough nuts and bolts for an entry level course!

Best,

Doremus

Thanks everyone!
I agree with all of you, except with NB: I never saw anyone print with grade 2 all low contrast scenes and high contrast scenes mixed in the same roll.
Matt, Doremus, Bill and Michael again, momus, Paul, Drew, Andrew, thank you very much! Lots of great points!

I'm not sure yet what filters I'll end up using often from now on after my current tests, but in the past, when I've developed shortly for mixed contrast scenes in a roll, I used filters around #1 for sunny scenes, and around #3 for soft light scenes...
Any comment on that, or any working system in your case?

You could try split grade printing, I've seen some great work using split grade but have not gotten the knack of it myself.

I just thought of what I would teach.

Limit the choices to 2, 3 and 4 and have the students try to make negatives that look good on 3

Paul Howell said:

You could try split grade printing, I've seen some great work using split grade but have not gotten the knack of it myself.

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Exactly the same in my case... I should start that too, thanks.

Bill Burk said:

I just thought of what I would teach.

Limit the choices to 2, 3 and 4 and have the students try to make negatives that look good on 3

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Hi Bill, I guess you are possibly talking about sheets, and not about rolls with mixed scenes... With mixed scenes I couldn't live without #1 and even #1/2...

When developing roll film that has scenes with varying brightness ranges on it, the goal is to find a developing time that allows the extremes on the roll to be printed easily, with the average filtration for the scenes as close to the midpoint of the contrast range as possible. Now, we could keep careful notes and have unique development times for each roll depending on the brightness ranges of the scenes on the roll. Usually, though, we try to find a standard, or "normal" development time that works for all the rolls we shoot in all the scenes we usually encounter. Such a "normal" or standard development time then allows the highest and lowest contrast scenes you usually encounter to still be well-printed within the available contrast range of VC paper, (e.g., #00 - #5 filtration).

If you consistently end up having things too contrasty to print, but the lower-contrast scenes print well at contrast settings well above the softest possible, you need to reduce you standard development time, and vice-versa

If you end up overshooting both extremes consistently, then some kind of development adjustment for each individual roll depending on what the contrast ranges of the scenes on it are. That, of course, would have to be coupled with some way to avoid getting both extremes on the same roll, maybe by using two backs/camera bodies, one for "low to medium contrast" and one for "medium to high" contrast.

Normally, though, we don't encounter so many scenes with such extremes that we can't find a good standard development time that works for all the scenes on the roll.

Best,

Doremus

Doremus Scudder said:

When developing roll film that has scenes with varying brightness ranges on it, the goal is to find a developing time that allows the extremes on the roll to be printed easily, with the average filtration for the scenes as close to the midpoint of the contrast range as possible. Now, we could keep careful notes and have unique development times for each roll depending on the brightness ranges of the scenes on the roll. Usually, though, we try to find a standard, or "normal" development time that works for all the rolls we shoot in all the scenes we usually encounter. Such a "normal" or standard development time then allows the highest and lowest contrast scenes you usually encounter to still be well-printed within the available contrast range of VC paper, (e.g., #00 - #5 filtration).

If you consistently end up having things too contrasty to print, but the lower-contrast scenes print well at contrast settings well above the softest possible, you need to reduce you standard development time, and vice-versa

If you end up overshooting both extremes consistently, then some kind of development adjustment for each individual roll depending on what the contrast ranges of the scenes on it are. That, of course, would have to be coupled with some way to avoid getting both extremes on the same roll, maybe by using two backs/camera bodies, one for "low to medium contrast" and one for "medium to high" contrast.

Normally, though, we don't encounter so many scenes with such extremes that we can't find a good standard development time that works for all the scenes on the roll.

Best,

Doremus

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Very well explained.

I (would) show students and talk about the work of different photographers so they become familiar with the concept of different styles of printing in relationship to the content of a photograper's work.

There are countless examples.

Bill Brandt's early prints from The English at Home and Literary Britain versus his later work from Perspective of Nudes and his 1966 monograph Shadow of Light. From a rather soft, almost muddy contrast to a much harder contrast.

Mario Giacomelli: his widely accepted landscapes full of abstraction, so interesting because of the high contrast. His controversial series taken in an old-people's home, called: "Death will come and will have your eyes", confronting and not easy to look at because of it's high contrast.

Daido Moriyama's early work from his 1972 book Goodbye Photography, which shows little or no nuance between the white and the black of the prints - all in all becoming an ultimate personal book, redefining city photography.

As for how to work with filters, I explain how to use them and I would suggest to first use a simple condenser enlarger with an opal bulb. Takes about 5 minutes. Students are smart, they understand the basics in no time. After that it is a matter of trying, struggling, succeeding. That is made easier by being aware of contrast in the larger idea of photography.