Need to Confirm Thinking on Negative Densities and Relationship to Contact Prints

I have a question for the experienced group here.

I am hoping to confirm my thinking (or get it corrected).

My assumptions:

The more exposure you give a negative, the denser(darker) it will become. Therefore when you make a contact print in the darkroom at the proper time, it would be lighter because of the negative density is blocking the light. If I wanted it darker, I would have to give the negative and paper more printing time.

For example: If I exposed a negative at F/32 for 1 sec. and another of the same scene at F/32 for 4 sec - the 4s exposure makes the negative denser(darker) which has the impact of a lighter contact print than the 1s exposure when both are printed for the same amount of time.

The 1s exposure would be a thinner negative and allow more light through when making the contact print, resulting in a darker print.

Thanks for your help !!

Exactly...

Now if you develop your film to an average gradient of 0.50 which is common these days, your 4 second exposure (ignore reciprocity law failure for this) would create two stops of additional exposure, (the run) and at 50% gradient, the rise would be one stop's worth of density difference.

So your new negative should require twice the printing time of your first one to get the same result.

Thanks so much for confirming my thinking and also adding in the extra comment which was very helpful.

I appreciate it.

Bill Burk said:

Exactly...

Now if you develop your film to an average gradient of 0.50 which is common these days, your 4 second exposure (ignore reciprocity law failure for this) would create two stops of additional exposure, (the run) and at 50% gradient, the rise would be one stop's worth of density difference.

So your new negative should require twice the printing time of your first one to get the same result.

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