Paper Flashing

Snapshot · Dec 24, 2007

Hi All,

I am hoping to tap into the experience of APUG members with regards to fogging and flashing paper. Does anyone have any advice as how to perform this procedure? My approach has been to expose the paper to diffused white light for 5% to 10% of the to exposure time. For example, I would expose the paper to a 0.5 second burst of diffuse light when I'm exposing the print for a total of 10 seconds.

Any thoughts or input would be appreciated.

Les McLean · Dec 24, 2007

This article published on my website may be of help to you

http://www.lesmcleanphotography.com/articles.php?page=full&article=27

Monophoto · Dec 24, 2007

I made a frame from heavy cardboard, and then glued a sheet of drafting vellum over it. The vellum acts as a diffuser.

When I feel the need to add a bit of tonality in the highlights of a print, I will hold the frame under the enlarger (not steady - keeping it in motion assures that imperfections in the vellum don't get printed into the image) for short time. There is no hard number - usually 5 to at most 10% of the base exposure is fine. Anything more than that and the highlights start to get dull.

It isn't necessary to remove the negative from the enlarger for this manipulation - the diffusion caused by the vellum is so extreme that the image totally disappears, and all that comes through is light.

The result is roughly equivalent to a 1/4 step reduction in contrast.

psvensson · Dec 24, 2007

I pump a few brief flashes from a small LED flashlight, held over my head. Sometimes I aim at the white wall nearby. The virtue of this approach - using a separate light source - is that the exposure the paper receives is not dependent on the density of the negative ... and it shouldn't, since the optimum amount of flashing depends on the paper, with only the highlight density of the negative as a slight contributing factor.

The downside of this approach is that it's hard to time accurately.

On other occasions, I've used the backlit screen of a PDA (a cell phone would work too) to flash paper when it's in the developer. I may start using that method more, since it's easier to time a weak light source like a PDA.

Jim Jones · Dec 25, 2007

I use a small flashlight diffused with masking tape for local flashing. This works well for routine slight darkening of the edges of a print. The effect is slightly different than burning in the edges.

Dave Miller · Dec 25, 2007

There has been a discussion about this using the RH Flasher recently that contains helpful advice.

climbabout · Dec 25, 2007

flashing

I'm fortunate enough to have 2 enlargers side by side. I use my 23cII at f16 10 seconds at a fixed height to flash my paper - I arrived at this setting by testing for the maximum time for no tonality as detailed in a previous post. Then just expose the paper normally.
Tim

Snapshot · Dec 25, 2007

Les, I've read your article and it was really helpful. Thanks everyone for your input.

Neil Poulsen · Jan 27, 2008

Dauxlite

Calumet used to sell a Dauxlite for flashing. It's LED light based, has several intensities, attachable VC filters, different sizes of circles and squares, etc. It's the best I've seen for flashing.

glbeas · Jan 27, 2008

I have a Timeolite hanging on the wall attached to a small desk lamp with a dimmer on it. After calibrating I just lay the sheet on the table under the lamp and flash it before putting the paper on the easel. The lamp is about three feet above the table.

Snapshot · Jan 28, 2008

I've made a translucent filter that I put in the filter holder. I flash the paper and then remove the filter and proceed to make my print. It's fairly quick but the Dauxlite and Timelite setup look like good ideas.

Mike Té · Jan 28, 2008

Here's my set-up...

...as I showed in a recent thread:

(there was a url link here which no longer exists)

Mahler_one · Mar 11, 2008

Neil-They still sell the DauxLite at Calumet.

Ed

Paper Flashing

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