Paper Grade - Contrast - Filtering

[CMoore]

I did a search under "paper grade" but i did not find the "beginners guide". One of our members posted a link that i think Might Explain it, but the link would not open.
Any of you guys have a link to an Article/Video that does a decent job of explaining Paper Grades (why there ARE different grades) as they relate to the B&W darkroom.?
I have a few books, and i will check again, but it seems like it is not discussed at a Beginner Level.
Thank You
just to give an example of my ignorance.....i do not even know If There Are single grades of RC Paper. Is it just a FB thing.?
I have only ever used Multi Contrast, RC Paper.

 

[MattKing]

There may be some single grade RC still around, but I don't know of any, and it probably wouldn't sell well.
This really basic Kodak publication might help a bit: http://125px.com/docs/techpubs/kodak/aj3.pdf
One of Henry Horenstein's books would be good: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/745580.Black_and_White_Photography
An older Kodak booklet like this one might also help, although the Kodak papers are no more: https://www.amazon.com/Quality-Enlarging-Kodak-Black-Papers/dp/0879852798
The "grades" are a measure of how contrasty the paper is. Grades 0 and 1 are low contrast, grades 2 and 3 tend to straddle normal and grades 4 and 5 are high contrast.
If you have a high contrast negative, you use a low contrast paper to give you a print with normal contrast.
If you have a normal contrast negative, you use a normal contrast paper to give you a print with normal contrast.
If you have a low contrast negative, you use a high contrast paper to give you a print with normal contrast.
Multi-contrast paper is a relatively new phenomena. It gives different contrast when exposed to light with differing amounts of blue and green in it. That permits use of filters (magenta to block green, and yellow to block blue) to adjust the contrast in the print..
Although the multi-contrast filters have numbers on them that look similar to the old paper grade number (0 through 5) that is at least partially a remnant from the days when everyone started out with graded papers, and needed to be persuaded to switch.
Most of my 50 years of darkroom work (gulp) have been spent with variable/multi-contrast papers. The earliest ones (some of which were fibre based) weren't great. The current ones are tremendously better.

 

[CMoore]

Oh Wow.....OK.
See, i did not even Know THAT.
But your info here puts the basics into perspective. Thank You So Much.
Paper grades are one of those "things" that an older photographer would have grown up with so to speak. I am sure it seems almost as basic as shutter speeds and f/stops to a lot of you guys.....but to me it has always been a mystery.
Hopefully there are one or two others members of APUG that are.....
Being exposed
Seeing the light
Coming out of the dark
.....
Where paper grades are concerned.
Thanks Again Matt

 

[M Carter]

If you're fairly new to B&W printing, I'd look up a copy of Tim Rudman's "Master Printing Course". Discontinued but out there used - I got one for then bucks. Absolutely the best darkroom printing book I've ever seen. Goes from total noob to very advanced stuff - dude, the stuff in there will blow you mind since you may never have heard of bleaching, toning, spot-bleaching, masking, split-filter printing... it really is a complete "course", from one of the great photography teachers.

 

[CMoore]

Thanks.....i will give that a shot.

 

[Bill Burk]

I like an FB paper that only comes in single grades. Multigrade papers give you infinite choices. I was too wishy washy when I used them. I would start with 2 and then go to 3. Then think maybe I should have tried 2 1/2. Maybe I would go only 1/2 grade and it wasn't enough. Then what? Go 1 grade next time or 1 1/2 more to give a big jump. Maybe I would go the wrong direction. Definitely I would not go far enough. Like golf when you putt and Martha the shot.

With a single grade paper, it's one or the other. If the first test strip looks flat on grade 2 then go to 3. That kind of easy decision.

 

[Bill Burk]

ps You could get the same result as me by making a commitment to just use filter 2 and 3 as much as possible.

It's an exercise that is similar to "choose one film and stick with it for a while". If you think it's a worthwhile idea, it's not going to cost you anything to try.

 

[Svenedin]

Yes there are single grade RC papers available. Ilford "ilfospeed" is such a paper but now only available in grade 2 or 3. I use it sometimes but it is considerably more expensive than Ilford Multigrade IV. There may be other fixed grade RC papers but I don't know of them. Multigrade paper is convenient and you don't need boxes of different grade paper. If you get an enlarger with a "multigrade" constant exposure head then the whole process is very straightforward. You just choose the grade with a dial on the head (this changes the filtration) the exposure time remains the same throughout the grades and that's it. With such a multigrade head you can also vary anywhere in between the grades as well.

The concept of grades in numbers is from fixed grade paper and then from the numbers of the multigrade filters that are used with multigrade paper. In reality you can vary the contrast continuously from 00 (very soft) to 5 (very hard). "Normal" is considered around grade 2 or 3 and I find most of my negatives will produce a good print at that grade or at grade 3. If your negative lacks contrast you can print at a harder, higher grade and if the negative is very high contrast you can print at a softer, lower grade. Sometimes you might want a print to have more "punch" and choose to print at a harder grade.

When you are burning in the sky for instance you can burn in a different grade to the rest of the print. You might want to emphasise the clouds and burn in the sky at a higher grade.

It might help for you to see a sequence of prints from the same negative printed at the different grades. I don't have a complete sequence but various books will illustrate this.

Here are 2 of my photos, one at grade 3 and the other at grade 4.

 

[mnemosyne]

Foma's graded RC and FB papers (called "Fomaspeed" and "Fomabrom" without "variant") are still available, at least here in Europe. FB mostly in grades "normal" and "hard", but some RC papers also in "special" and "soft", depending on surface finish.

 

[RalphLambrecht]

I did a search under "paper grade" but i did not find the "beginners guide". One of our members posted a link that i think Might Explain it, but the link would not open.
Any of you guys have a link to an Article/Video that does a decent job of explaining Paper Grades (why there ARE different grades) as they relate to the B&W darkroom.?
I have a few books, and i will check again, but it seems like it is not discussed at a Beginner Level.
Thank You
just to give an example of my ignorance.....i do not even know If There Are single grades of RC Paper. Is it just a FB thing.?
I have only ever used Multi Contrast, RC Paper.

Tried here:

 

[CMoore]

It might help for you to see a sequence of prints from the same negative printed at the different grades. I don't have a complete sequence but various books will illustrate this.

Here are 2 of my photos, one at grade 3 and the other at grade 4.

Yeah. No Doubt.
I was wondering what the Y - C - M knobs on the enlarger did.....so i printed an 8x10 with them all on Zero, and then made a separate print with the knobs on Fifty (not all three at once).
So i had 4 of the same print. The only difference was each one had a different filter setting. It DOES help a beginner to get a basic idea of what the heck Those Colors Do.
Thanks for your examples.

 

[MattKing]

You normally wouldn't use the cyan ("C") filter when doing black and white.
Increasing the Magenta filtration will increase the contrast.
Increasing the Yellow filtration will decrease the contrast.
Changing just one filter setting may also have an effect on exposure, so there are charts available that tell you how, by mixing the two adjustments, you can get contrast changes while still keeping the exposure relatively the same.

 

[tedr1]

As has been already mentioned, fixed graded papers came first, and were followed by variable contrast (multi-grade) papers, mainly to overcome the problem in darkrooms of always running out of the desired fixed grade paper at a crucial moment!

I like the Ilford products, the quality is consistent and Ilford provides good instructions on the use of papers and developers.

 

[Gerald C Koch]

If you are shooting 35mm it is best to under develop a bit and use grade 3 to minimize grain. Other formats can be exposed for grade 2.

With many VC papers exposing with no filter usually produces grade 2.5.

 

[RalphLambrecht]

If you are shooting 35mm it is best to under develop a bit and use grade 3 to minimize grain. Other formats can be exposed for grade 2.

With many VC papers exposing with no filter usually produces grade 2.5.

it helps to know how to measure paper grades and contrast: