Paper Negatives and Expansion/Contraction development

[kier]

Hi All -
This morning in Northeast Ohio is a very very foggy one and as I was driving in this morning I was admiring some of the patterns left in plants now that winter is gone. I wanted to stop and take a shot or two on paper negative, but as I looked at it I realized that at best the highest highlights would be Zone VII. Defeated, I drove on. But then it hit me when I got to work - what about expansion development? It's something I played with just a little bit in my younger years, but not much since I've usually been more of a roll shooter.

So - has anyone tried expansion development with paper negatives? Anyone have recommendations? What about contraction? My first thought is that, hey, silver is silver is silver, so it should be possible, right?

Thanks for any/all thoughts!

 

[bernard_L]

Paper contrast can hardly at all be increased by extended development (or by "energetic" developer). But why worry? Your highlights are ZVII (whatever that means for a paper negative). Print your positive on a higher grade.

 

[kier]

Thanks man - I've been racking my head over this all day. I was actually coming back here to delete this post but your response beat me to it. I realized just use VC paper and VC filters. That combined with a technique such as you mention, should probably give me the tonal expansion I'm looking for.