printing a low contrast pyrocat negative on vc paper

[AnselAdamsX]

I have a normally exposed negative that I developed with divided pyrocat mc (mistake). It looks very low in contrast. I'm enlarging on an Elwood enlarger onto ilford vc paper. Even with the highest contrast filter it still looks flat. Any suggestions?

Thanks
Chris

 

[ic-racer]

You can try intensifying the negative with (there was a url link here which no longer exists). You can try high contrast print developer (lith developer) with your existing paper.

 

[Dan Henderson]

Or try split grade printing. A short soft exposure followed by a much longer (maybe several stops worth) hard exposure might produce a salvageable print.

 

[ic-racer]

Or try split grade printing.

The OP indicated

Even with the highest contrast filter it still looks flat.

so additional green won't help.

 

[Patrick Robert James]

This topic seems to be coming up a lot lately. If selenium toning doesn't do it for you then your best bet would be to print for the shadows and bleach back the highlights.

 

[Jim Noel]

Selenium toning will only give you about 1 zone addition in the highlights. If you need more than that sepia tone, or bleach with sepia bleach and then redevelop in a more active developer like ABC Pyro, or HC 110 dilution "A".

 

[Andrew O'Neill]

Selenium intensification will do nothing if you do not have sufficient densities in the negative. Bleaching and redeveloping may be a better option... or make a copy negative on lith film.

 

[pentaxpete]

Bring back AGFA Bovira Grade 6 -- all is forgiven !!

 

[MartinP]

As I'm not sure of what effect Pyrocat has on a normally exposed neg, could I just suggest that if the neg is low-contrast-but-dense then you try a pre-flash. If that's the case, then experiment with different amounts of flash, flash only grade-five etc. Start with the most flash at the hardest grade, just to see if the results go in the right direction. It brings out texture and form in dense, sunlit backgrounds where you have a shaded subject and so on, so you may find it helps get a better separation on a denser than normal neg too (if it isn't completely uniform anyway).

 

[MartinP]

Martin, pre-flashing will decrease local contrast and/or total contrast, which is the opposite of what OP is looking for with a low contrast negative.

I have no idea what his neg looks like. I only know that for a normally exposed foreground and a low-contrast over-exposed background I can get enough tone and variation in to the background most easily by flashing, often at a high grade. If his neg is uniform and thin then indeed, this technique isn't going to achieve anything.