Printing and multigrade filters ????

[BradS]

I don't get into the darkroom very frequently - I have to haul all my stuff into the bathroom from its various hiding places around the house. On my last printing session, I had great difficulty with the trade off between exposure and contrast grade. If I get enough exposure to get a decent black ...either there is no white or, the print is just too dark all over (but, there is a bright white somewhere)...know what I mean? Maybe, I need to go read a book - any recommendations? All of the ones I have are kinda sketchy about the details...

(Shugs sheepishly).

Background:
Paper: Ilford MG-IV with their vc filters.
Developer: Dektol (actually, homebrew D-72 (1+2) - I let the print sit in the dev for at least a full 2 minutes.
Condenser enlarger.

 

[Erik L]

Hey Brad, do a search for split grade printing here. Sounds like it might benefit your situation. Use the 00 to get your highlight tone and then use the 5 for the shadows. You may still
have to do some burning and dodging depending on your negs. Give it a try, it works pretty good and will become intuitive after a few sessions.
good luck
Erik

 

[ic-racer]

Your negatives are underexposed.

 

[removed account4]

Hey Brad, do a search for split grade printing here. Sounds like it might benefit your situation. Use the 00 to get your highlight tone and then use the 5 for the shadows. You may still
have to do some burning and dodging depending on your negs. Give it a try, it works pretty good and will become intuitive after a few sessions.
good luck
Erik

what he said!

john

 

[Lee L]

Steve Anchell, The Variable Contrast Printing Manual is specific to printing with variable contrast filters and papers, including split filter printing. There are a number of other good books on general printing that cover variable contrast papers well. David Vestal covered split filter printing over 30 years ago in The Craft of Photography. Les McLean does a good job of that (and many other topics) in Creative Black and White Photography. There are many others.

Lee

 

[Bruce Osgood]

I second Lees' suggestion of the Les McLean book.

 

[MattKing]

Have you looked at the article on Les McLean's website?

Oh, what the heck:

http://www.lesmcleanphotography.com/articles.php?page=full&article=21

(Aren't bookmarks handy?).

Matt

 

[RH Designs]

If I get enough exposure to get a decent black ...either there is no white or, the print is just too dark all over (but, there is a bright white somewhere)...know what I mean?

Yes! Try it the other way round: use just enough exposure to get the highlights right, then if you don't have a black, go up a grade and try again. It's almost always best to determine exposure using the highlights, and then adjust the paper grade to get the shadows the way you want them. This is analagous to the film mantra "exposure for the shadows, develop for the highlights".

If your highlights are OK but you cannot get a strong black even at the hardest grades, your negs may be underdeveloped.

 

[Chuck_P]

If I get enough exposure to get a decent black ...either there is no white or, the print is just too dark all over

IMO, if you are having this much difficulty in getting a satisfactory print, I first revisit what I am doing with the exosure and development. Underexposed most likely as some have already mentioned.