Prints are sometimes mushy, does not snap, pop out....

[cliveh]

safelight is ok, other prints (on same paper with same negative) are not "problematic".
Negative is not fogged, ot is just crappy photo from mobile phone.

I am not talking about the print side, but the negative. When you say safelight is OK, do you mean you are developing negs by green safelight inspection? Or are you referring to printing?

 

[David Allen]

Well that image shows that, with a bit of dodging and burning, you could achieve a similar result with the original image. However, I stand by my general point that it is not a scene with exciting light. In such lighting you need to have an image with more 'action' so that the grey lighting is not so important because the image is more dynamic.

Bests,

David.
www.dsallen.de

 

[cliveh]

Did you develop the film in a spiral tank and forget to put the core plastic pole down the middle?

 

[darkosaric]

Film is not fogged for sure. My M3 does not leak light, and my developing tank also is ok. I load film in the dark, and plus in changing bag.

 

[sepiareverb]

Seems like underexposure on the film to me. If shadows are empty that is a likely cause.

 

[darinwc]

Can you put the two negatives side by side and look at them? Or print them each with the exact same settings?

 

[CMoore]

.
* One of my favourite dodging tools is an old grade 5 filter, cut up to a circle of about 2cm. I would use that to hold back te dark coat of the man, about half a stop as a first try. What a grade 5 as a dodging tool does, is to increase contrast locally, improving tonal seperation. When done right it will add just that bit of shadow detail in the dark coat, without making it look grey and muddy.
Making good prints is a lot of work and difficult negatives take a lot of try and error and use a lot of paper, but that is the way it is.

Oh Boy...that is a brilliant Dodging Tool to have. Somebody was using their IQ.
I am getting some old filters and Scissors/Razors now.
Thank You

 

[NJH]

Should I use higher contrast while printing, but with dodging and burning get all the details in the highlights, so that I have increased local contrast - but overall uniform contrast with no blow up highlights, and no loss in the shadows?

Thanks,

Simple answer is yes, give it a go and see what happens. In my case I have a load of negatives that were way overdeveloped by a lab so they tend to want between 00 and 1 to get all the tones down on a straight print, but of course this ends up with loads of grey and poor detail separation. Its been a good learning exercise because I have spent last year dodging and burning like crazy, vignette burns, gradient burns and cutting masks out of card to burn in the sky in etc.. Pretty much addicted to it now to be honest. I am lucky to have the RH Analyser pro as this makes it easy to meter different areas of a print and see what contrast works where. Of course as other have said if there is no detail in a shadow you can't rescue it from the negative, and likewise when the light is really flat you either play to that (think of lone tree in the fog type stuff) or you can burn and dodge to create a more interesting photograph. Its up to you what you want to create.

 

[darkosaric]

Thanks again to all of you. Right now I am out of 30x40cm paper, so I cannot try some of tips mentioned, but I will try it later .

 

[RalphLambrecht]

It is hard to put this in words, but sometimes I get some prints that are somehow "mushy", they look kind of "dirty"... it looks like print does not snap, there is no pop out. I am not sure why, is it the light, wrong contrast grade while printing...
It is something like example below - upper print has all details, but does not pop out, lower has pop effect, but with too high contrast, so the details are lost - and therefore not satisfactory. Should I use higher contrast while printing, but with dodging and burning get all the details in the highlights, so that I have increased local contrast - but overall uniform contrast with no blow up highlights, and no loss in the shadows?

It happens to me sometimes, not often - and on the same negative some frames are perfect with for example grade 3, and some are suffering with this. I doubt it is the negative developing, could be bad lightning in the scene? Some frames are good only with dual (split) grade printing and with excessive burning and dodging?

Thanks,

as you suspect, this is always a matter of exposure and contrast during image taking and printing; contrast is to B&W what color is in color photography. Don't be afraid of dodging and burning.that's where the mastery is.