Prints exposition and development judgement

Hello,

it might be a silly question for all you masters, but just yesterday I (contact-) printed my first BW prints. So far I've been only scanning my films (both 120 and 9x12cm).

As I don't have a real darkroom and only occupy a bathroom when my wife and a year old daughter permit, I use a very simple setup. A lamp (with 25W bulb directed to the white ceiling to lenghten the exposition times), 2 layers of clear glass, normal gradation fixed contrast RC based paper (the ones from Foma, called Fomaspeed N), paper developer (from Foma), fixer. Instead of a timer, I count the seconds (I'm pretty good at keeping rhytm). Now the question:

from the look of the developed print, how do I judge if I should lenghten/shorten the exposition time or adjust the development time? Do I get it right that with longer development (same exposition) I get darker print (overdevelopment?). That longer exposition and shorter development time would result in more contrasty print?

In short, do I have to shoot a test target - preferably a wedge chart and try to get this print perfect and then use this as start for all other prints?

THanks a lot and sorry for such a question, I'm just a beginner in this field...

Jiri Vasina

poutnik said:

Do I get it right that with longer development (same exposition) I get darker print (overdevelopment?).

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That's for films. Papers are supposed to be developed to completion.

That longer exposition and shorter development time would result in more contrasty print?

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The opposite. However, again, this is not how you may want to control the contrast.

from the look of the developed print, how do I judge if I should lenghten/shorten the exposition time or adjust the development time?

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As a general rule (not always valid, depending on subject) you should have all tones from pure white to coal black. Set contrast with filters or by changing paper grade accordingly. When you're done, fine-tune the exposition so that the midtones are spot-on for the kind of look you like.

Like Marco says, developing prints fully is best. Certainly develop long enough for at least some areas to reach a maximum black. After that, increasing developing time can give a moderate increase in print density. Increasing exposure is the best way to increase print density. in printing, a decrease in exposure and an increase in developing time will cause a moderate increase in contrast. Changing paper grades is a much better way of controlling contrast.

Step wedge negatives that can be laid over the camera negative and photo paper for determining exposure were made by Kodak and perhaps others. There are equally good ways of making a test print. One is to cover a strip of a typical negative and paper after one second exposure , cover a little more after the second second, cover more at four seconds, more at 8 seconds, etc. This will give you a very wide range of exposures. You can probably guess at the final exposure by choosing a time between the best two test exposures. With experience you should make a good guess at the correct exposure without a test print. If your negatives are consistantly well exposed, printing will be much easier. In my darkroom, using Kodak Polymax paper, a 25 watt bulb would be too bright.

Hi There

Since you are using a fixed grade paper you will not see much contrast difference when changing exposure or developing longer.

I would suggest that you rig a holder for contrast filters below the bulb, not to close or you will burn the filter. As well switch to a multicontrast paper for increase or decrease in contrast.

Set up a standard time for development and stick with this *1 1/2 min *
You then can vary the exposure times for darker or lighter prints
Change the filter for more or less contrast.

Try to aim for 10 seconds in exposure as a guide for a negative that you think is your working standard.

If you are constantly short exposing times *under 5 seconds*
1. raise the bulb higher
2. change the bulb to lower wattage
3. use nuetral density filters along with the contrast filter

If you are constantly long exposint times * over 20 seconds*
1. lower the bulb
2. change the bulb to higher wattage
3. use a more concentrated developer

Since you are not using a timer, 10 seconds is a very repeatable time. I always count down when printing as a standard practice.

You can always find a used GrayLab timer for low cost which will help in the longer development time.

do not get in a habit of changing your dev, temp,concentration or dev time.
consistancy will be the best learning tool.

It's hard to answer questions like this without writing a book.

I'd start with the recommended dilution, temperature, and development time for the kind of paper (RC or Fibre based) you're using. Then I would make test strips to find out what exposure time is needed to turn the negatives clear edge almost pure black. This gives you a standard starting point, otherwise known as a contact, or proof print.

At this exposure your negatives should print as you expect them to (good shadow detail and nice high value detail...if that's what you intended) on grade 2 paper (if that's the grade you consider normal contrast). If you do this there is nowhere to hide...if a negative is improperly exposed or developed it's obvious right away, and gives you a starting point for more creative interpretations.

You might want to buy a cheap electronic metronome...this way you'll get more consistant exposures.

Murray

Thanks all,

Bob, I know that consistency is the best thing, so I wanted to develop some standard.

As all my prints from yesterday have deep blacks on the edges of the print (I used 10x15 paper for 9x12cm film), I think that all my development was "to completion" as you call it. My development times were around 50secs (it was very very hot yesterday and I was not able to bring any amount of water below 24centigrades). The exposures ranged from 5 to 10secs (I also discovered that 10seconds was good to count to).

So next time I'll stick to your recommendations, Bob.

Another question - I should develop to completion - is there a possibility to overdevelop a print (like a negative can be)?

Jiri

MurrayMinchin said:

...
At this exposure your negatives should print as you expect them to (good shadow detail and nice high value detail...if that's what you intended) on grade 2 paper (if that's the grade you consider normal contrast).
...
Murray

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Foma's Fomaspeed has three contrast types - soft, normal and hard. I think (but am definitelly not sure) it could be labeled as grade 2, grade 3 and grade 4. So I'm using grade 3. And I don't have any other paper as I want to keep really simple (read, fool-proof) in the beginning and not have too many variables...

Jiri

poutnik said:

Another question - I should develop to completion - is there a possibility to overdevelop a print (like a negative can be)?

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Not very much. In the sense that if the recommended time at a specific temperature is - say - 1 minute and you'll develop for 2 mins, you won't even notice the difference.

If you leave it there for half an hour, well, then highlights will start to suffer a bit...

poutnik said:

Thanks all,

Another question - I should develop to completion - is there a possibility to overdevelop a print (like a negative can be)?

Jiri

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It is possible, but it takes a very long time to achieve. If your normal print development time is 2 minutes, leaving it in for six or eight will only slightly overdevelop the print. Unlike film, paper does not respond to development in a linear fashion.

Jiri

Keep a very standard proceedure starting out. Over development as others pointed out is possible but you really need to extreme over-develop to see the difference.
Your time of 50 seconds for rc paper at the temps you are describing seems ok. I would not develop less time.
A metronome like Murry suggests would help. I think being able to count down will help you in the future for the time you start enlarging and dodging and burning.
You seem to have a workable setup without pissing off the wife too much so keep it simple and try to control all the variables as much as you can.
I thin

poutnik said:

Foma's Fomaspeed has three contrast types - soft, normal and hard. I think (but am definitelly not sure) it could be labeled as grade 2, grade 3 and grade 4. So I'm using grade 3. And I don't have any other paper as I want to keep really simple (read, fool-proof) in the beginning and not have too many variables...

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Good plan. Aiming for the middle grade will give you a little wiggle room if a negative is a bit too contrasty (print it on the soft paper) or dull (print it on the hard paper).

Sounds like you're off to a great start

Murray

MurrayMinchin said:

Then I would make test strips to find out what exposure time is needed to turn the negatives clear edge almost pure black. This gives you a standard starting point, otherwise known as a contact, or proof print.

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I should have said find the first exposure on the test strip that turns the negatives clear edge almost pure black.

Anyways...that's the way I learned to do it...others may do it differently...

Murray