Problem with printing (using Bromophen)

[cromatt]

Hey

So I need a little help, I just printed these pics out and they look horrific. Does anyone have any ideas why they’d come out like this?

I shot on hp5+
Used new chemicals to develop
Stored it in the fridge
Developed the pics with Bromophen (1+3)

 

[Don_ih]

The negative looks overdeveloped. Possibly also overexposed. You need to print through the density of the negative. But you may never be pleased with the tonality of the print.

 

[MARTIE]

It's not the print developer.

Which paper are you printing on?
Which enlarger and filtration did you use?

 

[rduraoc]

+1 on a possibly overdeveloped negative, you can try to (drastically) reduce the contrast through filtration in the enlarger.

 

[john_s]

Negatives possibly too contrasty (overdeveloped) in addition to being probably overexposed. The prints are not sharp, so maybe the negatives are not focused or the enlarger setup is not focusing properly.

 

[Rick A]

You need to answer these questions to find the issue(s).
Did you shoot at box speed, and was the meter accurate (what ASA/ISO did you meter at)?
What film developer, dilution, temperature, time was used?

 

[cromatt]

The negative looks overdeveloped. Possibly also overexposed. You need to print through the density of the negative. But you may never be pleased with the tonality of the print.

Sorry, what do you mean print through the density of the negative?

 

[Don_ih]

The face in this negative:

is very dense. You can probably get most of the detail out of it by exposing your paper longer. If you grade your contrast too high, you will get a blank face with some detail in mouth, nose, eyes.

There was an old credo: you should just be able to read newsprint through your negative highlights. See how close you come reading text through the face on that negative.

 

[pentaxuser]

The face in this negative:

View attachment 377368 is very dense. You can probably get most of the detail out of it by exposing your paper longer.

Yes cromatt, I too used to wonder what printing through the negative meant. I used to think that every print was made printing through the negative by the nature of darkroom printing

However it's all part of the jargon and Don has covered the meaning in the above part

I used to wonder about using "soup" to develop negatives as well. Would the same soup still be OK for the first course of dinner afterwards?

All part of the darkroom language


pentaxuser

 

[Doremus Scudder]

It would be nice to see the negatives from the prints you posted. The negatives you posted don't match them.

I'm seeing some fogging/light striking on the prints, which may or may not be on the negatives.

Overexposure pushes the highlights up past the point where the values have good separation. Whites look pasty and featureless. Overdevelopment makes the negative too contrasty.

For overexposure, you need to print longer to get through the base fog on the negative (this is what's meant by "printing through the density") and maybe try to burn in the highlights. Using a higher contrast setting generally or to burn with may help, but the print may never be satisfactory.

With overdevelopment, you need to use a lower-contrast setting/filter to counteract the increase of contrast in the negative due to excessive development. Often, exposure times will be longer too.

Have fun and learn from your trials Printing perfect negatives is easy; it's the hard ones that make us better printers.

Also, it teaches us to refine our exposure and film-development techniques.

Doremus