shadow contrast enhancing mask

[Lukas Werth]

Does anybody have tips for building a negative mask particularly to enhance the contrast of shadow values?

 

[Bob Carnie]

Does anybody have tips for building a negative mask particularly to enhance the contrast of shadow values?

Lukas

If you get hold of Donald Miller on this site he seems to have the process nailed.

 

[MurrayMinchin]

Hi Lucas,

Yup, Donald seems to have been at masking for some years...I'm still clawing my way up the learning curve. How long have you been making masks?

I read recently in the 'Alternative Processes' forum that making a 'slightly' lower contrast interpositive helps in making the shadow contrast enhancing mask (SCEM), or shadow contrast increase mask (SCIM - as I've heard it called) because it allows greater separation of the details in the shadows. That makes sense to me and I'll be trying it next time I make a SCIM.

If you have some time to kill try searching the forums for SCEM, SCIM, masking, etc...you never know what nuggets are out there.

Murray

 

[bobbysandstrom]

Contact Lynn Radeka. The mask is called a SCIM. Shadow Contrast Increase Mask. The approach is dependent upon the shadow values of the original neg. If you have shadows blocking up you would first make a CRM Contrast Reduction Mask and follow this with a SCIM to bump values in the lower end of the scale back down. If the neg has higher low values to start with then you might only need a SCIM. The process with regards to exposure/development times as well as materials used is all covered in lynn's workshop and masking kit. I highly recommend giving him a call.

 

[Robert Hall]

One thing to remember is that it helps, in any circumstance, to have a good negative to start.

I have a couple images in my gallery that show masking. I have, however, not printed them to show shadow detail.

I expose and develop my negatives for pt/pd printing. I also use PMK (not really a requirement) so that I may print silver as well.

I use ortho or regular film to make the masks, using a couple of different punch/registration systems (condit and Inglis) and mask images from 6x7 to 12x20.

If one cares to, one can measure the DR (density range) of the neg and make a resulting mask to adjust the overall mask+neg DR and know where abouts one should expose the print using a specific grade of paper.

I like to print on a fairly harsh grade at times, and if you realllly want to get carried away, try this process with a lith print. WHEW!

But one may also print on a lower grade, like 3 for example, and bring out the shadow detail very nicely.

Again, if there is no information in the shadow area, there is no way to bring it out in the final.

If you need some help with the process, there are several of us here that mask and you should have all your questions answered.

As Howard Bond mentions, the real danger of using masks is the feeling that one has to go back through 30 years of negatives and reprint ones entire lifes work!

 

[Donald Miller]

The Shadow Contrast Increase Mask is made entirely from the interpositive. This would be the first generation positive made by contact printing with the original camera negative.

This mask is a high contrast interpositive. The mask low density areas (corresponding to the camera negative highlight densities) should be very thin...just above FB+fog...

The mask high density regions (corresponding to camera negative shadows) should be contrasty and afford separation in these regions.

This mask is sharp and not unsharp as some other masks are. This is prepared with contact printing the masking film emulsion next to the camera negative emulsion. No separation by substrate and no diffusion like with Duratrans...

In printing this, the mask and camera negative are registered and printed in registration. The highlight values are determined and then the shadow values are determined in the printing process...There is no need for two masks, in most cases, as someone else suggested.

In some extreme cases, I have used a second mask which is a copy negative mask which is high density and high contrast and sharp. This is a supplemental mask that is used after the primary paper exposure. It has low densities in only the deepest shadow values of the camera negative...

In using this mask a second supplemental bump exposure is used to establish the deep values in the lower tonal scale. Since the deep values are established in a second exposure the initial exposure does not need to show the deepest values. This mask, because it is supplemental and sharp, will require registration equipment for proper use.

 

[Lukas Werth]

Thank you, this helps, though not in the way I expected.

As I should have explained in the first post: I need such a mask for making enlarged negatives for contact printing. From a recent yourney, I brought two pinhole negs made in rather low light, in which some shadow values are barely perceptible. As I seem to like the negs, I want to make a mask in order to make the enlarged negs. I have visited Lynn Radekas website once, but living in Germany, visiting his workshop is out of question.

The problem: I fear if I make the mask as an interpositive as you suggested, Donald, there will be a reversal effect in the enlarged neg and consequently in the final print. Any ideas how to avoid this?

 

[RalphLambrecht]

Lukas

Feel free to contact me. I live in Germany as well and Lynn Radeka wrote the advanced masking chapter in my book. Maybe, I can help you.

 

[Donald Miller]

Thank you, this helps, though not in the way I expected.

As I should have explained in the first post: I need such a mask for making enlarged negatives for contact printing. From a recent yourney, I brought two pinhole negs made in rather low light, in which some shadow values are barely perceptible. As I seem to like the negs, I want to make a mask in order to make the enlarged negs. I have visited Lynn Radekas website once, but living in Germany, visiting his workshop is out of question.

The problem: I fear if I make the mask as an interpositive as you suggested, Donald, there will be a reversal effect in the enlarged neg and consequently in the final print. Any ideas how to avoid this?

All of the steps that I mentioned would be one generation removed when you make an enlarged negative using a mask. In other words, the masks would remain the same. Then you would print them as I mentioned but you would print them (by contact printing) onto the same format film as the camera negative rather then onto photo paper. This would then become the masked film interpositive that would become the basis for your enlarged negative. This masked (not mask interpositive) negative interpositive would be a low contrast interpositive (all desired detail would be shown on the interpositive). Then this interpositive would be enlarged onto a new negative of the desired size. The contrast of the enlarged negative would be adjusted as needed in the final (enlarging) process.

As others have mentioned, the masking process will not impart detail that is not there on the original negative.

 

[MurrayMinchin]

In printing this, the mask and camera negative are registered and printed in registration. The highlight values are determined and then the shadow values are determined in the printing process...

Hi Donald,

I'm trying to wrap my head around this one, but I'm probably just reading it wrong...are you saying you print the original negative on its own first to establish high values, then put your sharp SCEM / SCIM over the original negative to reinforce shadow details?

I'll second getting in touch with Radeka at www.maskingkits.com because it's hard to answer questions like this without rewriting the book, and by keeping answers short it can get confusing.

Murray

 

[MurrayMinchin]

Hi again Lucas,

You may find some information here as it's a thread about enlarged negatives, and making interpositives;

(there was a url link here which no longer exists)

Murray

 

[Donald Miller]

Hi Donald,

I'm trying to wrap my head around this one, but I'm probably just reading it wrong...are you saying you print the original negative on its own first to establish high values, then put your sharp SCEM / SCIM over the original negative to reinforce shadow details?

I'll second getting in touch with Radeka at www.maskingkits.com because it's hard to answer questions like this without rewriting the book, and by keeping answers short it can get confusing.

Murray

Murray,
No, what I am saying is that there are two ways that I do this...the first is the sharp shadow contrast increasing mask can be printed in register with the camera negative as a "sandwich" of both the camera negative and the mask.

The second and sometimes supplemental way of doing this is to use a second mask that is high density and high contrast with absence of density in only the deep shadows. Then the first exposure is made in such a way that the desired highlight values are established and the shadow values are weaker then wanted. Then the camera negative is removed from the neg carrier and the supplement mask is installed and a second "bump" exposure is given to establish the deepest values.

 

[Donald Miller]

Hi again Lucas,

You may find some information here as it's a thread about enlarged SCIM's;

(there was a url link here which no longer exists)

Murray

Murray, The thread that you linked deals with two procedures of producing enlarged negs. It is not about masking and enlarging a negative at the same time.

The process that this original post dealt with is quite a bit more involved then simply enlarging a negative. Not only are we talking about enlarging a negative but we are also dealing with enhancing shadow contrast on the enlarged negative while we are enlarging it...in other words we are adjusting internal contrast specifically to a defined region of the enlarged negatives curve.

The effects of masking are limited, in large part, by what our imaginations can conceive.

 

[MurrayMinchin]

Murray, The thread that you linked deals with two procedures of producing enlarged negs. It is not about masking and enlarging a negative at the same time.

You're too fast! I was editing that bit while you wrote this There were some ineresting bits about what kind of contrast is important in an interpositive that applies to what we're talking about.

Murray

 

[MurrayMinchin]

The second and sometimes supplemental way of doing this is to use a second mask that is high density and high contrast with absence of density in only the deep shadows. Then the first exposure is made in such a way that the desired highlight values are established and the shadow values are weaker then wanted. Then the camera negative is removed from the neg carrier and the supplement mask is installed and a second "bump" exposure is given to establish the deepest values.

This is essentially my understanding of a SCIM and how it's used.

No, what I am saying is that there are two ways that I do this...the first is the sharp shadow contrast increasing mask can be printed in register with the camera negative as a "sandwich" of both the camera negative and the mask.

You must be talking a completely different kind of mask here. If you put a SCIM in register with the original neagative, anything above the deepest shadows is completely blocked. Maybe you should call it something else to avoid confusion?

Ones ability to conceive anothers processes is proportional to the clarity of the explanation given. [tit-for-tat ]

Murray

 

[MurrayMinchin]

(bump)

Hi there Donald...if you've come up with a way to make a SCIM-like mask (where the mask's only effect is on raising contrast in the darkest areas of the print, and is used with the negative), I'd love to hear about it.

Murray

 

[Donald Miller]

(bump)

Hi there Donald...if you've come up with a way to make a SCIM-like mask (where the mask's only effect is on raising contrast in the darkest areas of the print, and is used with the negative), I'd love to hear about it.

Murray

Murray, The way to make a single mask to increase shadow contrast is as follows.

This is a sharp mask, it requires precise registration. As I am sure that you already know, sharp masks are made emulsion to emulsion with no separation or diffusion.

First make a an interpositive with a much higher then normal density range. The interpositive mask exposure is vitally important because one does not want any interpositive mask density (exposure) in the negative midtone to highlight densities. I would develop this in something like Dektol 1-5 or 1-10.

Then after developing and drying the interpositive, opaque out all of the clear regions that were represented by the midtone and highlight densities on the original camera negative.

After opaqueing the interpositive, then make a copy negative mask by contact printing the interpositive emulsion to the negative mask emulsion. This will make a negative mask to correspond to the camera negative.

The shadow densities on the shadow enhancement mask (negative) will correspond to the original camera negative shadow densities but will amplify the original camera negative shadow separation. The effect will be an increase of the separation in only the shadow values, The opaqued regions on the interpositive will be rendered clear on the single stage shadow contrast mask (second generation negative) and will allow normal printing of the camera negative along with the mask in register.

What we are looking for is a shadow contrast mask that will have peak densities of .05-.10 above FB+fog in only the low densities. So this is a mask that is basically what appears to be clear film with the low density regions have a density variance of FB+fog +.05 to .10

The exposure time of the negative/mask combination will need to be increased by the fb+fog of the single stage shadow enhancement mask.

The benefit of a mask like this as different from the contrast enhancement mask in which the second "bump" exposure is given is that the effects can be tailored beyond just the deepest shadows.

If you have difficulty in realizing precise registration between the camera negative and the shadow contrast enhancement mask, then you might want to give a very slight exposure through a very low density unsharp mask as the final exposure. Should you decide to do this, depending on your situation and your registration equipment, then obviously the initial exposure would need to be compensated for the effects of the supplemental exposure through the unsharp mask.

Hope that this helps.

 

[MurrayMinchin]

Then after developing and drying the interpositive, opaque out all of the clear regions that were represented by the midtone and highlight densities on the original camera negative.

After opaqueing the interpositive, then make a copy negative mask by contact printing the interpositive emulsion to the negative mask emulsion. This will make a negative mask to correspond to the camera negative.

You sneaky dog !

I can see how this would really work with some images, and as you suggest, would be a real test to see how precise registration is. Thanks.

Murray

 

[Lukas Werth]

Donald,

your second desription seems to be just what I want to do. I intend to try this. Just one question: how do you proceed to "opaque out" the original highlight densities on the interpositive?

By the way, as those two original negs I want to improve in this way are 4x5 (pinholes), which I want to enlarge to 16x20, registration is not such a problem. It just needs a glass table with light from below, a calm hand, a good loupe, and a little bit of patience.

 

[Lukas Werth]

Oh, and Murray,

thank you for mentioning the string; I was aware of it, however, as I have posted myself to it. I am familiar with making enlarged negs.

 

[Donald Miller]

Donald,

your second desription seems to be just what I want to do. I intend to try this. Just one question: how do you proceed to "opaque out" the original highlight densities on the interpositive?

By the way, as those two original negs I want to improve in this way are 4x5 (pinholes), which I want to enlarge to 16x20, registration is not such a problem. It just needs a glass table with light from below, a calm hand, a good loupe, and a little bit of patience.

Lukas,

The opaque material can be as simple as a Sharpee pen. Or you can use Cocein Scarlet.