Some prefer to wet print, ruling out Photoshop.
Single grade FB papers
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- Thread starter Melvin J Bramley
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So you are saying that you can expose a 36 exposure roll of various subjects and lighting conditions and have the SBR and contrast index perfectly suited to the film +development on every single frame? You must be an exceptionally talented technician to be able to accomplish that.
For the 99.99% of photographers who can't do that, split grade printing is a useful tool to have available.
Nah, that doesn't make sense. By that logic, we should only be offered the choice between charcoal on the wall of a cave and AI-generated images. There's life between the extremes, you know. Most of it ends up there, in fact.
That's bs.......sorry, I just call it like I see it.
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- cliveh
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Not the point at all.
{He slinks away, head down, grumbling to himself, ...}
OK. How does Photoshop replace split-grade printing? Apples and oranges. I think it should be rephrased as "If you need to use split grade printing, you might as well buy a fifth of whiskey." Makes more sense that way.
I would, but I only use split-grade printing.
I would have to give the same answer, as would most people who have switched to split grade printing. Clive, go in the darkroom, try out split grade printing and you may be surprised that you learned something.
I'd have to find the prints, but absolutely yes I can. I print a number of 70+ year old railway negatives and they are often far from ideally exposed or developed.
I have to take the negs as I them as I find them, and split grade makes better prints much easier to produce. It has a self masking effect, so greatly reduces the amount of dodging and burning necessary, while producing a more pleasing print. As I said up thread, it seems to have the effect of increasing the microcontrast, while maintaining the overall level of contrast so as to not hide shadows or blow out highlights. Essentially, it's the effect of the clarity slider in Lightroom, which is different from contrast.
Read port #35.
You know, if you're happy the way you print, so be it. I don't give a flying f*k.
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I would look for nature scenes with grand skies.
MattKing
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It is difficult, because split grade techniques have the same role in my printing toolbox as cropping, dodging and burning.
So it is tough to identify prints that don't use them at least a bit.
I evaluate contrast in each important area of a subject, and adjust contrast individually for each area.
One can only do that with either split grade or techniques like masking or localized bleaching.
No that’s silly, at least to me. I don’t believe there’s any advantage at all in “split grade printing” where you give some overal exposure through the highest filter and some through the lowest instead of your one overall exposure at whatever grade filtration. But locally burning with a different contrast is just another tool that VC paper makes possible and one I’ll happily use when it works for me. Similarly (also works with graded of course) using local bleaching which also increases local contrast as well as reducing density. Whatever helps - it’s all still analog to me.
What do you mean by that? Genuine question.
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Self masking is an effect where an earlier exposure causes density that blocks some later light from reaching unexposed lower layers so the blacks don’t get as black as you would otherwise expect. This happens with printing-out papers (as opposed to developing-out papers).
I am not sure what Craig means, unless you develop the print between exposures it wouldn’t be real self-masking.
But perhaps he means the effect is similar to that old effect that you get with printing-out paper.
I am not sure what Craig means, unless you develop the print between exposures it wouldn’t be real self-masking.
But perhaps he means the effect is similar to that old effect that you get with printing-out paper.
Indeed. There's nothing self-masking about VC papers, regardless if they're used for split grade or single-grade printing. That part of Craig's post just doesn't add up. There's no difference between a split-grade print or a single exposure at the same effective grade, unless burning & dodging are used.
Thanks @Bill Burk and @koraks. Makes good sense.
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I’m up for a challenge, if someone will post a good example of a print that looks better because it was printed with split grade technique, I will look for an example of the best that I can do without.
I’ll look through my collection of negatives for a similar subject where I did my best but sensed that a split-grade treatment could have helped. Best chance of a match would be if the sky is ordinary (blue skies follow me everywhere) and the scene is nature, rock, river, trees, mountains.
I’ll look through my collection of negatives for a similar subject where I did my best but sensed that a split-grade treatment could have helped. Best chance of a match would be if the sky is ordinary (blue skies follow me everywhere) and the scene is nature, rock, river, trees, mountains.
A better example would be the same negative printed by both techniques. The more challenging the negative, the better the test.
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