Split Grade Printing?

ToddB · Oct 28, 2015

Hey guys,

I was looking at youtube and this guy does split grade printing using grade 5 for deep shadow detail and grade 00 for highlight details. Has anyone done this? also.. the grades referring to contrast filter use?

Todd

pdeeh · Oct 28, 2015

yep and yep.

I find it a triffic technique. Some of my most satisfactory prints have come from using it, and I'm a deeply deeply unskilled printer.

Google for "les mclean split grade printing" to get you going.

Someone will no doubt come along and say how it's not for beginners and you need to learn this and that and the other thing first, or that it's bad technique, or lazy, or similar bollocks.

But if it gets you the prints you want, it seems good to me ...

removed account4 · Oct 28, 2015

all the time

ToddB · Oct 28, 2015

Okay.. The only concern I have is when you switch out the filters. Would it knock it out of focus with vibration between treatments?

Todd

MattKing · Oct 28, 2015

Read Les McLean's article here: http://www.lesmcleanphotography.com/articles.php?page=type&type=Analogue

And Ralph Lambrecht and Chris Woodhouse's wonderful book, "Way Beyond Monochrome", plus a bunch of others.

Although I tend to use the technique more to supplement a mid grade filter setting.

MattKing · Oct 28, 2015

ToddB said:
Okay.. The only concern I have is when you switch out the filters. Would it knock it out of focus with vibration between treatments?

Todd

The below the lens filters are probably better for this. Unless you are lucky enough to either have a variable contrast head, or a very rigid colour head.

Mainecoonmaniac · Oct 28, 2015

I've been printing for over 30 years and I'm just learning how to split grade print. All that time, I've been using a Beseler color head and bought a set of Ilford under the lens filter set to do it. Keep in mind that I'm still a beginning split grade printer, I'm still falling back to old habits of using one filter with most negatives. But for very contrasty negs, I find split grade printing very useful. Do other folks find that's the case too?

bvy · Oct 28, 2015

I do split-grade printing as matter of course. And I also do it with a color head. I do have concerns with losing registration between exposures, but a.) my grade 00 exposures are usually very short, and b.) I typically print small (8x10 usually). I have a set of multigrade filters, but since I also dodge and burn and only have two hands, well...

In any case, it's a great technique and, in my experience, a real time saver.

RobC · Oct 28, 2015

Its a perfectly valid way of printing and is quite popular.

The Les Mclean reference is a good one. I think he has a book incorporating the techniques for split grade printing.

Using Grade 00 is probably a bit too soft but thats debatable. Some people use different grades at either end of the scale, may 1 and 5 or 1 and 4. It's personal preference.

One thing to understand is that doing a straight split grade print using say grade 0 and grade 5 doesn't give you anything which you can't get with a straight print at say just grade 2 or whichever grade you decide is optimal for the neg.

Another important thing to remeber is that if you have got your personal film speed and development properly calibrated and can meter for exposure accurately, then you can usually nail a very good quality work print first time with a little experience. This is much quicker than split grade printing. Going on from that work print to making a fine print with burning and dodging at same or different grades is no easier using split grade printing than if not.

Split grade printing can make printing difficult negatives easier but it depends on skill level. Theres the crux of it. It all comes down to your skill level. Each printing technique has its pros and cons but starting from a properly exposed and developed negative makes life much easier regardless of which printing technique you use.

jimjm · Oct 28, 2015

Here's one recently done with split-grade printing. Wouldn't have been possible to get the look I wanted without it. I'm using an LPL Dichroic color head and just dial in the different filtration settings when needed. This enlarger is pretty solid, so I've never had a problem with movement as I turn the dials. Overall exposure was at grade 4.5 (equivalent), but the highlight areas were totally washed out. Additional burning in of these areas at grade 0 brought up the detail without affecting the dark and mid-tones much. Need to be careful not to overdo it or halos may start to appear around these areas. Tim Rudman's book "The Photographer's Master Printing Course" has really helped me get my head around this process.

winger · Oct 28, 2015

I used it just the other day. If printed straight (just one filter), it would be very blah and have good detail in the highlights (with less than a #2) or very stark with rich blacks (with higher than a #2). I wish I'd scanned them already or I could show you (picture = 1000 words, etc..). I ended up using 40 seconds with a 00 and 5 seconds with a #3 - there's detail in the highlights and it has a little pop from good dark blacks. The higher filter won't help you with detail in the blacks, but that gives you more solid black for some pop. Using only the lower filter will give you lots of dark grey and not much black.

I haven't had a problem with bumping the enlarger while changing filters (Beseler 23CIII and 45MX) - both have drawers above the neg stage. What has happened was a negative popping when I didn't make sure it was already warmed up when I started the exposure. Which isn't a problem limited to split filtering, but it happens to me more then.

Coming up with the right times for each filter and exactly which filters to use can involved some experimenting. I've done it often enough to guess well enough to get in the ballpark on one or two prints.

whlogan · Oct 28, 2015

I learned it from Al Weber some years back and have never looked back. Do it all the time. Nothing has ever worked better and it will revolutionize your printing and you will get to an final print much more quickly. Trust me. I'm a Naval Officer and we NEVER lie. We cannot do it. So you now know it really works. It is best done, I think with a VC head rather than below the lens filters. Less chance that way of shifting focus. Give it a try and I think you will come to like it.

Logan

JPJackson · Oct 28, 2015

Any discussion of split grade printing, without reference to the illumination source that is used, seems incomplete to me.

The Variable Contrast Printing Manual,Dec 30, 1996 by Steve Anchell is a good reference, as well as the books sited previously.

ToddB · Oct 28, 2015

I do have a Beselar 67XL with dicro head. However the color setting are in percentage. how much magenta percent is equivelant to achieve 1 to 4 or 5 range?

ToddB

Mainecoonmaniac · Oct 28, 2015

I would get a set of under the lens VC filters

ToddB said:
I do have a Beselar 67XL with dicro head. However the color setting are in percentage. how much magenta percent is equivelant to achieve 1 to 4 or 5 range?

ToddB

I tried tweeking the yellow and magenta dials under the safelight and it was a total pain. You can get Ilford filters for about $30. Swapping out filters is way easier.

ToddB · Oct 28, 2015

I tried tweeking the yellow and magenta dials under the safelight and it was a total pain. You can get Ilford filters for about $30. Swapping out filters is way easier.

I have a set of those too. Okay.. if have a time for the shadow in grade 4 or 5, say 15 sec. then you use a grade 0 for your highlights sat 15 sec.. a total of 30 for whole print. Aren't you over cooking the shadows with highlight filter and filling it in? or the filter block out what you allowed for shadows?

Todd

bvy · Oct 28, 2015

Mainecoonmaniac said:
I tried tweeking the yellow and magenta dials under the safelight and it was a total pain. You can get Ilford filters for about $30. Swapping out filters is way easier.

I only ever use grades 4 1/2 (150M+6Y) and 00 (0M+162Y). I set grade 4 1/2 in room light as that's my first exposure. For 00, dialing M back to zero in the dark is easy enough; for Y, I have a black mark on the dial indicating 162Y. Others use 0M+200Y and 200M+0Y which is even easier to set in the dark, though I think you're just adding neutral density at these extremes.

NedL · Oct 28, 2015

That's also the way I print. I think it is highly intuitive once you get used to thinking that way. After you have worked with it for a while, experiment with dodging the low contrast exposure in the midtones ....you'll find some great control....

ToddB · Oct 28, 2015

yhea.. most diffently another way to print some of these hard negs. I shot a balloon fiesta pic two ago that I just couldn't get control of. Maybe I'll revisit that frame and try this.

Todd

Sirius Glass · Oct 28, 2015

ToddB said:
Hey guys,

I was looking at youtube and this guy does split grade printing using grade 5 for deep shadow detail and grade 00 for highlight details. Has anyone done this? also.. the grades referring to contrast filter use?

Todd

pdeeh said:
yep and yep.

I find it a triffic technique. Some of my most satisfactory prints have come from using it, and I'm a deeply deeply unskilled printer.

Google for "les mclean split grade printing" to get you going.

Someone will no doubt come along and say how it's not for beginners and you need to learn this and that and the other thing first, or that it's bad technique, or lazy, or similar bollocks.

But if it gets you the prints you want, it seems good to me ...

jnanian said:
all the time

ToddB said:
Okay.. The only concern I have is when you switch out the filters. Would it knock it out of focus with vibration between treatments?

Todd

All of the first three. I just rotate the filter wheels and have never had the focus shift nor vibration problems.

ToddB · Oct 28, 2015

Here is the picture I'm excited to try this technique with...

deep shadows with bright morning.

jimjm · Oct 28, 2015

ToddB said:
I tried tweeking the yellow and magenta dials under the safelight and it was a total pain. You can get Ilford filters for about $30. Swapping out filters is way easier.

I have a set of those too. Okay.. if have a time for the shadow in grade 4 or 5, say 15 sec. then you use a grade 0 for your highlights sat 15 sec.. a total of 30 for whole print. Aren't you over cooking the shadows with highlight filter and filling it in? or the filter block out what you allowed for shadows?

Todd

Up to a certain point,, the lower-contrast filters like 00, 0 and 1 only add density to the lighter tones in the print. Rather than expose this whole image with both filters, I cut a custom mask from cardboard in the shape of my highlight areas and use this to selectively burn in those parts of the print. The trick is knowing how much density to build in the light areas without it starting to become visible in the darker adjacent areas, which can appear as a dark halo around your highlights.

This is why it's difficult to get true blacks from a normal negative if printing at lower grades. The highlights and mid tones will just get all muddy before the shadows get dark enough.

For the Tower Door image above, this was my printing "map":

1. Base exp: 30 sec @ f11, grade 4.5
- dodged the upper central part of door for 8 sec
2. Burn each of the upper corners (@4.5) for 10 sec
3. Burn left 1/3 of image for 6 sec (@4.5)
- at this point the upper window and bottom highlight are still almost blank white
4. Using cardboard cutouts in shape of window at top, and bright area at bottom:
- burn bottom highlight at grade 0 for 15 sec
- burn window at grade 0 for 20 sec
- the key is to build enough density to show some detail but not look unnatural

semi-ambivalent · Oct 28, 2015

Mainecoonmaniac said:
Do other folks find that's the case too?

In hard Western light, yes. It also seems to provide a certain presence to the image that I dont see with a single filter print. Almost like two-color printing with two shades of black.

s-a

lecarp · Oct 28, 2015

Split printing with blue and green filters and coldlight head also works well.

Mainecoonmaniac · Oct 28, 2015

Ah

semi-ambivalent said:
In hard Western light, yes. It also seems to provide a certain presence to the image that I dont see with a single filter print. Almost like two-color printing with two shades of black.

s-a

It's like a duotone. I have to make all my printing split grade. Printing with the single filter method for over 30 years is a hard habit to break.

Split Grade Printing?

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