Splitgrade printing with analyzer pro-How?

Does anyone have experience with using the splitgrade technique in combination with th analyzer pro (RH-designs) and how do you go about it?

Thanks Jaap Jan

naaldvoerder said:

Does anyone have experience with using the splitgrade technique in combination with th analyzer pro (RH-designs) and how do you go about it?

Thanks Jaap Jan

Click to expand...

1. Meter as usual (less density/most density/middles)

2. Set grade on 0. I meter so that the second tone in from the left is the one I want.

3. Set the steps to 1/6th if you want

4. Darken the exposure 3 clicks

5. go into test strip mode (press expose while enlarger light on)

6. enlarger displays test and turns off. put in your strip.

7. Do the 7 tests with the grade 0 filter in starting with the base and then covering up as you go. I use pencil (thanks Les) to mark the strips as I go

8. Pick the one you like "A little goes a long way" tm Les McClean

9. Put the analyzer on grade 5. decrease exposure until "black" stops blinking.

10. Expose another test strip at grade 0 for the time you picked in #8. (I do this before step 9 most of the time)

11. Put in grade 5 filter. Cover test strip and turn on focus/light. Hit expose to go into test strip mode

12. Do your grade 5 test similar to the grade 0 test.

13. Pick your grade 5

Now you've got your grade 0 time and your grade 5 time. basically you use the meter to establish your base exposure for grade 0 and grade 5 rather than just guessing. And you use the test strip mode as a way to do the f-stop printing.

There are those who would say metering correctly and picking the right exposure will get you to the same spot on a single grade. They may be right, but this is certainly an easy way to fine tune it.

Good luck!

Will

Will, thanks for the explanation. I still have a question though..
Do you leave the settings the same as for normal printing or do have to recallibrate for split grading?

JJ

naaldvoerder said:

Will, thanks for the explanation. I still have a question though..
Do you leave the settings the same as for normal printing or do have to recallibrate for split grading?

JJ

Click to expand...

No need to recalibrate. Amazingly enough you don't have to calibrate for a new paper either provided that the papers you are using are within a couple of 1/6 steps of where they should be.

Will (or anyone else), assuming I've got my Zonemaster II calibrated properly for my paper, can't I just put in my soft filter, meter a highlight, adjust it to the zone I want and call that my base, soft exposure, then put in hard filter, meter a shadow detail, adjust that to the zone I want and call that my hard exposure. Then, after entering them into the respective soft and hard channels of my StopClock Pro's Split Grade mode, make my base, straight print?