Sunlight rays in Clouds

[David Ruby]

I'm working on a black and white print of a cloudscape that has some great sunlight rays streaking through the clouds. In an effort to make these streaks more pronounced, my thought is to increase the contrast. Does anyone else have any suggestions?

 

[DrPhil]

You could try Alan Ross's mylar masking method.

 

[lee]

Potassium Ferricynide and create your own streaks. Just be careful with where the PF goes one the print. Use lots of water while attempting this. Don't have PF use Farmers Reducer. Wash really well and refix and wash. Practice with discards first.

lee\c

 

[Les McLean]

If you are using VC paper make a split grade print but print the rays of light on grade 5 only and use grade 0 and 5 to print the remiander of the image to the tonality and contrast you want by mixing the exposure values on the two grades. If the contrast is not high enough after that treatment use pot ferri as suggested by Lee.

 

[David Ruby]

Thanks. I've tried it just as Les suggested and am pretty happy with the results. I just had a paranoid moment that I was missing something. It's good to find out that my instincts are correct.