Test strip. Part II. The poll.

[Mats_A]

There was some interesting info in yesterdays test strip thread.
Ralph had (as usual) a valuable insight regarding the correct way to make a test strip.

So let's do a poll. How do you make a test strip?

r

 

[clayne]

I use off cuts from paper that has been cut down to do test strips (obviously I keep track of the test strips with the paper). If the neg is good, I can usually be done with a print in 2-3 prints. If the neg isn't good, skies the limit.

 

[Laurent]

The first 3 !!

I start by making exposures on a strip, either exposing the same part of image (when needed) or (each time possible) across the image (it's easier)

I'll usually "nail it down" by some full image exposures. This helps a lot adjusting the exact time, contrast, and need for dodging/burning

 

[ic-racer]

I just put a little strip down and expose it with a guess exposure. Then repeat as needed. I try to get the strip so it straddles the lightest and darkest parts of the negative.

When you realize that the negative is roughly six-tenths the contrast of the print, you can learn to see the areas that need extra, or less exposure by looking at the image on the baseboard. These areas will be more subtle than in the first 'straight print.' One way to learn this is to study the first straight print and then study the projected negative. After a while you can tell that all the information of the first stright print is included in the projected image, just less pronounced. I do this with dark adapted eyes and stopped down. If you look at it wide open you can clearly see the edges project darker (almost all enlarging lenses all have lots of falloff when wide open, and it is easy to see).

The sequential strips are way more difficult and give less info. First you need to guess anyway at which one is going to be in the middle, then calculate a log progression of sum exposures and deconstruct it to get the individual times. Even then if the first one winds up being white, you won't know which exposure is which. Also, each exposure will be on a different part of the image.

 

[Steve Smith]

I just put a little strip down and expose it with a guess exposure. Then repeat as needed. I try to get the strip so it straddles the lightest and darkest parts of the negative.

This is more or less what I do. I cut a piece of paper about 3" square and expose it based on what I think it should be then adjust from there.


Steve.

 

[Peter Schrager]

test strips are a waste of time; prove little if anything about the total print...much better to make an entire test on a full sheet of paper;
the truth lies in making good negatives and knowing where you want to end up in the process..
Best, Peter

 

[5stringdeath]

test strips are a waste of time; prove little if anything about the total print...much better to make an entire test on a full sheet of paper;
the truth lies in making good negatives and knowing where you want to end up in the process..
Best, Peter

I'd argue that not using test strips is a waste of paper, and by extension, money. Once you develop a test strip method that works for you, its easy to pull a lot of information out of a strip.

Of course making good negatives is important. But no two negatives yield an exact print method, I don't care how consistent you shoot and develop.

Anyhow, I always make test strips and teach my students how to make test strips.

 

[Steve Smith]

Putting f stop printing aside for a moment, a popular method of doing test strips is to use, for example, five second increments. i.e. make a test strip for 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40 seconds.

If you know from experience that your exposure is going to be around twenty seconds then the low and high values are not going to be much use to you. Better to make a test strip of 15, 20, 25 and 30 seconds which will give each time a larger area to evaluate than the previous 5 to 40 second strip.


Steve.

 

[Renato Tonelli]

I cut strips of paper big enough for the most important part of the image; set the f/stop and expose the strips at 5, 10, 15, 25 seconds (for slower slower papers I would start with longer exposures); Develop them together. After the fixer, I examine them and determine a starting point for a work print; from the work print I work out a plan for overall exposure, perhaps changes in grade, dodging, burning. Sometimes this becomes my second work print.

 

[DWThomas]

I'm not sure my method fits the poll. I own (guess I need to guard it with my life) one of those Kodak Projection Print Scales. If I'm just trying a new (to me) paper, I will try and print through that, ideally in a portion of the print that has a broad range of tonal value, to get a starting point. Then I do a test piece of a "critical area" based on that result. I call it a test piece because I only use one exposure, no sliding covers or anything. Based on that, I may or may not do more, then I try the real thing. Since much of my current activity involves the square format, I can usually get sufficient test pieces from the offcuts. If my negatives are good, I seldom need more than two of the little test thingies unless there are unusual conditions. If I ever start doing larger amounts of printing, I may look into some metering. I do have an EM-10 that can be used to adjust after changing print size.

 

[removed account4]

sometimes #1, sometimes #3, sometimes no strip at all

 

[smieglitz]

I make a geometric series test strip over the entire sheet. The entire sheet gets 8 seconds uncovered and then I progressively cover an inch or so and do additional exposures of 2, 2.5, 3.5, 4, 5 and 7 seconds to get strips that have these cumulative exposures: 8, 10, 12.5, 16, 20, 25 and 32 seconds. The test sheet covers a two-stop range in strips that are approximately at 1/3-stop intervals. It's basically f-stop timing without an f-stop timer.

I usually also combine this technique with split-filter printing using #00 and #5 contrast filters.

Joe

 

[Rick A]

I use test strips whenever I open a new package of paper, and when I start to print a new set of negatives. I use a negative of known values for new paper, and paper of known values with new negatives. I keep notes of everything that goes on in the DR. I use cut strips and place them in a contrasty or mostly hilight area. Often times I dont need more than three or four strips to determine where I need to go with exposure. I also meter everything with an EM-10.

Rick

 

[RalphLambrecht]

I typically start with a slightly soft, electronically metered work print. Then, I make a test strip for each significant image area. Usually, this means a test strip for two or three different print zones. These are prepared for exposure and contrast. All test strips are labeled on the back.

Now the fun starts. I wet them all down and use them on my evaluation board to puzzle the best image together. When done, I collect the information in a print map and make the final print accordingly.

This print goes up on a wall and stays there for a few days. During that time improvement ideas are collected, and they are tried with new test strips about a week later.

Sounds like a lot of work, because it is a lot of work, but speed is not my goal.

Electronic meters alone don't work for me, because I need to see too light, too dark, too soft, too hard, in order to decide what is the best exposure and contrast. I still use them, because they get me 'close' without trial and error. After that, test strips are the only way to move from 'close' to 'just perfect'.

 

[Mats_A]

These are prepared for exposure and contrast.

Does this mean split grade printing?

r

 

[RalphLambrecht]

Does this mean split grade printing?

r

No, it means one test strip for exposure followed by another for contrast.

 

[Thomas Bertilsson]

I make one print too dark and one too bright by judging the negative. I process the prints and decide from there.

I can't decide from a part of the picture what the whole picture is going to look like, so my test strips are full sheets of paper.

Might seem wasteful, but my yield is better this way.

Like Ralph, speed is not my goal either. I work fairly slowly and deliberately. I take notes, and I draw out plans on a piece of paper which is a plan of how I dodge and burn, at what grades, etc.

So I don't make test strips.

- Thomas

 

[Mike Wilde]

I take a stab at the area where I want highlight tone and measure to figure a first pass of contrast range with a analyser, a Lici colorstar, or a Melico unit. The papers I use are calibrated to know thier speed for each analyser as the first sheet out of the box, and their contrast range with varied dichoric settings chosen to try to keep a constant mid tone grey when switching contrast settings.

So the new neg goes in, and I enlarge it to 5x7. I analyse to get a base exposure of say 12 -15 seconds at least a few stops down from max aperture. I swing in filters to suit a contrast range that the analyser suggests as I have measured different spot areas on the baseboard.

I pull out the Ralph L inpired jig that exposes 7 1x5" strips onto a 5x7, and place it to capture areas of highlights and shadows. Expose at 8, 10.1 16, 12.5, 16, 20.2, 25.4, 32.

Next print, expose 5x7 to the base exposure that looks best from the 7x1" strips, and change contrast if the 1" strips look off. Once happy and want to scale up to 11x14 or whatever, analyse to set time on the 5x7 to a highlight tone, move head up, and meter the same highlight area to see what the ajusted time the analyser/timer suggests.

 

[BetterSense]

I just put a little strip down and expose it with a guess exposure. Then repeat as needed. I try to get the strip so it straddles the lightest and darkest parts of the negative.

at least 2 characters.

 

[Mats_A]

I pull out the Ralph L inpired jig that exposes 7 1x5" strips onto a 5x7, and place it to capture areas of highlights and shadows. Expose at 8, 10.1 16, 12.5, 16, 20.2, 25.4, 32.

What jig is this? (asked the man who is forever looking for gizmos)

r

 

[dancqu]

Something Else - Full Negative 2 Ups on 5x7

Years ago I made test strips but now would
not turn back. I've found small full negative
prints to be much more reveling and they
make evaluation easy. The small prints
also serve as proof prints.

Two test exposures are made on each 5x7
sheet. A mask covers half. It is turned end
for end then a second exposure made. I use
a single size easel. I'm often within the
ballpark with one sheet.

If the negative shows promise I move up
to a 5x7 but still no cropping. Dan

 

[PVia]

Full sheets...

The contact sheet gives me a LOT of info and a good starting point, and I keep good notes.

 

[2F/2F]

Yet again, what I do is not on the poll.

I guess an exposure, and to a whole test strip at that exposure. The little slices so many seconds apart never work for me. I like to have a bigger part of the picture to judge print exposure and contrast. I know what exposure is normal, and I adjust based on the size of enlargement and the over all density of the negative.

 

[Doremus Scudder]

Well, I make a test strip to start, but just to get the highlight exposure for making an evaluation print. Therefore, I try to lay my strip (1/3 or a sheet of paper) so that it contains the lightest areas of the print (least dense on the print/most dense on the neg).

While I admire those of you who can accurately count off 10.1 and 12.5 seconds, I prefer to expose my strip in relative percentages (rounded to the nearest second, of course). I find working with percentages to have all the advantages and none of the disadvantages of f-stop printing. A typical test strip exposure at 20% might go: 8, 10, 12, 14, 17, 20, 24, 28 seconds. This is easily accomplished by counting 8, 2, 2, 2, 3, 3, 4, 4, off, and gives a wide range of exposures at approx. 20% exposure difference.

I choose the highlight density I like and make a print at that exposure. Now comes the fun... First I check for correctness of exposure, maybe I goofed with the test strip evaluation... Then I look at the contrast; do I need a different paper grade or developer? If I need a different grade, and am not really familiar with my materials, I make a test strip on the new grade (sometimes I just "know" that a certain grade 3 paper is exactly one-stop more exposure than the grade 2 I made the first print on, so I can eliminate this step).

After the paper grade/developer combination has been selected, I make no more test strips. Refining the print becomes a series of full sheets. I try to incorporate as many changes from sheet to sheet as practical and still not interfere with correct evaluation, e.g., I might change exposure a bit and incorporate some dodging, from one print to the next, but never would I dodge the area I was using for exposure evaluation).

The rest is magic... ;-)

Best,

Doremus Scudder
www.DoremusScudder.com

 

[RalphLambrecht]

Doremus

I can't see anything wrong with your approach, just a few comments.

1. What are the disadvantages of f/stop printing in your opinion? I'm not aware of any.
2. I think 20% exposure increments are too coarse for choosing optimum highlight exposure.
3. A 1s increment around a base time of 10 seconds is also too coarse for fine work. If one works with a timer which is limited to 1s increments, I suggest a min exposure time of 20s.