Understanding Split Grade Printing

[Arthurwg]

I have occasionally tried split-grade printing with limited success, mostly to put tone into blown-out highlights and white skies. I usually start with a high-contrast base exposure that gives me the blacks and then expose again with low contrast to add tone where it doesn't exit in the first exposure. Is this correct? Sometimes it just makes everything muddy.

 

[radiant]

There are only two test strips needed for split-grade.

Yes, two strips - but I was talking about exposures / switching filters.

In multi filter method you first do test strip with one filter. Then on another test strip you do a base exposure with selected filter from first step. And then the other exposures. When you have found correct time for both filters you need to do dual exposures for all prints following, even if you aren't doing a real split grade print (= doding&burning with different grade exposures).

In fact, you can make a single checkerboard test sheet (you need a wider piece of paper than a simple strip if that is what you are using).

Yes you need to do a checkerboard, because you cannot do moving paper test-strip method. I once tried the checkerboard but it is really difficult to decide what is good "box" when the evaluated area is chaning on each step.

For your method, you are swapping out a few filters in order to make that second, contrast test strip.

Well officially yes. In practice I only do one test strip for the correct time and eyeball the correct filter from that strip. Usually when the negative is correctly exposed the grade is 2-3 so there isn't any big surpises which would require another test strip to find out the grade. After first test strip I do one full print and I have a working print to plan burning and dodging.

So in reality I need only one test strip for a good working print.

Do you compensate for the fact that 4&5 filters require more exposure?

I typically use Ilford MGRC V paper which doesn't need this.

I still underline that I'm using both methods myself. I think my "heaviest" split grade print had 5 exposures: 2 for base exposures, 1 doding and 2 for burning.

 

[Lachlan Young]

I usually start with a high-contrast base exposure that gives me the blacks and then expose again with low contrast to add tone where it doesn't exit in the first exposure. Is this correct? Sometimes it just makes everything muddy.

The muddiness will be coming from your green/ yellow/ 00 exposure amounting to significant overexposure in the total exposure given, especially if you have a neg that wants a high contrast grade to being with. If you look at ic-racer's chart, you'll see that getting a G4 equivalent amounts to about 20s of blue/ magenta/ 5 filter and just about 5s of green/ yellow/ 00 filter - and if you want to go above G4, but below G5 (quite a big variance in image appearance) you will need to be able to split those 5s even more finely.

 

[Pieter12]

Yes, two strips - but I was talking about exposures / switching filters.

In multi filter method you first do test strip with one filter. Then on another test strip you do a base exposure with selected filter from first step. And then the other exposures. When you have found correct time for both filters you need to do dual exposures for all prints following, even if you aren't doing a real split grade print (= doding&burning with different grade exposures).



Yes you need to do a checkerboard, because you cannot do moving paper test-strip method. I once tried the checkerboard but it is really difficult to decide what is good "box" when the evaluated area is chaning on each step.



Well officially yes. In practice I only do one test strip for the correct time and eyeball the correct filter from that strip. Usually when the negative is correctly exposed the grade is 2-3 so there isn't any big surpises which would require another test strip to find out the grade. After first test strip I do one full print and I have a working print to plan burning and dodging.

So in reality I need only one test strip for a good working print.



I typically use Ilford MGRC V paper which doesn't need this.

I still underline that I'm using both methods myself. I think my "heaviest" split grade print had 5 exposures: 2 for base exposures, 1 doding and 2 for burning.

MGRC V still requires more exposure for the higher contrast filters. In fact all the Ilford RC (and I would think others) MG papers require more exposure for the 4&5 filters. Here is the Ilford paper speed chart:

 

[ic-racer]

When I used to teach, I never taught "Split Grade" printing to beginners. It just confused them.

 

[MattKing]

When I used to teach, I never taught "Split Grade" printing to beginners. It just confused them.

Ironically, it may actually be easier for people to learn than the alternative if one is forced to rely on books and the internet, and doesn't have the benefit of in person teaching.
Generally though I think it is simply a matter of which approach resonates with the inexperienced printer. Choose the one that does, and acquire experience with it.
If you are experienced, and haven't tried it, I recommend you do. I find it helps me clarify in my mind how multigrade paper responds to changes in filtration.

 

[cliveh]

When I used to teach, I never taught "Split Grade" printing to beginners. It just confused them.

Ditto.

 

[Frank53]

When I used to teach, I never taught "Split Grade" printing to beginners. It just confused them.

That’s a pity! It makes printing a lot easier.
Regards,
Frank

 

[ic-racer]

That’s a pity! It makes printing a lot easier.
Regards,
Frank

Printing on graded paper is pretty easy. Don't see how two exposures and filter changes can improve on that or be easier to understand. But one person's 'easy' can be another's 'hard.'

 

[Donald Qualls]

Printing on graded paper is pretty easy. Don't see how two exposures and filter changes can improve on that or be easier to understand. But one person's 'easy' can be another's 'hard.'

Sure, but by the time I took photography in high school (early 1970s) multigrade was already so common that photography texts talked about "paper or filter grade" -- and since, once you had filters, you only had to buy one box of paper instead of keeping three, four, even six on hand, or finding yourself on a Saturday night in the darkroom needing Grade 5 for a particular negative, but you only have Grade 2 and Grade 3 papers. The combination of versatility and cost saving are the obvious reasons you almost can't buy graded paper any more (or if you can, it's Grade 2 and Grade 3 only). But even having learned multigrade printing back then, I wish we'd been exposed to split grade printing. I find it so much easier than having to make a contrast test print by swapping filters or dialing in grades on the color head for each strip, to just switch to Grade 5 (or max blue) and test with time on top of the Grade 0 test.

 

[cliveh]

That’s a pity! It makes printing a lot easier.
Regards,
Frank

No, it does not, as it introduces an almost infinite variation of outcomes that detracts from the original image as seen by the eye.

 

[Pieter12]

No, it does not, as it introduces an almost infinite variation of outcomes that detracts from the original image as seen by the eye.

Or does it allow an almost infinite variation of outcomes in order to produce the image as desired by the photographer?

 

[Frank53]

Or does it allow an almost infinite variation of outcomes in order to produce the image as desired by the photographer?

+1

 

[ic-racer]

Sure, but by the time I took photography in high school (early 1970s) multigrade was already so common that photography texts talked about "paper or filter grade" -- and since, once you had filters, you only had to buy one box of paper instead of keeping three, four, even six on hand, or finding yourself on a Saturday night in the darkroom needing Grade 5 for a particular negative, but you only have Grade 2 and Grade 3 papers. The combination of versatility and cost saving are the obvious reasons you almost can't buy graded paper any more (or if you can, it's Grade 2 and Grade 3 only). But even having learned multigrade printing back then, I wish we'd been exposed to split grade printing. I find it so much easier than having to make a contrast test print by swapping filters or dialing in grades on the color head for each strip, to just switch to Grade 5 (or max blue) and test with time on top of the Grade 0 test.

Maybe I'm giving away my age. Dupont Multigrade was not available to me. We had mostly Kodak. I still have nightmares about how bad Kodak Polycontrast RC was when when it first came out. Expecially compared to graded Kodabromide. Graded Kodabromide was realy really good considering we had to use what the school was buying.

 

[ic-racer]

Here is a tangent from the original topic on teaching. Many , many years later I found the easiest thing to teach my own kids: Lith printing. The lens aperture and enlarger timer set the same for every exposure and we did not deal with this much at all.
Each kid snatched the print out of the lith developer when the image looked good. We made some great prints that way. To make it better, we were using recently expired Forte that the local shop was practically giving away. We had multiple boxes of 250!

 

[albada]

I've recently been learning about the uses of split-grade burning/dodging using green and blue (filter-00 and filter-5, respectively). I created the following table of all four combinations of burn/dodge and green/blue, showing what each is useful for.
Any comments on the table? Any more uses of these that I missed?

dodge green	Boosts shadow contrast (but lightens adjacent light tones).
dodge blue	Lightens shadows with little effect on adjacent highlights (but reduces shadow contrast).
burn green	Darkens highlights with little effect on adjacent shadows (but reduces highlight contrast).
burn blue	Boosts highlight contrast, such as clouds (but darkens adjacent dark tones).

Mark Overton

 

[Pieter12]

You really don't need a table, just practice. Just know the 00 controls highlights, the 5 shadows. Midtones are affected by both/either filters.

 

[Sirius Glass]

You really don't need a table, just practice. Just know the 00 controls highlights, the 5 shadows. Midtones are affected by both/either filters.

That is what I do. First I will try a straight print with one filter and if I am not happy with that I get the best print with magenta at 5, then with that as the first exposure work with the yellow filter at 00.

 

[albada]

You really don't need a table, just practice. Just know the 00 controls highlights, the 5 shadows. Midtones are affected by both/either filters.

Green(00) and blue(5) not only determine tone, but also contrast, which confuses things for me. That's why I created the table of all four possible dodges and burns. It tells me what those dodges/burns can do for me. For example, below is a straight print (left) and dodged print (right) that I made a few days ago:

I dodged the green exposure for 8 out of 16 seconds below the platform. The table says doing so will boost shadow-contrast, and it did. The table also says light tones will be lightened, and you can see that the foliage below the platform is lighter. I wanted the understructure of the platform to be more visible, and this dodge worked.
I have little experience with split-grade, so I'm wondering what else can be done with split burns/dodges. Hence the table and my question to everyone, which is:

What other good things can split-grade burns/dodges do?

 

[MattKing]

Green(00) and blue(5) not only determine tone, but also contrast

This isn't correct.
The two filters don't determine tone. They only determine contrast.
But by controlling contrast, they give you the ability to change the tone in parts of the image by controlling the exposure there.
The low contrast (green) light has more effect in the highlight areas of the subject, so you modify your exposure with it to modify the density there. You get control over the green light by either adjusting the green filtration - additive - or the magenta filtration - subtractive.
The high contrast (blue) light has more effect in the shadow areas of the subject, so you modify your exposure with it to modify the density there. You get control over the blue light by either adjusting the blue filtration - additive - or the yellow filtration - subtractive.

 

[MattKing]

If you want help visualizing how all this works, I suggest an experiment. Take a reasonably typical negative with a reasonable range of tones, and prepare a good straight (no burning or dodging) Split Grade print from it. It will require one exposure using your low contrast controlling filter, and another using your high contrast controlling filter. Record the two exposure times - they may be something like 11 seconds with the low contrast controlling filter, and 8 seconds with your high contrast controlling filter (arbitrary examples).
Now, without changing anything on the enlarger, do a print with just 11 seconds with the low contrast controlling filter - no exposure through the other filter. And then, do another print with just 8 seconds with your high contrast controlling filter - again no exposure through the other filter.
When you compare the three prints, I predict that you will be surprised at what and how much is contributed to the final image from each of the two individual contrast contrast controlling filters.
With that knowledge in hand, it will help you visualize the effects that dodging and burning have with the respective filters.

 

[mshchem]

This is an amazing technique. You get out of it what you put into it. I use a lot of older rc paper, working up to a solution before I get out the good stuff.

Oh if Ansel Adams would have had some of the modern VC paper and fancy light sources. He did get to use an ordinary cold light with a compensating timer. He thought that was the greatest thing. Watching AA print, dodging and burning is very cool. There's a film of him going through the steps.

 

[Donald Qualls]

Oh if Ansel Adams would have had some of the modern VC paper and fancy light sources.

The last edition of The Print includes chapter on split-filter printing.

 

[Sirius Glass]

If you want help visualizing how all this works, I suggest an experiment. Take a reasonably typical negative with a reasonable range of tones, and prepare a good straight (no burning or dodging) Split Grade print from it. It will require one exposure using your low contrast controlling filter, and another using your high contrast controlling filter. Record the two exposure times - they may be something like 11 seconds with the low contrast controlling filter, and 8 seconds with your high contrast controlling filter (arbitrary examples).
Now, without changing anything on the enlarger, do a print with just 11 seconds with the low contrast controlling filter - no exposure through the other filter. And then, do another print with just 8 seconds with your high contrast controlling filter - again no exposure through the other filter.
When you compare the three prints, I predict that you will be surprised at what and how much is contributed to the final image from each of the two individual contrast contrast controlling filters.
With that knowledge in hand, it will help you visualize the effects that dodging and burning have with the respective filters.

Add to that a straight print with either no filters or #2 filters. With four different methods the differences are noticeable.

 

[Pieter12]

This isn't correct.
The two filters don't determine tone. They only determine contrast.

What is contrast but the relative tonal values in a print?