There are only two test strips needed for split-grade.
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).
For your method, you are swapping out a few filters in order to make that second, contrast test strip.
Do you compensate for the fact that 4&5 filters require more exposure?
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.
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: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.
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.When I used to teach, I never taught "Split Grade" printing to beginners. It just confused them.
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.When I used to teach, I never taught "Split Grade" printing to beginners. It just confused them.
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.'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.'
That’s a pity! It makes printing a lot easier.
Regards,
Frank
Or does it allow an almost infinite variation of outcomes in order to produce the image as desired by the photographer?No, it does not, as it introduces an almost infinite variation of outcomes that detracts from the original image as seen by the eye.
+1Or does it allow an almost infinite variation of outcomes in order to produce the image as desired by the photographer?
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.
| 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). |
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.
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
Oh if Ansel Adams would have had some of the modern VC paper and fancy light sources.
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.
This isn't correct.
The two filters don't determine tone. They only determine contrast.
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