Why use step wedges, densitometers, etc?

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I don't even know what those things are, and I've been doing photography for decades! I just use test strips of my paper to get the exposure that I prefer. The prints look fine to me. So I'm wondering, what if anything would be improved on my prints if I started using these things?
 

Vaughn

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Some folks are into testing, some are not.
I would be disappointed in myself if after decades of photographic work my prints/images just look fine. Granted, my old work looks just fine...and perhaps even dandy. Fineness is a blasted moving target, I find.

Edit...

Looking at prints (not online or in books -- look there for images) would go a long way for someone trying to improve one's printing. It is helpful to know what is possible with the medium and that can help determine what one is aiming at. And at that point, some testing (or experimenting) could be helpful. Take the process too far, so one can back-up and find what will work.
 
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Bill Burk

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No, they do not improve your prints.
I don’t even use one when I am printing.
I use a new test strip for every print, sometimes it takes two.

But I can talk for hours on end about step wedges and densitometers.

You probably already know “f/stops”. They directly relate. You use a step wedge in a sensitometer to expose film (or paper but not as often) to a series of f/stops’ worth of light. Then you develop the film as usual and read the density of the different patches to see what kind of contrast you got.
 

Don_ih

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So, in other words, it's testing to be totally certain exactly what you can expect the film to do - very important if, for instance, you only get one chance to photograph something (say, because it happens once or it was very expensive to set up).
 

Bill Burk

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Yes, it’s testing to try to get a handle on your film developing results.

For my latest adventure I had in mind that I wanted to print on some Grade 2 matt finish paper that I had just bought.

I used step wedge and densitometer on this film so I know my film was underdeveloped about 25%.

But despite it being wrong, I printed several shots the best I could on Grade 2 paper anyway because I really wanted to try the new paper.

It’s obvious it’s too flat.


I have notes and think the reason for unexpected results is old developer. So I can “fix” this by using fresh developer next time. But I would never have noticed this if I didn’t “have to” print on Grade 2.
 

MattKing

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If you are the sort that likes to understand how things work, they are tools that help with that.
They also make it easier to have qualitative and quantitative discussions from a distance (like over the internet). If someone tries out a new film, and is getting contrast results that aren't what they hoped for, it is far easier for someone across the world to understand the situation if you share densitometer readings with them than if you share perceptions.
I have a good friend who I enjoy teasing because he lives by them. I don't - I've only used them in previous work environments and when I can borrow time on a friend's (very infrequently). Of course, my friend has managed multiple labs, throughout his working life, so there is no surprise that he likes to use them.
 

Alan9940

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As others have already said, those tools won't make your photography better. However, I personally like using a densitometer for film testing because it's precise and streamlines the results. I've used a step wedge when calibrating a paper for pt/pd printing; probably not necessary, but, again, I feel more precise.
 

Paul Howell

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I use a step wedge when printing from a new box of paper that I'm not familiar with, saves time in understanding the speed and contrast, would get to same place with a couple of test strips.
 

Don_ih

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Bill Burk said:
But despite it being wrong, I printed several shots the best I could on Grade 2 paper anyway because I really wanted to try the new paper.
Click to expand...

I do that sort of thing all the time. Unfortunately
 

Nodda Duma

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I use them to characterize the speed of the dry plates I make, so that I can ensure batch-to-batch consistency.
 

radiant

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I personally use all of these to fool myself that my photographs get better with these devices.

Same goes to all my cameras.

(seriously: out of curiosity + for fun)
 

ic-racer

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They are tools. Tools are, per the dictionary:

1) machine to perform a task
2) something that helps to gain an end
Click to expand...
 
OP
OP

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Ah, thanks for the help on this. I see there's times it might be advantageous. Believe me, I don't particularly enjoy making test strips, but I do like seeing what's on the printed paper vs a meter readout. If I was doing wet plates or something, I would definitely want to try these things.

No, if I don't need them ic-racer, then they're other people's tools, LOL. Seriously, I know they're tools, but I don't want a dictionary definition. I want someone who actually uses them to tell me what they do. Just as I would completely ignore some "expert" in a college or university, and go to someone who actually works with something.

My terminology is probably different than yours Vaughn. I keep the superlatives for other people's work, but am fiercely critical of my own. Lord, please protect me from the photographer or artist that's satisfied w/ their work! Or, as my painting mentor used to say. "Steve, I'm the best painter in San Francisco. That doesn't mean my work is any good".
 
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seall

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Perhaps there is a little bit more to producing a print....

 

Craig75

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I'd say a stepwedge is a very useful tool in seeing how things tone for example or how new / unfamiliar materials behave in darkroom.
 

MattKing

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I purchased and used a transparent step wedge a couple of months ago. I converted an enlarger to use blue and green LEDs. I control exposure through on-time and contrast through the blue/(blue+green) ratio. Unfortunately I have no idea which ratios correspond to e.g. grades 0, 1, 2 etc and I suspected the relationship to be significantly non-linear. I used a step wedge and a reflection densitometer to tabulate the paper's response to ratios of 0.0, 0.1, 0.2, ... 1.0. Now I have a table that gives me a correspondence between grade (I use ISO(R) range, actually) and ratio.

I am currently interested in cyanotypes and intend to make some in the future. I plan to use a step wedge to find the exposure range for my type of cyanotype chemicals, then I will develop negatives to have a density range that matches the found exposure range of my cyanotype process.
 

Sirius Glass

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CMoore

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Some of our members are VERY Knowledgeable about this stuff......Does anybody know, generally speaking, when discussing "Big Names" from the glory days of film
Ansel Adams
Dorothea Lange
Richrd Avedon
Garry Winogrand
Richard Klein.
Henri C B
Anni Leibovitz
Robert Capa
The Westons
David Bailey
Lee Miller
Imogen Cunningham
George Hurrell
Etc etc etc
Did they or their printers use Step Wedges and Densitometers.?
Thank You
 

DREW WILEY

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It all depends what you are attempting to do, and what tools are actually available to you during your career. There are certain advanced printing skills, especially in color printing, that would be very difficult to achieve in a predictable efficient manner without a basic knowledge of what a densitometer does. And if a number of those names on the list above did not themselves use such instrumentation, the reproduction of their work in books and other forms of press reproduction certainly did rely on densitometers. And if those kinds of conveniences weren't available to some "back in the day", some of their former assistants certainly jumped on the opportunity afterwards; they've told me so. But otherwise, for basic black and white silver gelatin printing, you don't necessarily need that kind of instrumentation. It might distinctly help you, or, on the other hand, might just make things more complicated than they need to be.
 

craigclu

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Part of what maintains interest and energy for me has been related to the technical aspects. I've enjoyed dialing in materials and equipment to settle my technical curiosity but as I've gotten older, I don't experiment much and am glad to have amassed the techniques and data that I now function with. I haven't powered up my densitometers in a couple of years when I think about it but if I was chasing a problem or troubleshooting, I would check things out with them. I've got a Kodak gray card with a Stouffer zone wedge glued to one side. I can quickly look at a negative of that and see that I have the expected separation at the extremes and the gray card area if I want to double check relative density to historicals.
 

M Carter

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One of my favorite tools is DIY and rarely mentioned - just a strip of fiber paper printed so there are 1/4" strips of gray, from pure white to full black, in 1/2 stop increments. And a 2nd white card with a 1/4" hole cut in it. When I'm comparing two test prints and want to see how far off some tone is, I put the strip-print on the tone and find the closest matching strip, and use the white card with the hole to only see that tone. I can get a half-stop take on how tones are differing between prints or areas of a print.

It's really most handy for liquid emulsion work - I make a test print with MG paper to match a LE print, so I can get the proper contrast filter and exposure differences for a given batch. I don't want to blow through a ton of emulsion to get a print finalized, if I know the contrast and exposure differences I can dial in a print on cheap MG RC paper and get very very close.
 

M Carter

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Bill Burk said:
@M Carter you are describing essentially a contact print of a Stouffer T2115 step wedge.
Click to expand...

Indeed, I only have the 1/3 stop wedge in a 6x7 neg format, so I just did a simple test-strip style print. It's really most handy for matching different papers (primarily liquid emulsion vs. factory coated paper for me) or to see differences in highlight return with rehalogenating-style toning.
 
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