Your Thoughts? 1st time trying split grade...

Bob Carnie said:

...spend some time learning some basic principles, let your eyes be the boss, and have fun,

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Could not have said it better myself. I don't consider myself an expert at all (always a learner), but I have not read a single book on printing technique, neither have I taken any workshops or had any formal training. I have asked questions from those I respect, and taken advice and my own eyes into the darkroom with me, and worked it all out on my own. Printing other people's negatives has also taught me a lot.

Usually my prints are perceived as very well crafted. Now, if I could only learn better how to make outstanding imagery I'd be really happy about my photography...

I found Eddie Ephrams books== gradient light and creative elements as great books for the kind of printmaking that I do.
Michael your points are very valid to the OP from my perspective anyways.

Michael R 1974 said:

I still think for a beginner, it can be very helpful to get some of the basics from a good intro book because it can help the student to get a sort of "framework" for approaching the print in some kind of logical and methodical way, and learn to think like the paper.

The problem with getting basic advice from all of us here is while it may all be good, it's all at least slightly different, and as I go back over this thread I find it fairly confusing from the perspective of a beginner who needs to start with the very basics.

I'm not suggesting one needs to read huge books. But going to the library and finding a copy of The Print from the old Time Life photo series would, in my opinion, be extremely helpful to any beginner starting to print either on graded or VC papers. Easy to read, and not very lengthy. Or, one could even begin with some of the easy-to-read, basic packages both Ilford and Kodak have available on their websites.

I've been kind of a broken record on this thread so I'll stop now....

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Bob Carnie said:

My point is that once you get to a certain level with your printing , stop looking at your navel, graphs will not help you out, specialized timers will not help you out,
specialize developers will not help you out, and to the topic split printing will not help you out, as these are only tools,, great imagery will always trump technique.

so spend some time learning some basic principles, let your eyes be the boss, and have fun,

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Wonderful advice, Bob, and one I must follow more. Nothing beats own practice.

One very good sign is that Christopher is, at least, clearly observing differences between poor, good, and better prints. In this world where it is hard to find personal sources for learning, one of the hardest things to acquire is a sense of when print improvements are needed, and more importantly, what they actually look like.

I'm very thankful for all the advice and suggestions given, at the very least its made me think about things further and open up a few more avenues of research, and also realize how much I need to learn.

It is confusing getting so many opinions, some which are easy to understand, and some which are so highly scientific that my eyes glaze over and my brain becomes grape jelly. But the nice thing is that I now have this wonderful thread to refer to as I learn more and more, and I'm sure most things that I don't understand now, will become clear as it all starts making sense.

I'm planning to spend the day in Valerie's darkroom in the next few weeks, and she's going to help me grasp some if the basics. I'll report back after that and let y'all know how it's going.

I think that it is one of the beauties of APUG that thanks to the diversity of its members' backgrounds there are so many ways to explain a concept, or solve a problem. We all think and work differently, some prefer more intuition and practice and others like to get a feel for the underlying theory. I'm fairly new to film testing and plotting curves, but as a person who appreciates formulas, numbers, and logic, I find that the curves and testing have greatly helped me understand the holistic nature of the tone reproduction process. Prior to that, I was quite happy practicing by feel, with whatever precious feedback I could get.

Sometimes we get too attached to our own way of thinking, I suppose, and you may see a bit more heat coming through some arguments, than needed. Enjoy the path, don't be afraid to ignore what doesn't feel right but brave some ideas even if they may require a bit of work to follow through.

And may the Force be with you.

ChristopherCoy said:

I'm planning to spend the day in Valerie's darkroom in the next few weeks, and she's going to help me grasp some if the basics. I'll report back after that and let y'all know how it's going.

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You're in good hands.

I recently adopted spit grading in my work and have been very pleased with the results; systematic, reliable, plenty of room for creativity.

Michael R 1974 said:

Unless you are burning and dodging during each of the soft and hard exposures, split grade printing is no different than using a single intermediate grade filter.

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I made a half hearted effort to split grade print. I thought it harder to determine exposure. The technique lengthened my workflow with no better results. The technique seemed somewhat gimmicky. I only burn and dodge to balance the print vs dramatic effects.

Later I read an article in Photo Techniques. The article, written by two retired Kodak engineers said there was little advantage in split grade printing.

If a negative is not within a narrow range I go back and re-shoot. It makes printing easier. I burn up less time in the DR and have higher satisfaction. A twofer.

I struggled with finding a system of contrast adjustment that worked for me with color heads. I switched to split grade printing for a while and really liked being able to separate the shadow and highlight exposure adjustments. It is a very appealing way of approaching contrast adjustment to me, but a bit of nuisance in the details. The dual tube color heads let you do something similar with a single exposure, but I never manage to get that system into my darkroom.

Eventually, I came up with a way to separate the shadow exposure with the color head, and then dial in the highlights I want. It is not as direct an approach as the split grade system, but in real life (at least mine) ends up using about the same amount of time and paper. If you are printing negatives with hugely varied contrast, then the split grade can be an advantage in getting it (or very close) on the first print.

As others have said, the same end result can be obtained either way. This has been proven numerous times. I had to convince myself of that since I was getting to prints I thought I couldn't obtain any other way; I found that I always could match them. Any advantage is in the path that gets you there.