using filters on graded paper

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Hi all, I want insane at a fire sale and bought too much wonderful Seagull and Forte Eleganze paper @ 75% off, and they only had grade 4. I also got some Bergger (neutral tone) grade 2. This was crazy, partly because many of my negatives should probably really printed on grade 3 and partly because I'm working at a community darkroom where I can't play with developers (it's standard dektol dilution). Has anyone had any luck reducing contrast in graded papers using VC filters? p.s. the paper's in the fridge, and there seems to be great variation in opinions about longevity of paper. I'm hoping for the best, and hope to have my own darkroom to use up all the paper w/in the year, if I get lucky. Thanks for any opinions/advice, Lisa

-- Lisa Kernan (lkernan@library.ucla.edu), August 02, 2001

Answers

VC filtration won't do a thing for graded papers.

-- Ed Buffaloe (edb@unblinkingeye.com), August 02, 2001.

One option is to try latent image bleaching (assuming you have access to some pottassium ferricyanide in your darkroom). This involves exposing the print on a higher grade paper and before development, placing it in a very dilute bath of ferricyanide (I forget the dilution but I think its along the order of 0.01% solution or weaker - try looking up Rudman's book on printing). The effect will be different from using a true lower grade paper - you will lose local contrast in the shadows while possibly getting some higher local contrast in the highlights. Good luck, DJ.

-- N Dhananjay (ndhanu@umich.edu), August 02, 2001.

Seagull is a wonderful paper. You are lucky to get some at a bargain price.

The filtration won't do anything on graded, except increase your exposure time.

If at all possible, try using selectol soft developer. Will probably reduce about 1/2 to a full grade.

In any case, the paper should be good for more than a year, and you'll have your darkroom up & running by then!

-- Charlie Strack (charlie_strack@sti.com), August 02, 2001.


Several community darkrooms that I have worked allowed me to bring in alternate developers and other chemistry for different projects.

-- Ed Farmer (photography2k@hotmail.com), August 02, 2001.

Is there only one enlarger option in this darkroom you are talking about ? If your negs can be printed on grade 3 paper on a condeser type enlarger, they will look quite fine on grade 4 and a diffuser type enlarger (or the contrary, negs on grade 3 on diffuser are also good when printed on grade 2 and condenser). If you only have a condenser type enlarger, you can soften the result by placing a diffusion screen in the filter drawer instead of the coloured filters for the multigrade papers. If you pass your negs through farmer's solution they will lose some contrast (some highlight density) and will probably be printable on grade 2 paper, on the same enlarger. You can also try to make some contrast reducing masks, although this is a relatively difficult technique...

-- George Papantoniou (papanton@hol.gr), August 03, 2001.


You can also flash the paper to lower the contrast.

-- Jim (jim@jimbillups.com), August 05, 2001.

Another technique you can use is to overexpose the print and decrease contrast. This will give you a half grade contrast drop. You have to be familiar with "f stop" printing but this is not a difficult concept to master. Consider this example. By making a test strip you find that the correct exposure for the print is 20 seconds. To decrease the costrast by half a grade you would overexpose by 1/4 stop ie give the print 23.8 (or 24) seconds and then cut development down by a factor of 0.7 i.e if your standard development time is 2 minutes the reduced development time would be 1 min 24 (120 x 0.7 = 84). By using a soft working developer e.g. Kodak Selectol soft or Tetenal Centabrom S you can reduce the contrast by about 1 paper grade (Centabrom S is especially effective). I am not familiar with the working practices of Community Darkrooms but when I used the darkrooms of the Edinburgh Photographic Society I was expected to supply my own materials.

-- Adrian Twiss (avtwiss@ukonline.co.uk), August 08, 2001.

This board is so great. Thanks so much for all the great ideas. I'm finding the grade 2 works for most of my negs and the ones developed in Microdol X work nicely on the grade 4. I'll try the overexpose/underdevelop thing next time (altho I was taught that for good blacks you really had to give papers their full development time, maybe that's a myth). I'm curious about flashing too, which I've never heard about. Flashing in daylight? Incandescent? How long? Thanks everyone again.

-- Lisa Kernan (lkernan@library.ucla.edu), August 08, 2001.

Flashing is briefly and evenly exposing photographic materials to white light. Often used to lower contrast of printing paper, when the flashing exposure is made in addition to the regular exposure.

Take a look at this site for more details. http://www.xeromag.com/fvresrc.html#flash

Have fun :)

-- Jim (jim@jimbillups.com), August 11, 2001.


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