Topic: Developing in the darkroom

[Karl]

I've been plugging away at printing with the home darkroom. It's great. I'm getting far better results out of normal negatives and even done a bit of selenium toning. Get me! A couple of examples here where I can say I'm beginning to get the idea. These are the classic holga black and white negative scenario of being quite soft and low in contrast and I was looking for more depth and greater tonal range. The control print was very bland but after some split grade exposures at G1 and G4 I got something closer to what I wanted. All on 5x7 Ilford GRC Warmtone gloss. The scanner hasn't brought out the warmth in the print but never mind.

[Francois]

That's a great start!

Great images. Only thing is I would have overexposed the first one by a good stop just to get a single good solid black, something that is almost mandatory in my book

[Mojave]

I have no idea what you're saying Karl, but I love the prints!

[Karl]

That's a great start!

Great images. Only thing is I would have overexposed the first one by a good stop just to get a single good solid black, something that is almost mandatory in my book

Thanks,and to Mojave too. The stuff I've read says get highlights sorted first and then work on the blacks and dark tones through contrast control. How do you go about your initial prints? Incidentally, the scanner has blown out the highlights on ths first print but they are there!

[Francois]

I tend to keep things quite simple. I use my enlarging meter to get a ballbark exposure which is most often wrong. I print a single strip using this time... at least I'm guaranteed there will be something on it! Once developed and fixed, I look at it under a desk lamp and decide whether it should be darker or lighter. I work in stops so exposure is easy to calculate. I rarely go through the trouble of split grade printing... though I will do some dodging and burning if it isn't too complicated a job.

[LT]

looking good Karl - coming along nicely.  It's nigh-on impossible to get the full gist of these on a screen, but they look nice to me.  I like the contrast (pun intended) between the control print and the final version.

Only thing is I would have overexposed the first one by a good stop just to get a single good solid black ...

If you use exposure to control shadow tones with MG papers, you'll invariably end up with muddy mid tones and highlights unless you are certain that your negs are perfect for the particular contrast grade.  the easiest approach is to use exposure to control the highlights then grade to control the shadows - you'll get there much quicker that way.

so - if printing a neg at grade 2,

• do a test strip looking at the highlights only and choose the time that gives the first hint of density in the most important highlight.
• Do a full print at this time and see how the shadows look - too light, change up a grade or two, too dark, change down a grade or two
• do a full print at the new contrast grade (same time as before unless moving up to g 4 or above then double the exposure time or halve if moving down from g 4 to a lower grade))
• check that the highlight tones are still correct - if too light, try adding 1/6 stop or if too dark, subtract 1/6 stop. and check that the shadows go down to minimal detail in the correct places and some hint of black. this will be the work print that shows the tonal range of the neg
• now work out all of your expressive stages = dodge and burn at will

and that is it.

[Karl]

thanks Leon, that seems to be the direction I am heading in but you have generously distilled 2 tomes of reading material into a few paragraphs. I'll pin this advice on my wall! Most negs are happy at G2 and 2.5, it's these less than ideal holga ones that need some encouragement. I'm beginning to be able to read the negative a bit better with increasing darkroom experience. I love it 

[Phil Bebbington]

I don't do this, but, I love to read the experiences of those that do.

Great work, Karl.