Yessss please pass it on! And thanks for subscribing! I’ve been shooting a ton lately so recent videos are mostly on location, but I’m hoping to do some more darkroom tutorials like this in the future
well done mate. was trying to do both: get the most information out of test strips and save on material. but in the long run your approach is best. often i need a few strips anyways.. but here you get a very good overall idea. thanks a bunch and keep up the great work (ill check on that, mind you.. i subscribed) much love
You just save me from cutting unimaginable amount of test stips and save's a lot of paper! thank you very much. Pawn Star's be like: Best I can do it's a sub.
I like it. I have always wanted to get a dichroic enlarger to experiment making B/W prints from color negs and seeing how different colors can be rendered in grey scale via different cyan, magenta and yellow levels. Tried color to b/w with standard enlarger and contrast filters and a couple camera lens filters of various color. I have a couple interesting results but nothing noteworthy.
I first cranked Cyan filter all the way to its max to cancel out deep orange film base colour to rescue the soft contrast, followed by dialling magenta and yellow filters.
What aperture were you using in this exampIe? I''d imagine the base exposure and subsequent intervals thereafter would be dependent on your aperture. If the base exposure, in this case, was 4 seconds, and the lens was set to f8, then would it stand to reason that you'd want your base exposure to be 8 seconds, if using f11 on your enlarger lens?
You could, but you don’t have to. The main thing I care about is that my desired exposure is somewhere on the paper. Beyond that, it doesn’t matter much to me what the bounds are
No worries! It depends what kind of enlarger (machine thing :) ) that you have. Mine has those little magenta and yellow dials, but yours might not. You might have to buy a set of filters that can be inserted into your enlarger; different enlargers use different size filters so make sure you have the correct size. Where I use magenta 200, you'll use a #5 magenta filter. Where I use yellow 80, you'll use a #0 yellow filter.
Fantastic video! One question of understanding: Do I need to select the desired contrast grade (magenta value) before doing the teststrip, or do I always use the hardest grade, and the amount of contrast is determined by the exposure time for magenta?
I have noticed that I have had to increase my highlights filtration to as much as a #2 filter using under lens filtration with a LED light head. Do you have a good source for a time chart for f stop printing? My head is very bright and exposure times much lower. Great video. BTW
Yes, some people like to do split grade printing with the yellow not quite all the way to a zero filter. There are so many variables that I could never rely on a time chart; I just make a new test for every negative I print
super cool technique! thanks for this. something ive read recently is that split grade printing gets you to a middle contrast filter. Example: exposing the sheet at grade 5 and grade 0 (For whatever amount of time to get a good contrast) would in theory just get you the same or similar result as just using a grade 3 filter. is this right? this is a fun technique though will try to use this!! thanks
Great question - in theory yes, if you expose for an equal amount of time with each of a 5 and 0 filter would get you roughly the same contrast as a print with a 3 filter, but in practice there are a lot of other variables such as the enlarger you’re using, paper type, etc. - I think the biggest advantage of split filter printing though is that you can dodge/burn the shadows and highlights separately, which you couldn’t do if you just printer with a 3 filter
I was pretty confused when you said you were going by stops here, since a stop would be twice as long. I think what you're actually doing is rounded off half stops. So it would be (2^2)=4, (2^2.5)=5.6, (2^3)=8, (2^3.5)=11.3, (2^4)=16, (2^4.5)=22.6 for exact half stops, and then you've rounded these off.
Hi Ryan! How come you initially expose the whole sheet for 4 seconds for both magenta and yellow? Is it so you don't get the most extreme side of the filters (complete black/white)? Also, the time increments will always be the same since they are stops, right? Very excited to try this out! Thanks for the video
Great question - yes, it’s because I’m almost sure that each filter will need more time than that; the extremes under 4 seconds are almost always unusable. And yes, I always use the same increments. Good luck!
@@silverandplatinum Hey man, just wanted to report back that I got back to my darkroom after 6 months and this method has seriously revived my interest in printing. The matrix is a fool-proof way to gage exposure and contrast and I'm not lost in an infinity of test-strips anymore. 1 whole page test, and the second print came out flawless. Thanks again for this wonderful resource!
I understand the intention and the procedure but I think there is an error in the time calculations, increments of one step with a base exposure of 4 seconds would be 8, 16, 32, 64, 128...
I’m confused with your description of stops with time. If you want a stop increase of exposure, don’t you need 8 seconds after the initial 4? I’m confused why you are using aperture values. Help!
Excellent explanation of the split filter printing technique. The music however is too overpowering (it's also damn good!) when you're talking; it's competing at times, I found myself listening to the bass lines and then having to go back to hear what you had just said. :)
Ha! I was a professional musician for a short time and I learned to play a little upright bass, so I probably put it louder in the mix out of solidarity. Thanks for watching my channel, and glad you liked the technique!
Hi great video, I tried this and found when I did the vertical lines with magenta at a grade 5. There were no lines and no differences. Any suggestions on what might be causing this?
@@silverandplatinumhello, I just did some more tests and found that the times for the red filter were not sufficient to achieve any sort of increase in the blacks. I had to nearly triple the time to get a sequence. Is there a way to still achieve the stop differences at much higher times?
This is genius. Thanks for putting it out there and teaching me a new darkroom technique.
Thanks for sharing ! Best Video on YT about splitgrade printing IMHO
subscribed. Gonna teach my students this one.
Yessss please pass it on! And thanks for subscribing! I’ve been shooting a ton lately so recent videos are mostly on location, but I’m hoping to do some more darkroom tutorials like this in the future
well done mate. was trying to do both: get the most information out of test strips and save on material. but in the long run your approach is best. often i need a few strips anyways.. but here you get a very good overall idea. thanks a bunch and keep up the great work (ill check on that, mind you.. i subscribed) much love
That was just what I have been trying to cook up. This is the way! Thank you.
Ryan what did you just do! This is genius.
Thanks so much for this demonstration, I do like this approach and will be trying it soon!
You have put it perfectly. thank you very much.
Thank you for your tutorial, super useful!
genius, i'm gonna use this, shall name it the RJ Matrix test strip
I liked the square where the bass player was.
You just save me from cutting unimaginable amount of test stips and save's a lot of paper! thank you very much.
Pawn Star's be like: Best I can do it's a sub.
Awesome!
I like it. I have always wanted to get a dichroic enlarger to experiment making B/W prints from color negs and seeing how different colors can be rendered in grey scale via different cyan, magenta and yellow levels. Tried color to b/w with standard enlarger and contrast filters and a couple camera lens filters of various color. I have a couple interesting results but nothing noteworthy.
I first cranked Cyan filter all the way to its max to cancel out deep orange film base colour to rescue the soft contrast, followed by dialling magenta and yellow filters.
Hi there Mr Ryan, great tutorial
out of contest what brand is your easels.
Regards
Cesare
Hi Cesare, thanks for watching! This is the darkroom at my school; they use Beseler easels.
What aperture were you using in this exampIe? I''d imagine the base exposure and subsequent intervals thereafter would be dependent on your aperture. If the base exposure, in this case, was 4 seconds, and the lens was set to f8, then would it stand to reason that you'd want your base exposure to be 8 seconds, if using f11 on your enlarger lens?
You could, but you don’t have to. The main thing I care about is that my desired exposure is somewhere on the paper. Beyond that, it doesn’t matter much to me what the bounds are
how would you do this on a black and white only exposure machine thing (sorry i’m new)
No worries! It depends what kind of enlarger (machine thing :) ) that you have. Mine has those little magenta and yellow dials, but yours might not. You might have to buy a set of filters that can be inserted into your enlarger; different enlargers use different size filters so make sure you have the correct size. Where I use magenta 200, you'll use a #5 magenta filter. Where I use yellow 80, you'll use a #0 yellow filter.
Fantastic video! One question of understanding: Do I need to select the desired contrast grade (magenta value) before doing the teststrip, or do I always use the hardest grade, and the amount of contrast is determined by the exposure time for magenta?
Always use the hardest grade, and contrast is determined by magenta time
I have noticed that I have had to increase my highlights filtration to as much as a #2 filter using under lens filtration with a LED light head. Do you have a good source for a time chart for f stop printing? My head is very bright and exposure times much lower. Great video. BTW
Yes, some people like to do split grade printing with the yellow not quite all the way to a zero filter. There are so many variables that I could never rely on a time chart; I just make a new test for every negative I print
Hi there. I have a led bulb in my enlarger head. I just dropped in a cheap variable nd filter above the lens. Works just fine.
super cool technique! thanks for this. something ive read recently is that split grade printing gets you to a middle contrast filter. Example: exposing the sheet at grade 5 and grade 0 (For whatever amount of time to get a good contrast) would in theory just get you the same or similar result as just using a grade 3 filter. is this right? this is a fun technique though will try to use this!! thanks
Great question - in theory yes, if you expose for an equal amount of time with each of a 5 and 0 filter would get you roughly the same contrast as a print with a 3 filter, but in practice there are a lot of other variables such as the enlarger you’re using, paper type, etc. - I think the biggest advantage of split filter printing though is that you can dodge/burn the shadows and highlights separately, which you couldn’t do if you just printer with a 3 filter
@@silverandplatinum ah yes that makes sense! awesome thanks. cant wait for more videos!
I was pretty confused when you said you were going by stops here, since a stop would be twice as long. I think what you're actually doing is rounded off half stops. So it would be (2^2)=4, (2^2.5)=5.6, (2^3)=8, (2^3.5)=11.3, (2^4)=16, (2^4.5)=22.6 for exact half stops, and then you've rounded these off.
Hi Ryan! How come you initially expose the whole sheet for 4 seconds for both magenta and yellow? Is it so you don't get the most extreme side of the filters (complete black/white)?
Also, the time increments will always be the same since they are stops, right?
Very excited to try this out! Thanks for the video
Great question - yes, it’s because I’m almost sure that each filter will need more time than that; the extremes under 4 seconds are almost always unusable. And yes, I always use the same increments. Good luck!
@@silverandplatinum Hey man, just wanted to report back that I got back to my darkroom after 6 months and this method has seriously revived my interest in printing. The matrix is a fool-proof way to gage exposure and contrast and I'm not lost in an infinity of test-strips anymore. 1 whole page test, and the second print came out flawless. Thanks again for this wonderful resource!
@@jbezerk that’s awesome, I’m so glad it was helpful for you!
I understand the intention and the procedure but I think there is an error in the time calculations, increments of one step with a base exposure of 4 seconds would be 8, 16, 32, 64, 128...
Should have said 1/2 stops not full stops
That's a premiere 😅
I have to try this. Anyone knows how to match the Y and X axis in the darkroom?
I’m confused with your description of stops with time. If you want a stop increase of exposure, don’t you need 8 seconds after the initial 4?
I’m confused why you are using aperture values. Help!
True, I suppose these are actually half-stop increments
Agreed. At least an approximation. There are ALL kinds of paths to the top. I enjoyed your process!@@silverandplatinum
Excellent explanation of the split filter printing technique. The music however is too overpowering (it's also damn good!) when you're talking; it's competing at times, I found myself listening to the bass lines and then having to go back to hear what you had just said. :)
Ha! I was a professional musician for a short time and I learned to play a little upright bass, so I probably put it louder in the mix out of solidarity. Thanks for watching my channel, and glad you liked the technique!
Hi great video, I tried this and found when I did the vertical lines with magenta at a grade 5. There were no lines and no differences. Any suggestions on what might be causing this?
Intresting. If the yellow is working and the magenta isn't, I'd guess it's some kind of issue with the filter
@@silverandplatinumhello, I just did some more tests and found that the times for the red filter were not sufficient to achieve any sort of increase in the blacks. I had to nearly triple the time to get a sequence. Is there a way to still achieve the stop differences at much higher times?
Who does play on double bass? Bryan Bromberg?
Close - John Patitucci. Thought it was appropriate music for this image