Sir, I have watched this video 10 years after you kindly made it for us. Thank you for taking the time in sharing this and I am off to my darkroom to implement it. I wish you well.
Thank you for watching! Luckily printing technique did not change in the last years, so the video is still "up to date". :) I wish you better prints and fun in the darkroom!
I studied with Ansel Adams and I can assure RUclips readers that your printing demonstration is one of the very best I've ever seen here. Bravo. One comment I would make (basically agreeing with your method but with a slightly different approach): I make my test prints in three-to-five basic steps. The first step concentrates ONLY on using an important white area (the lightest white which shows detail) to determine an over exposure time (which be tweeked later). Instead of moving a card to expose the whole print for my test, I expose ONLY that same white part (and, at a low contrast, such as grade 1.5) to various times by sliding the PAPER past a slot cut into a card which covers it. In that way I can compare this important white section, side by side. From here I can derive a basic exposure time for the whole print. After that I make an overall print at the best looking time to see what that exposure time does to my important dark & shadow areas, whose density I can test and control in my third test print by estimating which contrast filter will best do the job. I can normally arrive at a good "first" print after about five test prints (which, to save paper, needn't be whole sheets!) Thanks again for your excellent demonstration.
Yes, I do the same, I even narrow it to a smaller test strips with a special mask I created. Wasting a whole pieces of paper sheet just for testing is not an option, at least not for me in these crazy times when paper is so expensive. I am amazed how many people said it’s a great tutorial and I noticed no comment about paper wasted to do it.
Test strips are a waste of paper as they only show you the incorrect exposure in a small area of an image. They tell you very little about the whole image. The tonal strips he makes is not even in stops. One exposure for the whole image (or use strips of paper covering from shadows to highlights) will show how many stops you need to change the exposure from shadows to highlights. This is of course the primary function of The Zone System of exposure as formulated by Ansel Adam’s & Fred Archer in 1939 to 1940. Just apply those principles to your print. The rules are always the same. It’s why we talk in stops not time and aperture. I understand this may be a shock. I came to this realisation when I began teaching darkroom printing at the age of 47 after a lifetime of professional photography. I began teaching test strips as I was taught at college. I quickly realised that I don’t do that. I hadn’t made a test strip in decades. So what do I do I asked myself? Simple, I know the grey scale. I then got the students to make a set of small prints in stops from white to black of a whole negative and there is your reference for life. Soon you will just know. No need to repeat the process every time you do a print. This can then be transferred to knowing how much to dodge & burn when you reach the fine tones you require to make that beautiful silver print. The technician said it would waist a lot of paper but on the contrary it saved a lot of paper and also taught the students the Zone System of exposure. This is what I made in my darkroom…… www.hagsphotography.com
I second that, very nicely made video, clear explaination of the concepts, could we have some more please ? Books are good, to be shown is better. Thank you
This is the most useful darkroom video I have watched. Your explanations are clear and concise especially the part about getting the test strips. Well done and thank you!
That was quite possibly the best explanation and tutorial in making a test strip I've seen on RUclips. Thank you so much. Can't wait to see the rest of your videos.
The point at 10:30, about correct highlight in 1 exposure and the correct shadow in the other is the first objective description of picking correct/incorrect contrast I've seen on youtube, thankyou! (Obviously, it's still subjective, but adjusting contract filters makes a lot more sense to me now)!
In the past 12 months I have started shooting and developing my own film. I have recently purchased an enlarger to learn to make my own prints. Fantastic explanation, you are a great teacher. Thanks for taking the time to do this video.
most would not bother to go through the 3 contrast attempts, but this video is fascinating as you explore the 'correct' contrast through trial and error. thank you!
Thank you so much! Very helpful! It took me 5 times to get the correct contrast.
5 лет назад+1
thanks a lot Mr Calabresi for sharing this method of finding the best contrast for a print. I've always struggled with contrast while printing. Really appreciate your kindness on sharing this. Best wishes, Santiago
As much as i simply love the technique, your amazing teaching skills and the result i can't help but thinking those test pieces were also amazing artworks.
Reading AA's The Print, you both evaluate correct contrast in the same way, but your way is a measurable, easy to follow method with a nice demonstration and explanation. Thanks very much.
I was taught very basic darkroom technique at highschool. This is how I've always done it. Your video has completely revolutionised my printing! Wow, thank you!
The absolutely critical phase, which Mr. Calabresi touches on, is evaluating the whites - or highlights - determined by exposure (+usually much lighter than you think). Dialing in contrast for the blacks is relatively easy. Developing judgement to evaluate the highlights is pivotal - otherwise you will be turning round and round, like a dog chasing it's tail, as I did for many years, so I harp on it. Split grading while doing whites first is a good way to develop this judgement.
+Igaluit I am sorry, you missed the point. Yours is the old approach that suits graded paper. The statement - exposure determines the whites, contrast the blacks - is not true on multigrade papers, hence the need to find a method to determine exposure and contrast at the same time, as I show in this video. Your approach could only work with a condensor head and contrast filters IF the tone that does not vary when changing contrast was a highlight, but the tone (when it exists) is not so much a highlight and it is not so stable. You can see it clearly on the characteristic curves of papers, where the curves of the different grades tend to cross each other at densities of around 0,5 (and not so exactly), that's more a midtone than a highlight. The approach I suggest works with any paper on any enlarger. I am not a fan of split printing. Split printing makes it easy to get a work print, but afterwards it is simply double the work. I am not a fan also because split printing is a procedure and not a method and this means that you don't need to understand how things works to make a (work) print.
Thank-you for taking the time to explain this for me (and correcting my misconceptions), especially since there are few experts now of this arcane art. What we find in old photography texts is so often cursory and even misleading. I had nagging doubts about the highlights as a focal point and was more or less reverting to looking at the general aspect of the print. What you say about split-printing is true; it's sometimes a lot of work. Also, it seems to give a very distracting sheen or shine to the image. Still, on very difficult negatives I seemed to get better results. I prefer straight printing if I have a choice. I have never seen the methodology you teach before having seen your video. The beauty of your method is that it immediately orients you in the direction you ought to go - minus the endless tries and the going around in circles. Am looking forward to trying it. Thanks again for the feedback. Mille grazie.
Very useful insight about contrast control on printing. Thank you very much for your video. Looking forward to more videos like these. Regards from Greece!
Thank you for sharing your technique, this is greatly appreciated! I've always been doing actual test strips by cutting up photo paper and exposing several single strips - then developing. This makes so much more sense and the work process feels much cleaner.
+Jakob Reisinger, it seems to me that you get a better reading by exposing a full sheet and in the end actually save paper by not having to keep printing with each adjustment. This method looks pretty accurate and I'm excited to give it a try. Best of luck in your work!
Andrea! Many thanks for taking the time to share your skills and expertise. I am just setting up my first dark room and there seems so much to learn. Thanks again for your help in your video,so well presented and understandable. Regards Ken
Mr Calabresi, thank you so much for your dedication to your art, the outcome of which is this very informative gem of a video! And thank you for your kindness to share!
Congratulations. This is a great darkroom tutorial. Excellent in every detail, technical and not only,... including the tone of your voice. Really superb. Thanks
What an excellent tutorial. I figured out more about nailing contrast in fifteen minutes here than a year of photo school and four years of sporadic darkroom practice (...and googling, forum-ing, book reading, etc. ...)!!! Any more tutorials coming???
Very very well explained. Some expert just say my feeling is to use this or that filter, but you explain why the filter you use is higher or lower. This helped me alot
Thank you Andrea Calabresi for this excellent tutorial. May I ask, what is the purpose of having a variable aperture on an enlarger? I understand on a camera it is for controlling depth of field.
+Enwogamwirion Hi. There is more than one reason: being able to have a confortable exposure time; the need of a little depth of field to compensate for the field curvature (it is impossible that the field is totally flat); lens peerformance it is generally better at certain f-stops. You need the possibility to open the lens wide to have ease of focus, to close it down on small enlargements and to use the best f-stop or closest possible if field curvature doesn't allow for critical work on bigger enlargments.
Wow This turned on the light for me. It's really quite simple when someone explains it in simple terms. Thank You for this. I'd like to see you explain the change of enlarger f stops and the results obtained. Thank You again
+EFD620G Hi. Glad you appreciated. Changing enlarger f-stop will affect exposure the usual way: closing one f-stop will require double the exposure. E.G. if the exposure is 12" @ f:8 it becomes 24" @ f:11. This follows the main exposure rule (reciprocity) wich says: E=txl - exposure= is time per light. Less light, more time and viceversa. Lens performance is also affected, but with good lenses this is visible only on higher magnification (bigger prints). Generally speaking the intermediate f-stops will yeld the better lens performance. It is advisable not to use the lens wide open or fully closed. For best performance every single lens shall be tested individually in a perfectly alligned system and at different magnifications. This requires equipment and expertise.
Hello and thank you for the wonderful tutorial. I have a darkroom question I could use help on. In some of my shots I might have a super bright area that is almost pure white into or close to direct sun. I can get all other contrast under control in the print. So I try to burn the area in with a #00 contrast filter but it approaches 1 1/2 to 2 minutes with barely any discernible change? What can be done about these white areas in the printing stage? Or is it just have to be left in as a compromise? Please help, thanks.
Hi, x71... in the cases prevention is usually better than the cure. Prevention is to give less development to the films shot in high contrast scenes. Regarding printing what you can add to what you have already done is paper flashing. This may not solve the problem entirely, but will surely reduce by a large amount the time of the low contrast burning. You can also try to use a lower contrast overall.
incredible, your clarity, simplicity of explanation and clear love for the subject are remarkable. So pleasant and instructive to see this. Thank you so much!
Thank you for a very informative video Andrea! I can't wait till my next day off so that I can go into the darkroom and put this new knowledge to use. :-)
No, I am not. I am giving you a guide in order to do burning and dodging afterwards and do it for interpretation and not to fix problems generated from a wrong contrast choice. :) A common mistake is to look at the test strip in search of the the exposure that gives correct mid-tones, then, if the contrast was wrong, dodging and burning becomes necessary to fix that original mistake.
Hai un video veramente bravo! Mi sono piaciuto le tue ingranditore (non sono sicuro che gli enlargers siano chiamate cosi in italiano). Solo per curiosità, fai il processo RA-4 per stampare ad colori?
Grazie Carlos Se la comprensione ti è più facile puoi trovare il video anche in italiano. Giusto. Enlarger = Ingranditore Non faccio più colore, ne ho fatto un po' in passato, ma solo Ilfochrome.
Non ti preocupare, è più difficile trovare informazione giusta su fotografia in italiano (ma ho visto la versione in inglese…), spagnolo anche. Per sfortuna quando ho imparato fotografia analogica, l'Ilfochrome era già morto… al meno spero che quando Ektachrome ritorni alla vita possa trovarlo facilmente.
I never saw a contrast filter being inserted in the enlarger, you said there is s need to change contrast but not how did you do it, I'm so confused, thank you so much
Hello Brenda, The main image adjustments in black and white printing are esposure (darker - brighter) and contrast (the relationship between darker and brighter tones). They are related and shall be adjusted at the same time and that is the difficult part. This video shows a method to make these adjustments. While exposure is more intuitive, the more light you give the darker it becomes (it's a negative process) contrast is a much less intuitive thing. Maybe if you can imagine (figure in your mind) a picture where you like the midtones, but you would like to modify the darker and/or the brighter tones... that's exactly what changing the contrast does, it modifies the extremes of the tonal range, making them brighter or darker as you wish. To modify the contrast on contemporary (so called) Multigrade photo papers you need to change the colour of the light. This change of colour of the printing light can be obtained in different ways, one consists of putting coloured filters in the light path and many enlargers (the projection devices) have a specific drawer where you can place these coloured filters.
This is a very helpful video - One question: How do you determine what your base times for each contrast are? I am referring to that moment on each test strip right before you begin sliding the card. I noticed you had a different base time for each contrast test strip and I imagine that you must have some formula in your head that you refer to? Thanks! Also is there a place in which you have published more in depth information on your method? I would love to continue learning in this style. I have been using the f-stop method for about a year but I like how much faster this style is.
Hello Aaron, There is no exact formula, unluckily. If it existed there would not be the need of running a test strip every time you change the contrast. Anyway using a colour head there will be an increase of exposure every time the filters are set to a higher value. I did not write much. I plan to make more videos, but my schedule is quite busy, so it will take time. But I regularly teach seminars on darkroom technique in Bologna, Italy (the english website is on the way). You can also check the printing workshop of Jim Megargee in NYC and in Maine. He will teach something very similar. He was my mentor long ago. :)
Thanks for chiming in so quickly. I will say the split grade works very well for and a lot success in tough negs situations. Like bullet proof skies like we have here in New Mexico. I do float between technique simile it to yours in low contrast negs and the other. Thanks for posting. Your technique is another tool I can use in my darkroom tool chest.
+ToddB987 I know. That's exactly what I intended about non optimal negatives quality and use of split printing. Why don't you reduce film developing times instead of saving them while printing? The results will be dramatically different and the freedom in print interpretation will be saved. The newest T-grain films can accomodate some 20 stops of dynamic range even on grade 2 if properly processed. BTW, Which light spource are you using in your enlarger, condensor or diffuser?
Condensor on 120 and diffuser on 35mm. I usually develop film on recommend manufactures recommendations. For example using Delta 100 developed at 12.00 min at 68 degrees using D-76. I know less time reduces contrast and more time adds more. I usually shoot a lot of varing light situation on a single roll that's why I use manufacturers recommend times. I usually shoot a lot of black and white film with a orange filter on most everything.
+ToddB987 Hi, this time I am late... Ilford developing times are generally producing negatives suitable for low contrast scenes to be printed with diffuser enlargers. So development times should be reduced (sometimes a lot) when printing with a condensor head, and/or shooting high contrast scenes. This is normal. I warmly suggest you an experiment: do dev times "bracketing" combined with exposure bracketing. Make the same images on three rolls of film (if you have a MF camera with film backs it's easy), expose with bracketing and then process for 50% 75% and suggested developing time. Finally print it all.
Great Vid.. Question..? looks like you pre-expose your paper before you slide across cardboard . Is that time the same time as stops that your making across paper?
I give a base time, if needed. For example if I imagine that the exposure will be around 20" I may give a 10" base to all the sheet and then make some strips of 2" each in order to see times between 10" and 30".
Excellent tutorial. I like how your method can be thought of as the solid foundation for any good print, integrating a lot of knowledge in a seemingly simple approach. - I experimented with it in the darkroom today and came up with a question: in the example the highlights and shadows are quite evenly distributed across the image. Do you have any advice on how to handle negatives where let's say the highlights that you are concerned about are restricted to a small area and the shadows to a different area? In that case most of the test exposures would miss the relevant information. Do you use smaller test stripes in a case like this? Any other insights?
Hi Till B. One solution is to do smaller strips, another one one is to get or build a proofer, basically a window under wich you can slide the paper, thus making different exposures of the same spot, stripe.
@@AndreaCalabresiSilverprint Hi...I think a proofer is thought of as used for contact prints. I have found an Ilford test strip holder, which is as you describe. What I prefer to do is to use small squares for highlight and shadow of most importance, and use tape to hold flat. I can do both the highlight and shadow at the same time. I make about 10 squares, and write on the back 2,4,6, etc...or 5,10,15, etc... I then expose two at a time to those times - one highlight, and one shadow. Once exposed, I put these in my pocket, or empty light proof bag (the same as paper sold in) to shield from light. Then move on to the next exposure time, repeat. When all ten have been exposed, I develop, stop, fix all together in a small plastic container, which saves on chemicals. Using your method, I then compare the highlight I like and the shadow I like. If the shadow requires more development time, then I change raise strength of contrast filter and repeat the process until I find an exposure time that works best for both the highlight and shadow.
Just learned something. I have been leaving my print in the developer until the time was up. He takes it out a few seconds before and then waits for the time to end. Will start doing that tonight.
question, having very high contrast printing with my omega c760 condenser head. just received this enlarger and am not sure if it is the condenser head that is making too much contrast or something I can control. shot a full roll of bracketed shots and still had trouble finding one that had good midtones. Any thoughts?
Hi, +Christian Peterson High contrast comes from over-developed (or pushed) negatives. It is surely possible to make prints with a complete and smooth tonal range with both a condenser or diffuser (colour) head, so the problem is in the negatives. To reduce contrast you shall reduce developing times (or use a less energetic developer). Try experimenting with both bracketing and a reduction of developing times. A condenser head produces more contrast, but if the negatives have a reasonable maximum density the difference is not huge. The more the density on the negatives, the more will be the contrast difference between condenser and diffuser (colour) head. This is due to the so called "Callier Effect".
great thank you, I also picked up a older omega b cold head enlarger and the prints do look much better now, with that being said i have been using rodinal to film specs, im going to try 20 reduction in development time and see where that goes. i appreciate your response and love the videos.
Hi +Christian Peterson, Can you tell me wich films and what dilution and developing time you are using? Some films in Rodinal with manufacturer suggested developing times may produce negatives that can be too hard for condenser heads.
Quick newbie question: Light shines on the negative, and is projected and focused on the paper. I see that the paper remains white after this process, and only after putting it in the successive "chemical baths" does it turn black. My question is: Where do the black particles come from? Are they in the solutions somewhere and stick to the paper?
Hello Basil Newbie! The question is quick, but the answer will be long since your question in other terms is: how does photography work! Ahaha! :D Analog photography uses the properties of some mettallic salts, iron, platinum and especially silver. The salts called silver halyde are light sensitive. This means that those salts have a chemical reaction if exposed to light. When some photons hit those silver salts particles they become chemically unstable and ready to recombine in other compounds. Back to your specific question, the silver salts are quite whiteish and they are in the paper (or film - the process is very similar). Once the paper (or film) is exposed to light the silver salts are transformed (but still whiteish) and something called the latent image is produced. The chemicals that are used to process the photo materials have the ability to transform the light exposed silver salts in metallic (black) silver, in other terms they develop the latent image and the picture becomes finally visible! Almost like magic! Then the developing process is stopped in the second bath, and finally the silver particles that did not receive light are removed in the third bath called fixer. After that the print is washed in running water, then dried and flattened. A time consumin process, but the quality of those classic images is unsurpassed and they are precious too... an image of silver, the so called silverprint.
I have watched this a few times , its a great video , but it always leaves me asking the question . What about split gate printing ? Is this just designed as an intro level video ,, or do you not split grade ?
Hello, thank you for the question. SplitGrade printing is very much less precise. Here my opinion about it: SplitGrade printing is… flawed Splitgrade is popular procedure to adapt the printing contrast to the contrast of the negative. It is a simple, always the same, 3 step way to do it, a sort of ritual that promises to make contrast adjustment simple and straightforward. I've been teaching darkroom techniques for more than two decades now and I well know how difficult can be to understand what is contrast and how contrast adjustment works, so I fully understand the success of this procedure, BUT... it is flawed. I'm sorry. It is. We shall start understanding how contrast adjustment is made and before that we must get rid of a false myth. The false myth is that the paper has two emulsions, one with high contrast and sensitive to blue light (the magenta filter blocks the green light and the blue passes trough) and another one sensitive to green light (the yellow filter blocks the blue light and the green passes trough) and that contrast adjustment is made by splitting the exposure in variable proportions into this two different emulsions or layers. According to these assumptions contrast adjustment is done either by varying two different exposures with each color (Splitgrade) or by using filters that let pass different amounts of green and blue light. Well it doesn't work that way at all. It has never. This is totally made up! So how is contrast adjusted? MultiGrade (MG) papers have an emulsion made of differently color sensitized silver salts, in modern papers there are generally 3 of those. We can refer to these as different layers or emulsions for simplicity of thoughts, but the emulsion is just one containing the differently colour sensitized salts. These "layers" have the same speed in blue light and different speed in green light, they all have the same contrast (!!!) and the contrast is low (!!!). If we use blue light (magenta filter) all the "layers" get the same exposure and the density of each sums up, thus to get maximum density or "blacks" we need only a partial exposure of each "layer" and a reduced amount of light. This reduced amount of light is not enough to pass trough the denser parts of a negative in quantities able to produce some density on the paper, thus producing an effect of higher contrast. When we use green light (yellow filter) the “layers” have different speed, so to get maximum density (blacks) we need to give one single layer enough exposure to make it. To reach maximum density a lot more light will be needed, so this higher amount of light will pass trough the denser parts of a negative in quaintities enough to get some density on the paper, thus producing a lower contrast effect. Many have noticed that when doing SplitGrade there is no precise control of the highlights and they get darker than expected or chosen in the first test strip. That is precisely the issue with that procedure, and it is unavoidable. It is unavoidable because that depends on how the paper works. Think of it! In the procedure of SplitGrade we do the first exposure in green light (00 or 0 filter), so we expose one layer more than the others, then we chose a proper exposure for the highlights, expose one sheet with that, then we change filter and make a test strip with grade 5 and chose the exposure for the shadows. Then we make the print with this two different contrasts and exposures. All should go as expected, we are promised to get both highlights and shadows right, but this doesn’t happen. It doesn’t happen because the second exposure is in blue light, it goes on all the layers and it will unavoidably add up to the highlights: they get a second exposure! This is the reason why this procedure if flawed, it cannot properly work, because the paper doesn’t work like the false myth says. Can we fix this issue? To some extent yes, but never precisely. In “Way Beyond Monochrome” (one of the most comprehensive text about BW technique) it is suggested that the exposure with the lower contrast shall be a bit reduced before making the grade 5 teststrip. The question that has no answer is how much we shall reduce it. It happens that the lower the contrast is on a negative the higher is the influence of the second exposure on the highlights, so the amount of the reduction that shall be made on the first exposure is variable! Some noticed that the softer the negative the more imprecise SplitGrade becomes if the first exposure is make with 00 filter, so they suggest to do the first test strip with grade 5 when the negatives are soft. Does this solve the problem? It does not. It simply moves the issue on the shadows, they will be darker than expected because they will get additional exposure in green light anyway. If we have hard contrasty negatives the inherent mistake of Spligrade can be minor, in fact many have learnt that it works better with hard negatives. Similarly many have noticed that with very soft negatives they can reduce the error by testing grade 5 first. But why shall we use SplitGrade when we are good or lucky and have good negatives? Why use a procedure that unavoidably cannot give what it promises? But the biggest issue is that SplitGrade brings back in the process the guesswork that the test strip was supposed to eliminate! We make test strips to chose, precisely, the exposure, not to have a base for guesswork, don’t we? A good news: there is a simple way (in this video) to adjust contrast precisely, we do not need SplitGrade!
@@AndreaCalabresiSilverprint Thanks , that's the longest answer to a comment I've seen on RUclips ! You very obviously know your craft . That is a lot to digest . I will try your method Thanks again
Hi, thahk you. Split printing is an easy procedure to obtain a work print, but it may get very complicated on a print that requires manipulation with dodging and burning and different contrast. It helps novices be fast (two test and one print), but at the same time doesn't help them understand how the image varies changing contrast.
Great video. Professional, very accurate method, concise tutorial, very understandable. Thanks. Where do you teach? (I did my photography education in the late 1970-ties, now I was looking for some sort of a darkroom checklist, since I am about to start using a wetroom again after several decades. Found your video. Great help.)
More videos are planned, but it will take time. Be patient. :) The enlargers you see in the video are Durst L-1200, the one used is equipped with a Durst CLS-501 colour head. The L-1200 is one of the better built enlargers for negatives up to 4x5". Very reliable and easy to operate.
+Joan D Hi Joan, thank you. Yes. To change contrast you change filters. In a colour head (diffuser) you can change the value of the filters and contrast continuosly. Medium contrast will be with the filters set to 0. To increase contrast you will add magenta filtration. To reduce contrast you will add yellow filtration. With a BW (condensor) you can change contrast in steps of half a contrast grade by inserting contrast filters in the appropriate slot (or under the lens). Filter 00 is the lowest contrast, filter 5 is the highest contast, filter 2 is medium contrast (starting point).
Hello @tallaganda83, First we shall made clear that you can obtain the same exact results is both ways, ie same tonalities and same contrast variations, etc. These depends on the characteristics of paper and not on the way the contrast desiderd is reached. Split printing is an easy mechanical procedure to obtain a work print in 3 steps. The reason of its succes is in this being mechanical and simple.... if you stop at the work print stage. While if you need/want to work on the image with dodging & burning and local contrast variations split printing requires at least to double the work, time and paper. It is also somehow uncorrect, because the softest is the negative the higher is the inluence of the grade 5 exposure on the highligths, creating some uncertainty of results, ie further adjustments made guessing.
newmutant1 Generally i do. Continuos contrast control can be very useful. Anyway I may use condensor head or even point light source if a negative requires.
![COLOMBIA vs. CHILE [4-0] | RESUMEN | ELIMINATORIAS SUDAMERICANAS | FECHA 10](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/TDjN4W3yy1k/mqdefault.jpg)
Sir, I have watched this video 10 years after you kindly made it for us. Thank you for taking the time in sharing this and I am off to my darkroom to implement it. I wish you well.
Thank you for watching! Luckily printing technique did not change in the last years, so the video is still "up to date". :)
I wish you better prints and fun in the darkroom!
I studied with Ansel Adams and I can assure RUclips readers that your printing demonstration is one of the very best I've ever seen here. Bravo. One comment I would make (basically agreeing with your method but with a slightly different approach): I make my test prints in three-to-five basic steps. The first step concentrates ONLY on using an important white area (the lightest white which shows detail) to determine an over exposure time (which be tweeked later). Instead of moving a card to expose the whole print for my test, I expose ONLY that same white part (and, at a low contrast, such as grade 1.5) to various times by sliding the PAPER past a slot cut into a card which covers it. In that way I can compare this important white section, side by side. From here I can derive a basic exposure time for the whole print. After that I make an overall print at the best looking time to see what that exposure time does to my important dark & shadow areas, whose density I can test and control in my third test print by estimating which contrast filter will best do the job. I can normally arrive at a good "first" print after
about five test prints (which, to save paper, needn't be whole sheets!)
Thanks again for your excellent demonstration.
+mefourb Thank you very much. An expert appreciating is, indeed a great compliment. :)
NB. A more technical answer is above.
So you make the first test without filter?
Yes, I do the same, I even narrow it to a smaller test strips with a special mask I created.
Wasting a whole pieces of paper sheet just for testing is not an option, at least not for me in these crazy times when paper is so expensive.
I am amazed how many people said it’s a great tutorial and I noticed no comment about paper wasted to do it.
Test strips are a waste of paper as they only show you the incorrect exposure in a small area of an image. They tell you very little about the whole image. The tonal strips he makes is not even in stops.
One exposure for the whole image (or use strips of paper covering from shadows to highlights) will show how many stops you need to change the exposure from shadows to highlights.
This is of course the primary function of The Zone System of exposure as formulated by Ansel Adam’s & Fred Archer in 1939 to 1940. Just apply those principles to your print. The rules are always the same. It’s why we talk in stops not time and aperture.
I understand this may be a shock.
I came to this realisation when I began teaching darkroom printing at the age of 47 after a lifetime of professional photography. I began teaching test strips as I was taught at college. I quickly realised that I don’t do that. I hadn’t made a test strip in decades.
So what do I do I asked myself? Simple, I know the grey scale.
I then got the students to make a set of small prints in stops from white to black of a whole negative and there is your reference for life. Soon you will just know.
No need to repeat the process every time you do a print.
This can then be transferred to knowing how much to dodge & burn when you reach the fine tones you require to make that beautiful silver print.
The technician said it would waist a lot of paper but on the contrary it saved a lot of paper and also taught the students the Zone System of exposure.
This is what I made in my darkroom……
www.hagsphotography.com
@@hagishag I agree, test strip are a waste of paper if.... you do not know how to use them.
In my opinion, the best and most well explained darkroom tutorial on YT. Thanks so much for sharing this info and I would love to see more!
+A Bakken. Thank you very much!
I agree! Grazie Andrea!!
I also agree, thanks a lot for sharing this tutorial!
That was so informative I hope you post more in the future so we can learn from your expertise
I second that, very nicely made video, clear explaination of the concepts, could we have some more please ? Books are good, to be shown is better. Thank you
By far this is the most straight forward video I have seen on how to choose exposure time and contrast! You must be a very good professor!
Thank you Philip.
I've been teaching since 1996. It is still something i love doing.
This is probably the best b&w print making tutorial on youtube. Clear, simple, informative and well presented. Thank you Andrea!
Thank you Dilbert !!
What a Great Guide! Often you find videos where just some guy talks in front of the camera, not here! Realy helpful
By far the best explanation of what to look for in contrast, and how to achieve the correct results I have ever seen.
Thank you Mark
I came to find out about filters, I left wiser about a dozen things. Very concise, straightforward and well executed.
Really helpful video. Thanks so much. Am starting out and have not yet worked out when I’d need to mess with contrast settings. Now I know!
This is the most useful darkroom video I have watched. Your explanations are clear and concise especially the part about getting the test strips. Well done and thank you!
thank you for being so generous with your time
That was quite possibly the best explanation and tutorial in making a test strip I've seen on RUclips.
Thank you so much.
Can't wait to see the rest of your videos.
I appreciate your patient manner; it's the sign of a good teacher. Thank you.
This is amazing, I just built my darkroom and this is wonderful.
Any way you could help me out
@@Kaemaci what help do you need?
The point at 10:30, about correct highlight in 1 exposure and the correct shadow in the other is the first objective description of picking correct/incorrect contrast I've seen on youtube, thankyou! (Obviously, it's still subjective, but adjusting contract filters makes a lot more sense to me now)!
Awesome tutorial! I have been printing for years and I have never seen this explained so clearly.
Thank you Garvin!
In the past 12 months I have started shooting and developing my own film. I have recently purchased an enlarger to learn to make my own prints. Fantastic explanation, you are a great teacher. Thanks for taking the time to do this video.
Multi8991 I love analog photography. Sharing and keeping analog photography alive is a pleasure.
most would not bother to go through the 3 contrast attempts, but this video is fascinating as you explore the 'correct' contrast through trial and error. thank you!
Thank you so much! Very helpful! It took me 5 times to get the correct contrast.
thanks a lot Mr Calabresi for sharing this method of finding the best contrast for a print. I've always struggled with contrast while printing. Really appreciate your kindness on sharing this.
Best wishes, Santiago
Thank you Santiago, I am very glad to have been useful.
Finally! A method that makes logical sense of a subjective art form
Thank you @mosephina, that was my aim.
As much as i simply love the technique, your amazing teaching skills and the result i can't help but thinking those test pieces were also amazing artworks.
Reading AA's The Print, you both evaluate correct contrast in the same way, but your way is a measurable, easy to follow method with a nice demonstration and explanation. Thanks very much.
Mr. Calabresi, thank you so much. Ultra professional. Grazie.
+Bill Leontaritis Thank you!
Excellent tutorial. I learn something new every time I watch this.👍
Sir, you just gave a clinic! So you have more content on RUclips on another channel. I'd love to see more.
I was taught very basic darkroom technique at highschool. This is how I've always done it. Your video has completely revolutionised my printing! Wow, thank you!
Watching this gave me a whole new map in editting digital photos. Wow, thanks!
Shoot film next 😜😜
@@nickfanzo i am honestly considering it, but only for personal photos :D
@@geotsaou once you start, there’s no stopping it
I just made my first ever print from a Ferrania P30Alpha negative, thanks to this video. Grazie molto, Andrea!
The absolutely critical phase, which Mr. Calabresi touches on, is evaluating the whites - or highlights - determined by exposure (+usually much lighter than you think). Dialing in contrast for the blacks is relatively easy. Developing judgement to evaluate the highlights is pivotal - otherwise you will be turning round and round, like a dog chasing it's tail, as I did for many years, so I harp on it. Split grading while doing whites first is a good way to develop this judgement.
+Igaluit I am sorry, you missed the point. Yours is the old approach that suits graded paper. The statement - exposure determines the whites, contrast the blacks - is not true on multigrade papers, hence the need to find a method to determine exposure and contrast at the same time, as I show in this video.
Your approach could only work with a condensor head and contrast filters IF the tone that does not vary when changing contrast was a highlight, but the tone (when it exists) is not so much a highlight and it is not so stable.
You can see it clearly on the characteristic curves of papers, where the curves of the different grades tend to cross each other at densities of around 0,5 (and not so exactly), that's more a midtone than a highlight.
The approach I suggest works with any paper on any enlarger.
I am not a fan of split printing. Split printing makes it easy to get a work print, but afterwards it is simply double the work. I am not a fan also because split printing is a procedure and not a method and this means that you don't need to understand how things works to make a (work) print.
Thank-you for taking the time to explain this for me (and correcting my misconceptions), especially since there are few experts now of this arcane art. What we find in old photography texts is so often cursory and even misleading. I had nagging doubts about the highlights as a focal point and was more or less reverting to looking at the general aspect of the print. What you say about split-printing is true; it's sometimes a lot of work. Also, it seems to give a very distracting sheen or shine to the image. Still, on very difficult negatives I seemed to get better results. I prefer straight printing if I have a choice. I have never seen the methodology you teach before having seen your video. The beauty of your method is that it immediately orients you in the direction you ought to go - minus the endless tries and the going around in circles. Am looking forward to trying it. Thanks again for the feedback. Mille grazie.
Very useful insight about contrast control on printing. Thank you very much for your video. Looking forward to more videos like these. Regards from Greece!
Thank you for the such a great instruction in master printing Andrea. I really look forward to you next tutorial.
This is now my new test strip method! Thank you!
Fantastic tutorial ! better than being in a class room !
Thank you for sharing your technique, this is greatly appreciated!
I've always been doing actual test strips by cutting up photo paper and exposing several single strips - then developing. This makes so much more sense and the work process feels much cleaner.
+Jakob Reisinger Thank you for watching and appreciating.
+Jakob Reisinger, it seems to me that you get a better reading by exposing a full sheet and in the end actually save paper by not having to keep printing with each adjustment. This method looks pretty accurate and I'm excited to give it a try. Best of luck in your work!
Andrea! Many thanks for taking the time to share your skills and expertise. I am just setting up my first dark room and there seems so much to learn. Thanks again for your help in your video,so well presented and understandable. Regards Ken
very good explonation for beginners. especially the contrast development was helpful. thanks.
Mr Calabresi, thank you so much for your dedication to your art, the outcome of which is this very informative gem of a video! And thank you for your kindness to share!
Excellent demonstration!
Mr Calabresi, I thank you sir for this video. I hope to start printing some of my images this year.
Thank you - great video, you have cleared up many questions I have had about my printing.....
Congratulations. This is a great darkroom tutorial. Excellent in every detail, technical and not only,... including the tone of your voice. Really superb. Thanks
Thank you very much!
What an excellent tutorial. I figured out more about nailing contrast in fifteen minutes here than a year of photo school and four years of sporadic darkroom practice (...and googling, forum-ing, book reading, etc. ...)!!!
Any more tutorials coming???
Hi! Thank you so much. It is really nice to know that this is helpful!
I would like to make more videos, but it will take some time.
Very educational video for a beginner like me! Great work and thanx !
Hans Schumacher Thank you for watching. ;-)
elegantly explained. Thank you.
An excellent tutorial, very helpful with regard to contrast. Thank you very much - I shall watch it again.
Thank for sharing. The best explanation which i have seen. Grazie
Thanks so much for making this video! It's a huge help to me! Thank you!
+Joey Pasco I am very pleased to have been helpful. Thank you!
Very very well explained. Some expert just say my feeling is to use this or that filter, but you explain why the filter you use is higher or lower. This helped me alot
Thank you Jreey! Glad to be useful! Keep on printing!
Yes the best printing tutorial I have seen. Love to see more tutorials from you.
That's how you do it. I was thinking about it this week.
Great explanation, thank you! Also a great picture
I would take a photography course with you, any time and any place. Thank you so much for sharing your magnificent stores of knowledge.
Thank you Sandra,
I teach courses every weekend in Bologna, you're wellcome. :)
Thank you very much, starting darkroom printing from medium format and this was the best video
Thank you Fred!
Glad you find it useful.
Thank you! Excellent video and I hope to see more.
This is extremely useful! Thank you so much for this video. Greetings from Malaysia!
Great tutorial, you are a wonderful teacher!
I could not help but notice the cover on the book at his left elbow :-) Very good tutorial. Thanks.
Thank you Andrea Calabresi for this excellent tutorial. May I ask, what is the purpose of having a variable aperture on an enlarger? I understand on a camera it is for controlling depth of field.
+Enwogamwirion Hi.
There is more than one reason: being able to have a confortable exposure time; the need of a little depth of field to compensate for the field curvature (it is impossible that the field is totally flat); lens peerformance it is generally better at certain f-stops. You need the possibility to open the lens wide to have ease of focus, to close it down on small enlargements and to use the best f-stop or closest possible if field curvature doesn't allow for critical work on bigger enlargments.
Andrea Calabresi Thank you! You are are a maestro!
very good video, thanks very much......cant wait too try your method next time printing....thanks
Wow This turned on the light for me. It's really quite simple when someone explains it in simple terms. Thank You for this. I'd like to see you explain the change of enlarger f stops and the results obtained. Thank You again
+EFD620G Hi. Glad you appreciated.
Changing enlarger f-stop will affect exposure the usual way: closing one f-stop will require double the exposure. E.G. if the exposure is 12" @ f:8 it becomes 24" @ f:11. This follows the main exposure rule (reciprocity) wich says: E=txl - exposure= is time per light. Less light, more time and viceversa.
Lens performance is also affected, but with good lenses this is visible only on higher magnification (bigger prints). Generally speaking the intermediate f-stops will yeld the better lens performance. It is advisable not to use the lens wide open or fully closed.
For best performance every single lens shall be tested individually in a perfectly alligned system and at different magnifications. This requires equipment and expertise.
great video, its very informative. any plans to continue the series?
Thank you Sir!!! This is an excellent tutorial for beginners like me!
Great job... Thank you so much for sharing your know how
+Emanuele Altieri Thank you for watching.
Hello and thank you for the wonderful tutorial. I have a darkroom question I could use help on. In some of my shots I might have a super bright area that is almost pure white into or close to direct sun. I can get all other contrast under control in the print. So I try to burn the area in with a #00 contrast filter but it approaches 1 1/2 to 2 minutes with barely any discernible change? What can be done about these white areas in the printing stage? Or is it just have to be left in as a compromise? Please help, thanks.
Hi, x71... in the cases prevention is usually better than the cure. Prevention is to give less development to the films shot in high contrast scenes. Regarding printing what you can add to what you have already done is paper flashing. This may not solve the problem entirely, but will surely reduce by a large amount the time of the low contrast burning. You can also try to use a lower contrast overall.
incredible, your clarity, simplicity of explanation and clear love for the subject are remarkable. So pleasant and instructive to see this. Thank you so much!
Thank you for a very informative video Andrea! I can't wait till my next day off so that I can go into the darkroom and put this new knowledge to use. :-)
grazie mille, this is very interesting. but are you saying that burning and dodging is not needed with this method?
No, I am not.
I am giving you a guide in order to do burning and dodging afterwards and do it for interpretation and not to fix problems generated from a wrong contrast choice. :)
A common mistake is to look at the test strip in search of the the exposure that gives correct mid-tones, then, if the contrast was wrong, dodging and burning becomes necessary to fix that original mistake.
Hai un video veramente bravo! Mi sono piaciuto le tue ingranditore (non sono sicuro che gli enlargers siano chiamate cosi in italiano). Solo per curiosità, fai il processo RA-4 per stampare ad colori?
Grazie Carlos
Se la comprensione ti è più facile puoi trovare il video anche in italiano.
Giusto. Enlarger = Ingranditore
Non faccio più colore, ne ho fatto un po' in passato, ma solo Ilfochrome.
Non ti preocupare, è più difficile trovare informazione giusta su fotografia in italiano (ma ho visto la versione in inglese…), spagnolo anche. Per sfortuna quando ho imparato fotografia analogica, l'Ilfochrome era già morto… al meno spero che quando Ektachrome ritorni alla vita possa trovarlo facilmente.
Excellent illustration....
Your DRKRM feels So Medieval...
I love it... Great vid
newmutant1 It is Medieval! The drkrm is located in an ancient building of a middle age village in Tuscany.
I really enjoyed your video and learned a lot. Thanks!
I never saw a contrast filter being inserted in the enlarger, you said there is s need to change contrast but not how did you do it, I'm so confused, thank you so much
Hello Brenda,
The main image adjustments in black and white printing are esposure (darker - brighter) and contrast (the relationship between darker and brighter tones). They are related and shall be adjusted at the same time and that is the difficult part. This video shows a method to make these adjustments.
While exposure is more intuitive, the more light you give the darker it becomes (it's a negative process) contrast is a much less intuitive thing. Maybe if you can imagine (figure in your mind) a picture where you like the midtones, but you would like to modify the darker and/or the brighter tones... that's exactly what changing the contrast does, it modifies the extremes of the tonal range, making them brighter or darker as you wish.
To modify the contrast on contemporary (so called) Multigrade photo papers you need to change the colour of the light. This change of colour of the printing light can be obtained in different ways, one consists of putting coloured filters in the light path and many enlargers (the projection devices) have a specific drawer where you can place these coloured filters.
Amazing. Great video. Thank you.
This is a very helpful video - One question: How do you determine what your base times for each contrast are? I am referring to that moment on each test strip right before you begin sliding the card. I noticed you had a different base time for each contrast test strip and I imagine that you must have some formula in your head that you refer to? Thanks! Also is there a place in which you have published more in depth information on your method? I would love to continue learning in this style. I have been using the f-stop method for about a year but I like how much faster this style is.
Hello Aaron,
There is no exact formula, unluckily. If it existed there would not be the need of running a test strip every time you change the contrast. Anyway using a colour head there will be an increase of exposure every time the filters are set to a higher value.
I did not write much. I plan to make more videos, but my schedule is quite busy, so it will take time.
But I regularly teach seminars on darkroom technique in Bologna, Italy (the english website is on the way).
You can also check the printing workshop of Jim Megargee in NYC and in Maine. He will teach something very similar. He was my mentor long ago. :)
Great explanation of contrast. Thank you
Pedro Rica Thank for watching!
Thanks for chiming in so quickly. I will say the split grade works very well for and a lot success in tough negs situations. Like bullet proof skies like we have here in New Mexico. I do float between technique simile it to yours in low contrast negs and the other. Thanks for posting. Your technique is another tool I can use in my darkroom tool chest.
+ToddB987 I know. That's exactly what I intended about non optimal negatives quality and use of split printing. Why don't you reduce film developing times instead of saving them while printing? The results will be dramatically different and the freedom in print interpretation will be saved.
The newest T-grain films can accomodate some 20 stops of dynamic range even on grade 2 if properly processed.
BTW, Which light spource are you using in your enlarger, condensor or diffuser?
Condensor on 120 and diffuser on 35mm. I usually develop film on recommend manufactures recommendations. For example using Delta 100 developed at 12.00 min at 68 degrees using D-76. I know less time reduces contrast and more time adds more. I usually shoot a lot of varing light situation on a single roll that's why I use manufacturers recommend times. I usually shoot a lot of black and white film with a orange filter on most everything.
+ToddB987 Hi, this time I am late...
Ilford developing times are generally producing negatives suitable for low contrast scenes to be printed with diffuser enlargers. So development times should be reduced (sometimes a lot) when printing with a condensor head, and/or shooting high contrast scenes. This is normal.
I warmly suggest you an experiment: do dev times "bracketing" combined with exposure bracketing. Make the same images on three rolls of film (if you have a MF camera with film backs it's easy), expose with bracketing and then process for 50% 75% and suggested developing time. Finally print it all.
Great Vid.. Question..? looks like you pre-expose your paper before you slide across cardboard . Is that time the same time as stops that your making across paper?
I give a base time, if needed. For example if I imagine that the exposure will be around 20" I may give a 10" base to all the sheet and then make some strips of 2" each in order to see times between 10" and 30".
Very interesting, I did learn something here. Thanks
Excellent tutorial. I like how your method can be thought of as the solid foundation for any good print, integrating a lot of knowledge in a seemingly simple approach. - I experimented with it in the darkroom today and came up with a question: in the example the highlights and shadows are quite evenly distributed across the image. Do you have any advice on how to handle negatives where let's say the highlights that you are concerned about are restricted to a small area and the shadows to a different area? In that case most of the test exposures would miss the relevant information. Do you use smaller test stripes in a case like this? Any other insights?
Hi Till B.
One solution is to do smaller strips, another one one is to get or build a proofer, basically a window under wich you can slide the paper, thus making different exposures of the same spot, stripe.
@@AndreaCalabresiSilverprint Hi...I think a proofer is thought of as used for contact prints. I have found an Ilford test strip holder, which is as you describe.
What I prefer to do is to use small squares for highlight and shadow of most importance, and use tape to hold flat. I can do both the highlight and shadow at the same time.
I make about 10 squares, and write on the back 2,4,6, etc...or 5,10,15, etc...
I then expose two at a time to those times - one highlight, and one shadow. Once exposed, I put these in my pocket, or empty light proof bag (the same as paper sold in) to shield from light. Then move on to the next exposure time, repeat.
When all ten have been exposed, I develop, stop, fix all together in a small plastic container, which saves on chemicals.
Using your method, I then compare the highlight I like and the shadow I like. If the shadow requires more development time, then I change raise strength of contrast filter and repeat the process until I find an exposure time that works best for both the highlight and shadow.
Just learned something. I have been leaving my print in the developer until the time was up. He takes it out a few seconds before and then waits for the time to end. Will start doing that tonight.
question, having very high contrast printing with my omega c760 condenser head. just received this enlarger and am not sure if it is the condenser head that is making too much contrast or something I can control. shot a full roll of bracketed shots and still had trouble finding one that had good midtones. Any thoughts?
Hi, +Christian Peterson
High contrast comes from over-developed (or pushed) negatives.
It is surely possible to make prints with a complete and smooth tonal range with both a condenser or diffuser (colour) head, so the problem is in the negatives.
To reduce contrast you shall reduce developing times (or use a less energetic developer). Try experimenting with both bracketing and a reduction of developing times.
A condenser head produces more contrast, but if the negatives have a reasonable maximum density the difference is not huge. The more the density on the negatives, the more will be the contrast difference between condenser and diffuser (colour) head. This is due to the so called "Callier Effect".
great thank you, I also picked up a older omega b cold head enlarger and the prints do look much better now, with that being said i have been using rodinal to film specs, im going to try 20 reduction in development time and see where that goes. i appreciate your response and love the videos.
Hi +Christian Peterson,
Can you tell me wich films and what dilution and developing time you are using?
Some films in Rodinal with manufacturer suggested developing times may produce negatives that can be too hard for condenser heads.
Quick newbie question: Light shines on the negative, and is projected and focused on the paper. I see that the paper remains white after this process, and only after putting it in the successive "chemical baths" does it turn black. My question is: Where do the black particles come from? Are they in the solutions somewhere and stick to the paper?
Hello Basil Newbie!
The question is quick, but the answer will be long since your question in other terms is: how does photography work! Ahaha! :D
Analog photography uses the properties of some mettallic salts, iron, platinum and especially silver.
The salts called silver halyde are light sensitive. This means that those salts have a chemical reaction if exposed to light. When some photons hit those silver salts particles they become chemically unstable and ready to recombine in other compounds.
Back to your specific question, the silver salts are quite whiteish and they are in the paper (or film - the process is very similar). Once the paper (or film) is exposed to light the silver salts are transformed (but still whiteish) and something called the latent image is produced.
The chemicals that are used to process the photo materials have the ability to transform the light exposed silver salts in metallic (black) silver, in other terms they develop the latent image and the picture becomes finally visible! Almost like magic!
Then the developing process is stopped in the second bath, and finally the silver particles that did not receive light are removed in the third bath called fixer. After that the print is washed in running water, then dried and flattened. A time consumin process, but the quality of those classic images is unsurpassed and they are precious too... an image of silver, the so called silverprint.
I have watched this a few times , its a great video , but it always leaves me asking the question . What about split gate printing ? Is this just designed as an intro level video ,, or do you not split grade ?
Hello, thank you for the question. SplitGrade printing is very much less precise. Here my opinion about it:
SplitGrade printing is… flawed
Splitgrade is popular procedure to adapt the printing contrast to the contrast of the negative. It is a simple, always the same, 3 step way to do it, a sort of ritual that promises to make contrast adjustment simple and straightforward.
I've been teaching darkroom techniques for more than two decades now and I well know how difficult can be to understand what is contrast and how contrast adjustment works, so I fully understand the success of this procedure, BUT... it is flawed. I'm sorry. It is.
We shall start understanding how contrast adjustment is made and before that we must get rid of a false myth. The false myth is that the paper has two emulsions, one with high contrast and sensitive to blue light (the magenta filter blocks the green light and the blue passes trough) and another one sensitive to green light (the yellow filter blocks the blue light and the green passes trough) and that contrast adjustment is made by splitting the exposure in variable proportions into this two different emulsions or layers. According to these assumptions contrast adjustment is done either by varying two different exposures with each color (Splitgrade) or by using filters that let pass different amounts of green and blue light. Well it doesn't work that way at all. It has never. This is totally made up!
So how is contrast adjusted?
MultiGrade (MG) papers have an emulsion made of differently color sensitized silver salts, in modern papers there are generally 3 of those. We can refer to these as different layers or emulsions for simplicity of thoughts, but the emulsion is just one containing the differently colour sensitized salts. These "layers" have the same speed in blue light and different speed in green light, they all have the same contrast (!!!) and the contrast is low (!!!).
If we use blue light (magenta filter) all the "layers" get the same exposure and the density of each sums up, thus to get maximum density or "blacks" we need only a partial exposure of each "layer" and a reduced amount of light. This reduced amount of light is not enough to pass trough the denser parts of a negative in quantities able to produce some density on the paper, thus producing an effect of higher contrast.
When we use green light (yellow filter) the “layers” have different speed, so to get maximum density (blacks) we need to give one single layer enough exposure to make it. To reach maximum density a lot more light will be needed, so this higher amount of light will pass trough the denser parts of a negative in quaintities enough to get some density on the paper, thus producing a lower contrast effect.
Many have noticed that when doing SplitGrade there is no precise control of the highlights and they get darker than expected or chosen in the first test strip. That is precisely the issue with that procedure, and it is unavoidable. It is unavoidable because that depends on how the paper works. Think of it!
In the procedure of SplitGrade we do the first exposure in green light (00 or 0 filter), so we expose one layer more than the others, then we chose a proper exposure for the highlights, expose one sheet with that, then we change filter and make a test strip with grade 5 and chose the exposure for the shadows. Then we make the print with this two different contrasts and exposures. All should go as expected, we are promised to get both highlights and shadows right, but this doesn’t happen. It doesn’t happen because the second exposure is in blue light, it goes on all the layers and it will unavoidably add up to the highlights: they get a second exposure!
This is the reason why this procedure if flawed, it cannot properly work, because the paper doesn’t work like the false myth says.
Can we fix this issue? To some extent yes, but never precisely. In “Way Beyond Monochrome” (one of the most comprehensive text about BW technique) it is suggested that the exposure with the lower contrast shall be a bit reduced before making the grade 5 teststrip. The question that has no answer is how much we shall reduce it.
It happens that the lower the contrast is on a negative the higher is the influence of the second exposure on the highlights, so the amount of the reduction that shall be made on the first exposure is variable!
Some noticed that the softer the negative the more imprecise SplitGrade becomes if the first exposure is make with 00 filter, so they suggest to do the first test strip with grade 5 when the negatives are soft. Does this solve the problem? It does not. It simply moves the issue on the shadows, they will be darker than expected because they will get additional exposure in green light anyway.
If we have hard contrasty negatives the inherent mistake of Spligrade can be minor, in fact many have learnt that it works better with hard negatives. Similarly many have noticed that with very soft negatives they can reduce the error by testing grade 5 first. But why shall we use SplitGrade when we are good or lucky and have good negatives? Why use a procedure that unavoidably cannot give what it promises?
But the biggest issue is that SplitGrade brings back in the process the guesswork that the test strip was supposed to eliminate! We make test strips to chose, precisely, the exposure, not to have a base for guesswork, don’t we?
A good news: there is a simple way (in this video) to adjust contrast precisely, we do not need SplitGrade!
@@AndreaCalabresiSilverprint Thanks , that's the longest answer to a comment I've seen on RUclips ! You very obviously know your craft . That is a lot to digest . I will try your method
Thanks again
Thank you very much for this great video, andrea!
this method is great! What is your opinion on split grade printing?
Hi, thahk you.
Split printing is an easy procedure to obtain a work print, but it may get very complicated on a print that requires manipulation with dodging and burning and different contrast.
It helps novices be fast (two test and one print), but at the same time doesn't help them understand how the image varies changing contrast.
This was a very informative and fun experience, i really enjoyed the way you explained everything. Thank you so much.
Great video! please do more!
Great video. Professional, very accurate method, concise tutorial, very understandable.
Thanks.
Where do you teach?
(I did my photography education in the late 1970-ties, now I was looking for some sort of a darkroom checklist, since I am about to start using a wetroom again after several decades. Found your video. Great help.)
Thank you John. I'm glad it helped.
I teach in Tuscany, Italy. Here: www.corsifotoanalogica.it
Can you please make more videos about darkroom technique? Also, what kind of enlarger are you using? Thanks!
More videos are planned, but it will take time. Be patient. :)
The enlargers you see in the video are Durst L-1200, the one used is equipped with a Durst CLS-501 colour head.
The L-1200 is one of the better built enlargers for negatives up to 4x5". Very reliable and easy to operate.
Brilliant! thanks for sharing your knowledge
woooooooohaa man, it is amazing to work and experiment with what we are made of:light.
Wow i wish my photography teacher could teach like you. Wait.. no.. I wish my teacher WAS YOU
+Harun Younussi I can be your teacher. You can come to my workshops in Italy. :) Thank you very much for your appreciation.
Best video on this topic. Thanks a lot. Greetings from Slovenia. I hope to meet you in person one day.
Thank you, I'm glad to be useful. :) We're not too far, it may well happen. :)
Great video. How are you changing the contrast each time. Are you just changing filters?
+Joan D
Hi Joan, thank you.
Yes. To change contrast you change filters.
In a colour head (diffuser) you can change the value of the filters and contrast continuosly.
Medium contrast will be with the filters set to 0. To increase contrast you will add magenta filtration. To reduce contrast you will add yellow filtration.
With a BW (condensor) you can change contrast in steps of half a contrast grade by inserting contrast filters in the appropriate slot (or under the lens). Filter 00 is the lowest contrast, filter 5 is the highest contast, filter 2 is medium contrast (starting point).
+Joan D Thanks so much for your quick and thorough response to my question. Fantastic video. Thanks for sharing
Great video Andrea.
Thank you Olivier!
Excellent video, what are your thoughts on split grade printing?
Hello @tallaganda83,
First we shall made clear that you can obtain the same exact results is both ways, ie same tonalities and same contrast variations, etc. These depends on the characteristics of paper and not on the way the contrast desiderd is reached.
Split printing is an easy mechanical procedure to obtain a work print in 3 steps. The reason of its succes is in this being mechanical and simple.... if you stop at the work print stage.
While if you need/want to work on the image with dodging & burning and local contrast variations split printing requires at least to double the work, time and paper.
It is also somehow uncorrect, because the softest is the negative the higher is the inluence of the grade 5 exposure on the highligths, creating some uncertainty of results, ie further adjustments made guessing.
Thank you Mr Andrea! This is perfect!
Glad you appreciated!
Thank you!
You prefer A Color Head for B&W printing?
newmutant1 Generally i do. Continuos contrast control can be very useful. Anyway I may use condensor head or even point light source if a negative requires.
Very insightful, thank you