As promised, I’m going to start my series on (as my friend Sarah called it), “10 Things I Hate About Your Website”. And in reality, I admit to be guilty of many of these, so really I think I should call it “10 Things I Hate About My Websites”. This series is aimed at web developers who often find themselves having to do some design work, whether it’s just that little bit here and there, or you’re the only web person at your company this applies to you! I consider myself a web developer - not a web...
Water baths are useful for affecting the shadows or highlights, depening on how you look at it. Water baths retard the development of shadow detail, so it allows highlight detail to develop while the shadow detail is “put on pause”. During normal development, the paper is placed in the developer and agitated while in the developer, allowing fresh developer to replace areas where it has been exhausted due to the shadow development. (Note, it is important to think about this process on a very small scale.)...
Controling contrast and darks/lights is a fine art printers more challenging roles, especially when dealing with difficult negatives. Getting that highlight to come in at a nice point, and that shadow to print where it is not too stopped up can sometimes be really difficult. Split grade printing is another tool that a printer can add that will help to give them more control over their prints. Using the split grade method, a print is broken up into two separate components, the highlights (which are...
Sometimes, reducing contrast is something that a printer wants, and for one reason or another cannot obtain easily. For example, using a graded paper, or having only a high contrast developer available. When this is the case, it’s possible to reduce the appearant contrast to any grade below the current value. Interestingly, pre-development bleaching acts completely opposite to how post development bleaching works. Pre-development bleaching will affect the shadows first, and the highlights are left to last....
Maximum Development Time Test (MDT) # Determining the maximum development time is important to determine the point at which highlights stop developing and the paper begins to fog. How To: Determine MDT # Cut a sheet of papper into 6 strips and number them on the back 0 to 5. This should be done in safe light conditions. Place the piece marked #0 directly into the fix (1 minute in bath 1, 1 minute in bath 2). Place the piece marked #1 into the developer for 1 minute, then stop and fix normally. Place the...
Most of these paper speeds have been obtained from the manufacturer. Paper Brand Paper Type Filter or Grade ISO Kentmere Kentona Grade 2 ISO P160 Kentmere FinePrint VC (& WM) Filter: 00 - 3.5 Filter: 4 -5 ISO P320 ISO P160 Ilford MG IV Filter: 00 - 3 Filter: 4-5 ISO P200 ISO P100 Ilford MG WT Filter: 00 - 3 Filter: 4-5 ISO P100 ISO P50 FotoSpeed Legacy Filter: 1 - 3.5 Filter: 4-5 ISO P160 ISO P80 Oriental VC-FB Warm Filter: 00 - 3.5 Filter: 4-5 ISO P200 ISO...