got enlarger? I do.

T

Todd.Hanz

Guest
My ancient Epson 2450 scanner "crapped the bed" recently so no more MF scans for a while for me. While looking for a cheap replacement I stumbled onto a Saunders 670 dichroic enlarger for cheap...$49 bucks in excellent shape. It didn't have a power supply but I found one the same day on the bay and picked it up, along with two lenses (Schnieder Companon S, 50/2.8 and 80/4).

So I'm going retro with my printing these days and hoping for some great results. Any tips or advice would be appreciated as my darkroom skills are limited to Contact sheets/ prints. Please recommend any books or websites that can offer advice if you know of any.

Thanks,
Todd
 
Welcome to the dark-side of wet-printing ! :) I have started recently again with a Durst M601 that crossed my way.

The only recommendation from my limited experience (I used to wet-print in high-school 25 years ago ...) is that an exposure meter is one of the most useful accessories (next to a really good grain microscope). I used the Ilford publications (from their website) as starting guide and limited myself to Ilford Multicontrast RC paper with a set of Ilford contrast filters to keep things simple...
 
Indeed, welcome to the club! As an all around and reasonably easy paper to find I use Ilford Multigrade and develop in Dektol, again because it's easy to find, but it is a very good paper. (I got spoiled with DuPont Varilour, but it was discontinued in 1968) Both the RC and the double weight fiber versions of the paper have about the same printing characteristics. I suppose that you can find, or somebody here will tell you, the correct settings for your dichro head for the various contrast grades. Ilford was the only company that offered a #00 filter so you can most likely get that ultra low contrast also with your dichro head.

Look around for a Saunders easel with four moveable masking blades. You can center your image on the paper with it, and it takes up to 11x14 paper. It's easiest to use an electric timer to control the enlarger. Some have an electric socket so you can plug in a safelight over your enlarging table. When you flick on the enlarger to focus the safe light goes out, making focusing easier. Have another safe light over your sink, and it's handy to have a white light with a pull cord over your fixer tray for examining your just made print.
 
Better than a meter are test strips, such as a 1x5 inch (aproximate) piece of paper with different exposures along its length. You'll soon get used to KNOWING a good starting point just by looking, then bracket around that. You can also judge contrast that way.
 
Last edited:
Todd, probably the best thing that's happened to you in a while is your scanner taking a cr*p! I just got back into wet prints this past fall, after a 30 year hiatus. I picked up a Besseler 23C XL for less than $50. I agree with Al about going the test strip way. I cut an 8x10 into about 5 strips. I also vote for the Saunders easel. A good solid easel with 4 movable blades will make your printing to a time of enjoyment. I got a bunch of darkroom stuff last fall including the easel, a grain focuser (need that too!), some (Hewes) reels and tanks, a full set of Ilford contrast filters, a boat load of spotting pens, and many more other goodies...all for only $40.
 
Wet printing is by far the way for the most beautiful and gripping photographic enlargements. I do sometimes scan my negatives as a quick way to determine which negatives look ok, just suck or have potential, but I find using a printfile even more effective, except for posting to the web ;)
 
Last edited:
PMCC said:
Hi Gabor,

What do you suggest by way exposure meter? I'm only aware of hideously spendy rigs by Heiland Splitgrade in DE and RL Designs [sic?] in UK, and have no experience with either.

pmcc
sf, ca
Click to expand...

Hi pmcc,

so far I used the test-strip method (as suggested by Al Kaplan) but not having a "real" permanent darkroom (only our bathroom with temporarily darkened windows) and limited time, I was looking for a cheap meter to reduce the amount of test stripes (and time) and just bought an EM10 exposure meter from Ilford.

As I understood it (haven't received and used the meter yet) it helps making enlargements either in different sizes (from the same negative) or different negatives (with the same printing size and time). It has to be calibrated for the own meter-enlarger-paper-developer combination once by making some test prints (as I understood it).
 
"Way Beyond Monochrome" is an excellent reference for everything from exposing the negative to pulling a nice print. For reasons that are utterly baffling, it seems to be out of print, so you may have to beg or borrow a copy to study. Mine is out on loan to another photographer so I don't have a copy on hand, but from memory, here are some of the gems inside:

-making proper contact sheets to optimize exposure and development (including both comprehensive and quickie methods)
-good advice on making test strips, including stepping by 1/3 f-stops instead of fixed time intervals, examining only after dry-down
-dichroic settings corresponding to paper grades for common RC papers
-split-grade printing techniques
-process and calibration methods.

There are other good books, but this modern one is my favorite.

One thing I feel compelled to say, just to set your expectations: Printing is an art, skill, and science and takes time and lots of wasted paper. You know how much film you need to blow to get a proper portfolio together? Same thing all over again. Don't try to short-circuit by skipping your contact sheets, they will save you time and precious paper.

D.
 
As for websites, there's APUG, which has a vast weath of useful information for folks doing traditional work.

Two good books to start off with for traditional film and darkroom work are Creative Black & White Photography by Les McLean and Barry Thornton's Edge of Darkness. McLean's book has a lot of down-to-earth basic material for the end-to-end process of negative to print. An great beginner's book. Edge of Darkness isn't so much focused on the basics as it is on understanding problems that photographers encounter in the quest for a great print. EoD is also quite the fun read IMO. Each chapter opens with an working anecdote which segues into the technical topic, and provides a very nice flow to the book. Good bedtime reading, and so many of Barry's prints in this book are sublime. Both of these are amazingly cheap on the used market.

Other books of interest include three classics from Ansel Adams. I highly recommend Examples, The Making of 40 Photographs. This book comprises stories and case studies on the shooting and printing (in varying degrees of each) of 40 of Ansel's photos. See also the classics The Negative and The Print as well.

Tim Rudman's The Master Photographer's Printing Course is worth considering; I haven't read this one yet myself, but it comes well recommended. See also his highly regarded books on toning and lith printing, should your interests move that way.

Last but not least, I'll throw in Steve Anchell's The Variable Contrast Printing Manual. Variable contrast (aka "VC") papers providethe ability to adjust print contrast by using filters that allow varying proportions of blue vs. green light through. Suffice it to say that this is immensely useful in achieving a good print. Your dichroic enlarger will let you control contrast on VC papers by adjusting the proportion of magenta vs yellow filtration. This book as well as various resources on the web describe the process when using a color enlarger head.
 
maddoc said:
Hi pmcc,

...I was looking for a cheap meter to reduce the amount of test stripes (and time) and just bought an EM10 exposure meter from Ilford.
Click to expand...

I have an EM10 as well as a Beseler meter. They are only good for one thing: Once you have time, height, aperture, and filtration to give you a small print, you can then make a larger print without further test strips. But you need the test strips to get the first proper print, which may have required two exposures with different filtration and some dodging and burning, which all needs to be recorded and repeated identically.

In cases where the print is made straight at one contrast, going from a 4x5 print to an 8x10 print (4x the size) requires no meter, just 4 times the exposure.

I fiddled with my meters, then threw them in a drawer.
 
Thanks to everyone, lots of good info to peruse. I have Ansel Adams "the Print" and "the Negative" as well as his book (written by someone else) "The basics of Photography" which provide some insight into printing.

I'll look for others, thanks.

Todd
 
I'm most familiar with test strips having done them for contact printing with digitally enlarged negatives so I will follow that route.

Thanks,
Todd
 
This applies to anybody interested in learning the B&W darkroom:

If you don't have a dichroic enlarger get every set of filters you might run ito cheap! Kodak doesn't have EXACTLY the same contrasts as Ilford, and the DuPont Varilour, but not the earlier Varigam, have a feature that no other set has. If you find the corect exposure for your lightest area on the print and change contrast the exposure stays the same through grade three, and is exactly double for grade four (hit the timer button twice).

Sometimes at yard sales you can buy boxes of darkroom "junk" for next to nothing. Don't worry about whether or not you need it! I picked up a box with a dozen or so assorted negative carriers for my Kodak Precision enlarger, plus a gizmo that replaces the red filter that swings under the enlarger lens. Instead of just a red filter it has tricolor seperation filters for color printing but the filters themselves are beyond salvation. I'm planning on taking the #0, #2, and #4 filters from one of my sets and mounting them in the gizmo! No more CHANGING filters, just swing it into position!

Before you pass up a $1.00 Time-o-Lite timer because it looks like a piece of solid rust see if it WORKS! They usually do. An ordinary 60 watt light bulb hanging from the ceiling on a drop cord works fine for exposing contact sheets and saves you from burning out your expensive enlarger bulb, but always keep a spare bulb handy for the enlarger.
 
Nice thread, I'll be following it. I got tired of dealing with curled negs and a flatbed film scanner so decided to try scanning contact prints from my MF. Then, being impatient, I ordered an enlarger on the *bay. Paper etc. from freestyle. This time next week I'll be into wet printing as well. I wish us both luck, I'm looking forward to it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom