Improving contrast (and an old lot of Efke paper)

[vicmortelmans]

Hi,

I suddenly bumped into a big lot of Efke photographic paper, dating from the late 80's. It contains grades 2 and 3 (and a bit of grade 1), of various sizes and various paper types. It has been lying around in cellars and attics. Looking at the state of the packaging, humitity has not been a problem, but temperature has not been in control.

What's your expectation on the usability of this material? How does age affect paper?

I'll start up some tests, but I have got no experience wit fixed grade papers. When printing on multigrade paper, I usually end up using grade 4, so I'm afraid that most of my negatives have too little contrast for this paper.

Already before, I had the feeling that my negatives have too little contrast, so I was going to work on this anyway, but now I've got a clear drive.

So how to improve contrast?

1. use low speed film
2. use correct exposure (i.e. manufacturer-indicated ISO and adequate subject metering)
3. avoid direct flash
4. increase development concentration, agitation and time (which of those is most effective for enhanced contrast?)
5. use condenser enlarger head (I've got only one enlarger, so that's not a parameter for me)
6. eliminate flare in optics (camera and enlarger)

Most parameters are in my control, but the flare seems to be a infamous hidden cause of low contrast. But how will I know if my lenses have got flare? If the lens looks impeccable, can I be sure it won't harm my contrast? Moreover, it's a factor that may be corrected by increasing contrast later in the chain, but there will be a loss of image quality due to grain!

Is there a simple test that I could perform, to check the overall contrast of my system, that includes all before mentioned parameters? And is there a test that could rule out (or focus on) the effect of flare? Any other things I could do?

Groeten,
Vic

 

[ChrisN]

I was given some Ilford paper of this vintage; all fogged badly. Good luck - please let us know the results!

For a simple test I would develop a sheet that has not been exposed to light - that should show "paper white".

 

[payasam]

Only if the old paper is not fogged does the rest of it make any sense. Working with fresh paper is another matter. For the present, you might like to focus on darkroom work and not think about flare.

 

[skibeerr]

Hello Vic,

my advise don't bother yourself with paper that old, it can be very frustrating.
I learned my lesson and stick with fresh paper.

As for increasing contrast, experiment with overexposure and/or longer development
times.
btw, did you buy my agfa enlarger?

Cheers,

Wim

 

[vicmortelmans]

That's me! It's working fine, thanks!

I'm going to do the unexposed development test tonight... You never know...

For more contrast, would you e.g. suggest to expose an ISO100 film at one stop more?

Films like ADOX 25 or 50 advise against overexposure, but maybe they have more contrast already by themselves and may reach the 'standard' grade 2 printing quality if I only extend development...

Groeten,
Vic

Hello Vic,

my advise don't bother yourself with paper that old, it can be very frustrating.
I learned my lesson and stick with fresh paper.

As for increasing contrast, experiment with overexposure and/or longer development
times.
btw, did you buy my agfa enlarger?

Cheers,

Wim

 

[Tim Gray]

Contrast of the negative is mostly controlled by development time. If you want to adjust your negs from any film to grade 2ish, increase development time. I don't know what you like your prints to look like since you print at grade 4 most of the time. Is that just to get normal contrast prints, or do you like contrastier prints than normal? I'm not sure where using lower speed film comes in...

 

[vicmortelmans]

Hi,

from what I read here and there on the web, I understood that low speed films tend to be more contrasty than high speed fils. But that may also be because high speed films tend to have an effective speed that is somewhat below the nominal speed, so you're very often effectively underexposing. That's where over-exposure may improve contrast better on an ISO400 film, than on an ISO25 film.

Just making theories, though...

Groeten,
Vic

Contrast of the negative is mostly controlled by development time. If you want to adjust your negs from any film to grade 2ish, increase development time. I don't know what you like your prints to look like since you print at grade 4 most of the time. Is that just to get normal contrast prints, or do you like contrastier prints than normal? I'm not sure where using lower speed film comes in...

 

[vicmortelmans]

Hi,

I just did some tests. The unexposed paper remained white. A test with a negative gave these findings:

- sensitivity is very low (enlarger meter sensitivity setting at 1.5, while normally at 5)
- development takes long (2'15", while normally 1')
- contrast is low, but that's due to my negatives
- there seems to be a faint clouding to appear in the very low contrast mid-gray area's

I did the test using a paper developer that's labeled to be used for multigrade paper. No idea what the difference is to fixed grade paper developer, but I'll be buying a bottle tomorrow.

And of course, my next negs should get more contrast, to do a proper test.

So far, not too bad, I guess. And I feel very 'old school' all of a sudden.

Groeten,
Vic

 

[palec]

You can use hign contrast developer like Tetenal Dokumol or use the paper for lith printing.

 

[vicmortelmans]

Hi,

I just did some tests. The unexposed paper remained white. A test with a negative gave these findings:

- sensitivity is very low (enlarger meter sensitivity setting at 1.5, while normally at 5)
- development takes long (2'15", while normally 1')
- contrast is low, but that's due to my negatives
- there seems to be a faint clouding to appear in the very low contrast mid-gray area's

I add to the findings:
- bad curl after drying 😱

Groeten,
Vic

 

[vicmortelmans]

Hi,

tonight I made some prints using a genuine non-multigrade developer, which seems to make quite some difference.

Sensitivity is now up to 2, and development time down to 2" (as specified on the box 🙂)

Also, I selected some of my most contrastful negatives.

Results are very nice. I don't see any artifacts due to old age of the paper at all!

The only thing I'm still afraid of, is the curl. It's probably fiber based paper, so I did one of the tricks I found in this APUG thread: when coming out of the washing, I take two prints and put them together backside-by-backside. The water holds them together. They're now hanging to dry and the idea would be that the mutual attraction by the water holds long enough to suppress the curl...

Groeten,
Vic

PS. I won't promise a thing, but maybe this efke paper stock is bigger than I can manage to use myself. If someone in the Antwerp neighbourhood would be interested, you can always let me know, and I will see if I can share some. Again: no promises, and I only tested one box...