Show me your latest darkroom prints

First time trying an enlargement from my 6x13 ICA Polyscop. Had to go go out and upgrade my enlarger for this camera to a Beseler 4x5! Totally worth it.

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Thank you, Blkrcat, very nice video! How did you do it through the M5 finder? I like your shots too.

I am testing out this ADOX MCC 110, FB. I want the same tonality as on the scans, wich is not easy.

I have a great drying machine, an old Büscher from the fifties, still working OK. I connected it to a digital thermostate, so I have automatic temperature control. Still, the prints aren't completely flat, but that is how life is in fb-land.


Finally I've found a small SEAL-press. Now I can get the prints really flat in 40 seconds at 90 degrees C.


Erik.
 
The finder is a little movie magic. I redesigned the finder and composited it over top of the footage. I'm in vfx by trade so it's pretty easy
 
Erik also I'm seeing that you're doing a lot of split grade. When I started printing and was trying to achieve that flatter look I too was doing split grade printing, I just found it to be a little cumbersome having to switch out the filters without bumping anything and throwing focus.

I'll do some more playing next chance I get. I would love to get a flatter look, especially because darker deeper blacks seem to be much harder to scan after the fact also.
 
Split grade is great for "normal" negatives. It is a bit like duotone in offset-print. You first make an exposure with the 00-filter on a multigrade paper. Then you make an exposure with the 5-filter on the same sheet. Usually the exposure with the 00-filter is much longer than the exposure with the 5-filter. The exposure with the 00-filter is aimed at the light tones, the exposure with the 5-filter is only aimed at the deepest blacks.
The results can be spectacular, you'll get a print with a much richer tonality than is possible in a single grade print.

Split grade printing is not possible with very contrasty negatives. Usually you'll have to prepare the enlarger to produce extremely soft light to get a decent print from a too contrasty negative.

The modern aspherical lenses often produce very contrasty negatives, negatives made with older lenses are usually easier to print.

Erik.
 
Erik van Straten said:
Split grade printing is not possible with very contrasty negatives. Usually you'll have to prepare the enlarger to produce extremeley soft light to get a decent print from a too contrasty negative.
Click to expand...

Interesting. I do recall printing a shot from some efke 50 that I overdeveloped slightly. The highlights were pretty thin and I remember that split grade saved the print. Though my 0 exposure time was like 1.5 min and my 5 exposure time was 15 seconds.

A little extreme perhaps but the print turned out great.
 
Erik van Straten said:
Split grade is great for "normal" negatives. It is a bit like duotone in offset-print. You first make an exposure with the 00-filter on a multigrade paper. Than you make an exposure with the 5-filter on the same sheet. Usually the exposure with the 00-filter is much longer than the exposure with the 5-filter. The exposure with the 00-filter is aimed at the light tones, the exposure with the 5-filter is only aimed at the deepest blacks.
The results can be spectacular, you'll get a print with a much richer tonality than is possible in a single grade print.

Split grade printing is not possible with very contrasty negatives. Usually you'll have to prepare the enlarger to produce extremely soft light to get a decent print from a too contrasty negative.

The modern aspherical lenses often produce very contrasty negatives, negatives made with older lenses are usually easier to print.

Erik.
Click to expand...

Thanks for posting these samples of your split-grade printing! You've inspired me to read up on this, and I'm going to try it with one or two negatives that didn't give me the results I'd hoped for with single-grade printing.
 
I think this one was 1.5. I printed these quite a while ago so I can't remember exactly. I'm usually leaning more towards lower contrast but this was before seeing the tonality you are achieving.

Next print session I'm going to try to get a broader tonality range. I also found some seagull fibre paper in my stash so I want to play with that stuff next time around. Some multigrade stuff and some graded paper. The graded stuff is 2 and 3 I think. I've got a roll of delta 3200 that I will pull to 1600. Not sure if I will stand develop or just pull with rodinal. Either way I think a grade 3 paper will probably work with a lower contrast pulled negative. Will see how it works out though.

Also I have a pale yellow filter on my nokton at all times so that also changes the tonality of the images.
 
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