Tips for printing underexposed negatives

[jojoman2]

Hi folks, I have a ton of negatives that are underexposed by half a stop to a full stop. I'm looking for advice on how to make passable prints through the use of various toners/filters. I've played around with selenium toners at school, I understand that deepens the blacks in a print--useful tool for my purposes?

I understand that if a negative is too underexposed, important shadow information simply isn't recorded on the film. I'm interested in learning how to print negatives that are underexposed up to one stop, more than that I'm guessing the image can't be saved.

 

[Carlos Cruz]

Chromium intensifier might be the answer, you'll need to bath the negs.

 

[calebarchie]

How did you develop them?

 

[jojoman2]

I shoot tri-x, exposed the rolls at ISO 400 but probably metered incorrectly resulting in the underexposed negs.

I typically develop my rolls in d76 and follow kodaks recommended times. 9:45 in 68 degree dev. Light agitation for 5 seconds every 30 seconds.

 

[BernardL]

Hi folks, I have a ton of negatives that are underexposed by half a stop to a full stop. (...) I shoot tri-x, exposed the rolls at ISO 400 but probably metered incorrectly resulting in the underexposed negs.

Read : http://www.kodak.com/global/en/professional/support/techPubs/f4017/f4017.pdf; on page 6 : "Because of these films’ exposure latitude, you can underexpose by one stop and use normal processing times. Prints will show a slight loss in shadow detail.

Of course, if you underexposed more than you confess above, that is another story. Selenium is IMO not worth the trouble, especially since it's supposed to act primarily on the high densities; if someone insists it works, ask them for personal examples. Chromium intensifier is more effective, but I would recommend it more for under-development.

Bottom line: wrtite this up to lessons learned.

 

[Rob-F]

I have gotten some good results by printing underexposed negatives at a higher contrast. It may be counter-intutive, but it has worked for me. Nothing to lose by trying it!

 

[mdarnton]

Scanning and working digitally works miracles for underexposed negs if this is something important.

 

[Bill Clark]

Yes, I agree with Rob.

Does your enlarger have a color head? Try variable contrast paper.

Another idea is to scan them and work on processing them with a computer.