[pure-silver] Re: Contrast paper developer

Hi Richard,

I have learnt quite from your responces. Thanks for them.

I believe that changing from conderser enlarger to diffusion one will cause 
approximately one degree of contast. This may be compansated with variable 
contast paper, but same is not true for constant degree paper. This will cause 
me a loss since I work generally with infrared negative so I need contast. For 
these cases I believe I have to go back to old condenser one.

Color head as you said has lesser range at least missing 00, 0 and 5 at least 
reference to Ilford. I may need 5 more than 0's. Do you think that using 
seperate printing filters for 5 will be effective? If yes,in this case I will 
tend to not tu use color head. Do you think use of both, color head + external 
printer filter will lead me to grade 5 or even more? The contast will be 
obtained emulsion sensetive to bluish light, right? If yes, increasing cyan on 
color head will help me in getting contast?

My problem is actually using my old negatives. Now on I will increase 
development time 15-20% to get more contrasty negatives. That might help me in 
general. As you would think, it is hard to find paper nowadays. I live in 
Turkey. Anyway I find it but takes time. For this I have stocked lats of grade 
2 and 3. For my old negative, this implies to go back to my old conderser 
enlarger. As you said, there nothing like contast paper developer. Only the 
working speed changes. How about using lith developer?

Thanks again for everything.
 


Ibrahim Pamuk



-----Original Message-----
From: pure-silver-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx 
[mailto:pure-silver-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Richard Knoppow
Sent: Tuesday, August 21, 2007 12:56 AM
To: pure-silver@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [pure-silver] Re: Contrast paper developer


----- Original Message -----
From: "Ibrahim Pamuk" <ibrahim.pamuk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <pure-silver@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Monday, August 20, 2007 12:37 PM
Subject: [pure-silver] Re: Contrast paper developer


> Your are right. It is also true that my negative quite 
> grainy when I complaint about contast. They are a little 
> over exposed infared negatives. I plan to go back to my 
> old condenser enlarger.
>
> regards
>
>
> Ibrahim Pamuk

     Although the contrast is affected by the grain the 
difference between a fine grain and coarse grain silver 
negative should not be very much. There is a very large 
difference in Callier effect between the dye image of a 
color negative of transparency and a silver image but the 
differences between various types of silver is not a lot. 
One can assume about one paper grade difference between a 
diffusion and condenser printer for these. Also, even if one 
of the enlargers has a tungsten-halogen lamp and the other a 
plain tungsten lamp the difference in color temperature 
(assuming there is one) should not be enough to throw off 
the grades given by printing filters or color head filters 
by very much. In fact, the surface texture of the paper 
should make a bigger difference. The contrast and Dmax are 
reduced by matt surfaces so the actual contrast and density 
range produced by the filters will vary with the surface on 
any kind of paper. The rated values are usually for glossy 
paper. In any case, the point I want to make is that the 
very low contrast you have been getting is likely from 
something other than the type of light source in the 
enlarger.
    Other than lithographic developers there is very little 
difference in contast from one developer to another. The 
so-called "soft" developers are, for the most part, just 
slower to reach Dmax than "normal" developers. Some 
emulsions are more variable than others but the effect of 
the developer on paper is seldom even as much as one paper 
grade.
    It is often stated that condenser enlargers bring up 
blemishes more than diffusion enlargers. This is to some 
extent true but, if one is enlarging the same negative, the 
somewhat lower paper contrast required for the condenser 
enlarger will tend to suppress the blemishes so it all comes 
out about the same.
     Another thought: The settings for color head filters 
for variable contrast paper are only approximate. They must 
be the right settings for the particular brand of head and 
paper. Most variable contast paper comes with recommended 
settings on its data sheet. Usually the range of contrast is 
less for the color head than for individual filters but the 
spacings should be correct within that range. Usually only 
the highest and lowest contrast values are not available 
with the color head, the middle ranges are OK.

---
Richard Knoppow
Los Angeles, CA, USA
dickburk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx 

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