[pure-silver] Re: Polycontrast Paper Performance / Cold lite

  • From: "Jonathan ayers" <jayers@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <pure-silver@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Sun, 17 Oct 2004 11:56:19 -0700

Depending on who made the cold light head you can change to tube to work
with VC paper. The VC tube is available from Aristo, and is not all that
expensive.
http://aristogrid.com/

Jonathan

-----Original Message-----
From: pure-silver-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:pure-silver-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of J. Stewart
Sent: Sunday, October 17, 2004 11:41 AM
To: pure-silver@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [pure-silver] Re: Polycontrast Paper Performance / Cold lite 

Ralph, thanks for your comments. I have to admit that Picker and even
AA's 
writings of the 70s biased me toward cold lite / diffusion printing.  I 
bought my first cold lite head in the mid 80s. I have never owned a
color 
head so I can't comment on that.  I do use a stabilizer and the output
from 
my lamp is pretty consistent day to day. 99% of what I shoot is
landscapes. 
I haven't reconsidered this decision since, and I appreciate your
suggestion 
that perhaps I should.

I recall several changes that switching to CL made in how I printed:
1. Where did all the dust spots go?
2. My contact prints seemed to be very much more valuable as predictors
of 
what I would get when projection printing the same negative.
3. I could now develop the negatives to a longer scale and get greater 
separation of the highlights, mid values, and low values. But, it
requires 
long scale paper to see the benefit. (I like lots of midtones and softer

presentations than much of what I see--and what appears to be popular--
in 
today's pictorial representation of landscapes).

I'm an amateur at this, and not sure I'm prepared to invest in a color 
head... on reflection I should reconsider the above decisions and see if

they remain valid to me.  This past week I bought my first VC paper in
over 
20 years. --My first trial is what generated this question. The
writing's on 
the wall regarding fixed grade papers, so I'll continue working with the
VC 
papers until I'm sure I know what to do regarding any equipment changes.

I'll try the tricolor filters if I can find them and then decide. Again,

thanks, Ralph.

JR Stewart



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "DarkroomMagic" <info@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: "PureSilverNew" <pure-silver@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Sunday, October 17, 2004 10:01 AM
Subject: [pure-silver] Re: Polycontrast Paper Performance / Cold lite


> Besides offering my repeated objection against cold light sources, for

> this
> and other reasons, I can propose another solution.
>
> Try the tri-color green filter (Wratten 58). You can't get a softer 
> response
> from VC papers then using this filter. In combination with the
tri-color
> blue filter (Wratten 47), they can be used for split-grade printing.
>
> I replaced my red filter below the lens with this green filter and
added
> another holder for the blue filter. The only disadvantage, they are
very
> dark, causing very long exposure times.
>
> BTW, I fail to understand the, mostly N/A, fascination with cold light
> heads. Is this a left-over Picker inheritance? Don't get me wrong,
people
> make good prints with them, but it is so much easier to get the same 
> effect
> from color heads or other diffusion light sources. Even folks with 
> condenser
> enlargers get more benefit from changing negative development than 
> switching
> to cold-light heads. I wouldn't be willing to put up with the
fluctuating
> light output of cold-light heads. Why do you like them so much?
>
>
>
>
>
> Regards
>
>
>
> Ralph W. Lambrecht
>
>
>
>
> On 10/17/04 3:39 PM, "J. Stewart" <jrstewart@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
>> Listers,
>> Some time back I asked about PC papers today and their use with Cold
lite
>> lamps. My interest stems from a need to get very long scale (such as 
>> Grade 0 -
>> 1) paper, which isn't readily availalble.
>>
>> I tried  Forte Polygrade V with my D2 equipped with a standard W45
(non 
>> VC)
>> cold lite head. Using my old Beseler VC filters and a relatively soft
>> developer (Ansco 130M), I only get a difference of about 1/2 stop
scale
>> between the #1 filter and the #4 filter. The filters are very old
(>30 
>> years)
>> but are in excellent shape (but I don't know how much color change
has
>> occurred... they "look" right).
>>
>> I see a post on APUG that recommends the use of a #40CCY correction 
>> filter to
>> enable use of the cold lite with VC papers and filters.
>>
>> I'm posting this for two reasons... first to report my results and 
>> second, to
>> ask if VC filters have changed significantly over the past couple
decades 
>> and
>> this warrants buying newer ones, and third, what do you think of the
>> requirement for a #40 CCY color correction for the non-VC cold lite
lamp? 
>> Is
>> this the required correction for all cold lamps and all VC papers?
>>
>> J.R. Stewart
>>
>>
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