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

  • From: Charlie Thorsten <charlie_thorsten@xxxxxxxxx>
  • To: pure-silver@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Sun, 17 Oct 2004 12:03:41 -0700 (PDT)

Standard cold lights are really meant for graded
papers, giving off blue light.  You can add a #40Y
filter in addition to the VC filter, but it cuts off
so 
much light output that in practical terms, it's not
worth it.  

For doing a lot of VC printing with a cold light, it's
better to switch to a V54 lamp that gives a broader
spectrum.  Or even better, in my humble opinion,
would be a colorhead.  I much prefer to dial the
filtration into the head itself rather than using
filters under the lens.  And a colorhead with a 
voltage stabilizer gives more repeatable light
intensity than a cold light.

One important note:  most VC papers don't respond
well to extremely low contrast ranges.  Many won't
achieve a good black with grade 0-1 filtration and
have a hard time getting good low value separation.
Shadows turn into mud.  I've found Agfa MCP and
MCC probably the best in this regard.  A better
alternative (besides a graded paper) is to use a
higher contrast filtration (say grade 2) and develop
in a low contrast developer like Selectol Soft.  This
will bring it down to between grade 0-1 but maintain
better low values.

In my experience, anyway. :)

Good luck!
-Charlie



--- "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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