[pure-silver] Re: multigrade paper is amazing
- From: Shannon Stoney <shannonstoney@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: pure-silver@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 9 Nov 2007 14:40:24 -0600
After I looked at my array of printed step tablets, I realized I was
sort of looking at my different palettes, like a painter sort of.
But in the different "palettes", as you say, the number of densities
between toe and shoulder is infinite whether you're printing at grade
00 or grade 5.
But, there does seem to be a visual difference between a print printed
on a long scale paper and one printed on short scale paper. Some of my
favorite prints were made on printing out paper, where the scale seems
almost infinite. If you contact print a step tablet on POP, it seems
that every step has a "color." But it's expensive.
I remember though the day when I discovered that if a negative fits the
paper, it looks pretty good regardless of whether the scale is long or
short. The fit is what's important.
And now I know more about how to make that happen.
--shannon
On Nov 8, 2007, at 1:22 PM, Nicholas O. Lindan wrote:
"Shannon Stoney" <shannonstoney@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
I just did an interesting experiment. I printed a stouffer step
tablet on Ilford warmtone multigrade paper, beginning at #00
filtration and ending at #5 filtration. I found out that the paper
scale varies not a little bit, but a whole lot!
http://www.darkroomautomation.com/support/mgivfbwt-zone.jpg
http://www.darkroomautomation.com/support/mgivfbwt-hd.jpg
But it is a very good exercise. At some photography school(s) (RIT?)
a whole semester is dedicated to imaging a step tablet. After that
they let the students handle a camera.
After printing the step tablet, I read its values on a densitometer.
I found out that at filtration #00, the paper has a scale of 1.5. It
printed about 12-13 steps between say zone 3 and zone 7. On the
other hand, at filtration #5, it had a scale of only 0.47 and printed
only 4-5 steps between zone 3 and zone 7.
Grade 00 is abut 6 stops toe to shoulder [and a pretty funky
shoulder it is].
Grade 5 is 1.8 stops toe to shoulder.
The number of densities between toe and shoulder is infinite in each
case.
The number of zones is 10 - '0' to 'IX' in each case - by the
definition of a zone. See AA.
The number of 'steps' depends on the step tablet: 0.1 OD, 0.3OD,
0.5 OD intervals are common in commercial tablets.
A step tablet doesn't even have to have equal intervals between
steps. All it needs is a set of known densities. You can make
a perfectly serviceable step tablet yourself.
A very useful uneven-step tablet is a tablet of zones.
==
Nicholas O. Lindan
Cleveland Engineering Design, LLC
Cleveland, Ohio 44121
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