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Old 31st August 2014, 12:48 PM
JohnX JohnX is offline
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Join Date: Jan 2014
Location: West Yorkshire
Posts: 134
Default Split grade printing

So I'm having a go at split grade printing using Les's method.
Its early days yet but things aren't quite coming together.
I'm using an LPL colour enlarger, VC paper and Multigrade.
I've done a few street scenes with lots of busy subjects and they're all a bit flat and grey.
I thought that maybe the scene was a little complicated to asess for a noob split grader so I chose a scene with a little less going on, its a good solid contrasty neg half sky half beach, but the SG print from it is still a bit grey.
This print I decided was grade 0 @ 4 sec and grade 5 @ 18 sec, those timings seem to me to look a bit unbalanced, but unbalanced in favour of a contrasty print not a flat grey one.
I printed an 18 second grade 5 at the same time and its a much better print to my eye.
I think I'm having trouble choosing the grade 0 timing, except for this particular print, there wasn't much to see before 4 seconds.
Choosing the grade 0 timing is definitly tougher, not just because I'm looking for a tonal highlight but because the 2 sec steps are so faint that they almost blend to a gradient rather than being clearly defined like the grade 5 test strip.
I have to add, the filters in the enlarger head may not compare well with drop in fiters, I'm not sure.

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