Need a harder print than Grade 5 ?

[Mike O'Pray]

Thanks Michael, I am glad I got it right. Next time I print I must give this a go just as an experiment. It had just seemed to me that once the exposure was reduced by as much as 2 stops then the reduced illumination on the paper would be two much for an extra minute or so of development to, in effect, more than compensate for the reduced illumination

Mike

[Terry S]

Originally Posted by Martin Aislabie

I remember the keeping properties of the made up solutions as being very poor, so I'll need to get myself set and ready to go, if I want to try it out.

Thanks for your help.

Martin

I've never had a negative that wasn't able to be sorted with one of Ilford's under the lens filters, mostly needing the lower grades, to print over developed negatives, taken when I was starting out.

But the Beers developer formula seems interesting and could be useful in getting a very high contrast print, as in high key, as Martin says in his first post. I have all the chemicals, so will add it to my never ending list of things to try.

Looking around, there are quite a number of formulas, that all seem to vary slightly, but the following link will take you to one that mirrors the Darkroom Cookbook formula, in case you don't have a copy:

https://www.digitaltruth.com/product...02-0120%5d.pdf

As for buying the chemicals, the two that I would recommend buying 'off the shelf' are Sodium Carbonate / Washing Soda, which I buy for a £1.00 in a local shop for a big bag and Sodium Sulfite, which loads of swimming pool companies sell on ebay, for a lot less and for a lot more.

Terry S

[Martin Aislabie]

Just an update on the selenium toner intensification of my negatives - it works really well and is very easy.

I would say I got about 1 ~ 1.5 grades harder change in the negatives I used.

• Loaded the film on to a Paterson reel and closed up the tank as usual way.
  
• Soaked the film in tap water for 5+ minutes - with intermittent agitation (to wash off the wetting agent I used when I processed the film originally)
  
• Soaked the film in Hypo Clearing Agent for 5 mins with intermittent agitation (as recommended by Tim Rudman in his toning book).
  
• 6 minutes in 1+2 Selenium Toner Soln - 15 sec per minute agitation.
  
• Soaked the film in Hypo Clearing Agent for 5 mins with intermittent agitation.
  
• Washed film for 20 min.
  
• Rinsed with wetting agent.
  
• Dried in the usual way.

All the processing was done at 20 degC.

Martin

[MartyNL]

Great result, Martin.

Just out of curiosity, could intensification have been avoided at the shooting and processing stages or was it unavoidable?
Have you noticed any negative artefacts as a result of intensification, better or worse than contrast expansion via development?

Thanks for sharing your negative intensification process procedure, btw.

[EdmundH]

This may be a simplistic answer, but I use Rollei RPN developer, which lists three different dilutions according to desired contrast; the strongest solution does give significantly more contrast than standard, which I've used several times in this situation.

[Martin Aislabie]

Originally Posted by MartyNL

Great result, Martin.

Just out of curiosity, could intensification have been avoided at the shooting and processing stages or was it unavoidable?
Have you noticed any negative artefacts as a result of intensification, better or worse than contrast expansion via development?

Thanks for sharing your negative intensification process procedure, btw.

Hi Martyn

I used N+1 development on the Negatives originally to try and give a more contrasty negative with which to print, expecting that I would be able to achieve the look I wanted within the normal paper grades.

However, when I came to print I realised I would have needed N+2 ~ N+3 development to achieve the look I was after.

But, I didn't realise that at the time.

If I ever do anything like this again, I will shoot multiple rolls so I can do N+1, N+2 and N+3 development.

As far as I can tell selenium intensification offers nothing that N+2/N+3 development would not be able to achieve - but is a useful way to rescue/improve an existing negative.

Incidentally, I have never had to use Grade5 for any print before - except out of curiosity - just to see what it would look like.

As the saying goes - you live and (hopefully) learn.

Martin

[Bob]

Martin: you do realise that you are going to have to show us the finished print when you are happy with the result

[Martin Aislabie]

Originally Posted by Bob

Martin: you do realise that you are going to have to show us the finished print when you are happy with the result

Be careful what you wish for Bob.

I have enough working prints to bore the pants off you guys

Ha ha

Martin