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  #41  
Old 29th November 2021, 02:38 PM
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I do my contact prints on Foma RC glossy paper using a Hama glass printing easel and my enlargement printing on FB gloss paper.

I have done contacts on FB in the past but cost put a stop to that a long time ago.

So if I understand correctly, you use FB for your contacts as well as for enlargements?
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  #42  
Old 29th November 2021, 02:56 PM
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Johnathan, I shoot with a few coated Tessar or type lenses corner sharpness fall off as you open them up is always a slight issue, I haven't found contrast to be noticeably different compared to my muliti-coated lenses. One I've used a lot is a 1953/4 CZJ 150mm f4.5 T coated . I don't use the term single coated because often there's two or more coatings used.

I rarely make contact prints these days, I find I can read a negative better visually but I did pick one out by chance and found that the frames were actually a good match to the final prints.

Back in the mid to late 1990's I went of some workshops at Pter Goldfields setup in the Quantock hills. Pter Cattrell the Scotish photographer and lecturer gave a printing demonstration, at the time he'd just assisted Fay Godwin printing Land. Even though I'd been printing for 30 years and 10 of those commercially I came away with additional skills.

These are the sbtle changes in exposure and development times and or temperature that can make a greater impact on print tonality than you might think. Techniques like flashing, two bath development, split grade printing (not a technique I use conventionally), all techniques to shift the contrast perhaps printing with a higher grade paper or filtrtation with MG and then binging the high lights by flashing or two bath develoment.

I'd add that later at workshops with John Blakemore and then FAy Godwin they used the same printing techniques as Peter Cattrell. A good book is John Blakemore's Black and White Photography Workshop.

Ian
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  #43  
Old 29th November 2021, 03:04 PM
snusmumriken snusmumriken is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MartyNL View Post
I do my contact prints on Foma RC glossy paper using a Hama glass printing easel and my enlargement printing on FB gloss paper.

I have done contacts on FB in the past but cost put a stop to that a long time ago.

So if I understand correctly, you use FB for your contacts as well as for enlargements?
Hi Marty,

Yes, affirmative. To be completely honest, it's not because I don't feel the cost, but because it never occurred to me to do anything else!

Are you suggesting that there's an advantage other than cost in using two different papers for contacts and enlargements?

J.
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  #44  
Old 29th November 2021, 03:07 PM
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In all honesty, I've never really paid that much attention to my contact prints except for 8x10 as these, I can't enlarge.
And come to think of it, there is one distinct difference between my contact prints and the final print... the negative file! Personally, I always use print through neg files to save handling damage. And I've often noticed, especially with the acetate neg sheets, a softening glow/bleed especially around the contrasty areas.
This can be a very distinctive look with certain negatives which some may or may not find attractive or appealing.

So the question is, how would this effect transfer if the negative was still in it's acetate neg file, with/out glass in the negative holder?

And who's going to be the first to try?

Then again, this might have absolutely nothing to do with your phenomenon, Jonathan!
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  #45  
Old 29th November 2021, 03:19 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by snusmumriken View Post
Hi Marty,

Yes, affirmative. To be completely honest, it's not because I don't feel the cost, but because it never occurred to me to do anything else!

Are you suggesting that there's an advantage other than cost in using two different papers for contacts and enlargements?

J.
The only advantage is cost, I'm afraid!
The greater the consistency, the better.

But you got me thinking in terms of my own practice and experience and thoughts about reflections/diffraction etc. And hence the neg file post.
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  #46  
Old 24th February 2023, 01:44 PM
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I'm glad I spent a few minutes going back through older threads here, because I was considering launching a thread myself, on exactly the same subject !
I agree entirely with Jonathan, this problem has been a frustration of mine for years. I have felt that there was some sort of failure in my printing that I'd had all these years, it's a relief to find out there are likely some technical reasons for it.
Now it's got me more motivated to get some film ( Fomapan ? ) for my Gandolfi 5 x 7 , and get out for some subjects that'll fit nicely with contact printing.

I can say that my decision to switch from conventional developers like ID11 and Perceptol, to Pyro PMK in c.1998 was driven by the feeling that I'd moved a step closer to getting the qualities I wanted onto the final print.

Your prints and website are great, Jonathan, thanks for linking that. I also share your enthusiasm for Ravilious.
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  #47  
Old 24th February 2023, 06:22 PM
snusmumriken snusmumriken is offline
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Frustrating, isn’t it, Mark? This thread has pretty much convinced me that it’s insoluble, although I don’t think I will ever stop trying.

Many thanks for your nice comments!
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  #48  
Old 24th February 2023, 07:29 PM
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I'm starting to think that it would be worth getting a condenser head for the enlarger ( Magnifax) and trying that. It seems to me that feeding the negative with a more controlled, collimated beam of light would tend to reduce the level of scatter coming from the emulsion.
I love Brett Weston's prints, and i know that he used a condenser head for all of his work.
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  #49  
Old 24th February 2023, 08:31 PM
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Here are some things which I think are true and relevant :
1. Dense areas of exposure on a film are more scattery than thin areas.
2. In conventional negative film, highlight areas of the scene are printed from dense, scattery areas of the negative.
3. In reversal film, the highlights are rendered from thin, low-scatter areas of the film.
4. Pyro developers create a good fraction of the density in highlight areas from stain, which ought to be less scattery than heavily developed grains.
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  #50  
Old 24th February 2023, 08:40 PM
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Damn, i just re-read your first post, Jonathan, and I see that you use a condenser enlarger. That's thrown my train of thought quite badly !
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