Split grade printing +pre flash?

[Mike Meal]

Hi Les

I was trying to print a negative this afternoon which was a beach/cliff scene with fairly high contrast.
I've been split grade printing for a few months and have just started pre flashing some negatives so I attempted combining the two.
My initial thoughts were that I could pre flash the sheet to add more density to the extreme highlights and then use test strips to find the first signs of detail for my grade 0 base exposure. I then couldnt find a way to program my Stopclock for the Pre flash,grade 0 and 5 split grades and it was around about this point that everything started to get very confusing!

Is it actually possible to pre flash and split grade print at the same time and when would you use it?
Would dodging and burning when split grade printing not do the same thing?

Thanks for your help
Mike

[Les McLean]

Originally Posted by Mike Meal

Hi Les

I was trying to print a negative this afternoon which was a beach/cliff scene with fairly high contrast.
I've been split grade printing for a few months and have just started pre flashing some negatives so I attempted combining the two.
My initial thoughts were that I could pre flash the sheet to add more density to the extreme highlights and then use test strips to find the first signs of detail for my grade 0 base exposure. I then couldnt find a way to program my Stopclock for the Pre flash,grade 0 and 5 split grades and it was around about this point that everything started to get very confusing!

Is it actually possible to pre flash and split grade print at the same time and when would you use it?
Would dodging and burning when split grade printing not do the same thing?

Thanks for your help
Mike

Hi Mike
As Richard Ross said in a post in another thread I do use a combination of split grade printing and flashing in my own printing. However, the main difference from the method you describe here is that I almost always post flash rather than pre flash. I have promised Dave that I'd write a piece about the way I work with these tools so I'll not go into detail here as I now have some time at home and will treat this article as a priority.

The simple answer to your question is to use the RH Designs Paper Flasher for your flashing exposure, whether pre or post, and use your enlarger timer separately. This would make the process much less complicated. I would not suggest that you attempt to make a flasing exposure at the same time as you make an image forming exposure, in my view you are very likely to loose control of both processes and probably loose the subtleties achievable when split grade printing coupled with very carefully exposed flashing exposures.

Burning and dodging when split grade printing is one of the very strong points of the method for you can locally dodge out or burn in hard or soft filtration depending on visualisation and create subtle but significant changes in the feel of the print. This is virtually impossible when printing with a single grade. However, burning in with soft filtration, whilst similar to flashing, will not produce the same result as either pre or post flashing.

I hope this helps you in your quest to deal with the contrast problem and please come back and ask further questions here if I have not made myself clear.

[Mike Meal]

Thanks for clearing that up for me Les.
I wont bother you any more here but I'II look forward to reading the article when you get a chance to write it.

Thanks again
Mike