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How to make a ho-hum black and white print sing. 830 words
By Maryan Pelland
You have an excellent negative - it looked great when you inspected it, and the contact print was good, too. But after three hours in the darkroom, your print doesn't sparkle. There's no snap. You know it has potential - what can you do to create a crisp image, full of life with brilliant tonality?
I had the problem one afternoon about a year ago. I shot a roll of black and white film at a nearby pond. The light was good, the camera was good, I bracketed some of the exposures and came up with a shot of two gorgeous oak trees, incredible tones - as only autumn can provide. The trees were flawlessly reflected in the still water. The negative looked great, and I was excited.
After burning, dodging, dodging and burning again, and sailing five prints into the trash can, I stared at the enlarger in frustration. Each leaf had to stand out, etched the way the afternoon light had etched them in my eye when I made the shot. The background needed soft tones so the image wouldn't end up too contrasty.
I was certain the image could be produced the way it was meant to look. It wasn't that far off. I remembered a technique I had heard about quite some time ago called split filtering. After experimentation, I have a valuable tool that won't make bad images good, and isn't the solution to every problem, but can be the perfect next step when you need to add crispness without stretching the contrast too far.
Your first step is to make a test print on variable contrast paper. It's important that you select a good negative with a fairly wide tonal range. High contrast negs without many mid tones won't benefit from this technique. And, unfortunately, nothing can save a bad negative. In this step, you can choose to work without a variable contrast filter or use a number 2.5 (which, of course, equates to normal contrast). Determine the correct timing and enlarger aperture for the best possible print from your negative.
Once you've determined the exposure, you'll be relying a bit on educated estimating and careful playing. It may take a couple of tries to get the print exactly the way you envisioned it, but no one said this image making thing is an exact science.
For your first working print, after you have evaluated the test print, you will choose two filters at least two and a half steps apart. One will be a low contrast, one a high contrast. Exactly which you choose will depend upon the negative's properties and the result you need. For example, if your negative has good contrast but isn't providing crispness in the detail, you will first select a number 2 or 2.5 to preserve the contrast without graying it out. Then you'll need a 4.5 or a 5 to overlay some very pronounced deep tones and brighten up the highlights.
This technique, referred to as "split filtering", also splits the timing for the exposure. You'll use one filter for about a third of the total tested time, and the other for about two thirds. With our example image with good contrast but no sparkle, we will use the higher filter for the longest amount of time.
If your original exposure was, say, 30 seconds at F11 on the enlarger, you will use that aperture, insert the number 2 filter and the negative into the enlarger, and expose the print for 10 seconds (one third of 30 seconds). Now, with lights
(this is a portion of an 800 word service article - you may request the entire piece from
maryan@lmcs.com ) ##