Originally Posted by
Alan9940
Hello Steve,
Thank you so much for your detailed response. However, I'm a bit confused by this statement that stain color doesn't affect silver gelatin papers? I would agree that the stain has no or very little affect when printing on graded silver gelatin papers, but VC? I use an Aristo VC head which contains the V54 tube which, according to Aristo at the time this new tube hit the scene, was the preferred way to print on VC papers. Surely the stain color--yellow/green for PMK and others of this ilk and brown(ish) for Pyrocat-HD--will have some affect on the tone curve with VC papers depending on the color of the neg, won't it?
[I]Hello Alan, you are correct in that the color of the stain does have an impact on the relationships that happen in the highlight region, that is the area most Pyro users site why Pyrocat's amber stain can create slightly more contrast within the highlights than the green stain of PMK. I neglected to explain that as I was making an assumption that so many non Pryo users believe that the stain adds density for all processes. The stain itself, color aside only adds density to a process requiring a UV light source, the color temperature of the light source used to print Silver Gelatin simply does not see the stain as density. Most photographers see the color difference of the stain between Pyrocat and PMK as the only difference between the two, I have worked extensively with both Pyros and do believe Pyrocat is a superior developer when taking into consideration the manner in which the mid tones are separated, too long to detail here nevertheless of value to this discussion.[/I]
This sounds like you're referring to split-grade printing?
I think what I'm going to do is start with a negative measuring 1.00 - 1.10 net highlight density, make some prints, and adjust from there. Practical experience with high values and my VC printing paper of choice should give me a pretty good idea of how much stain density is affecting the upper end of the curve. Once I have something acceptable, I can measure it and that value will become my norm.
Those neg. densities are a good place to start, however since I began printing with just a 0 and 5 filter I have continually designed my highlight densities to be under 1.00 for the simple reason the less 0 (green) light required to form highlights the better the mid tone contrast will be. Just the other day I printed a .83 highlight density neg. with great results, granted it was right about at the limits of necessary highlight density nevertheless a beautiful print.
Thanks, again.
Bookmarks