Ok, here's another contact printing question. I recently got started in shooting and processing b/w as a sideline to my color photography. Since I don't have a n enlarger yet I thought I'd start contact printing my 4x5 negs under a glass sh eet using a 25 watt frosted incandescent bulb on a home made stand with simple m etal reflector. Granted, a pretty ?homespun' setup. Anyway, I printed on Ilfos peed RC Grade 2 paper, developing in Dektol in trays at 1:3 dilution for 2 minut es. After some experimentation I found I could only get a reasonable print by r emoving the reflector, setting the bulb three and a half feet above the neg, and using a TWO second exposure! The negs look good and I am absolutely certain tha t I mixed the stock and working solutions correctly and I developed at 68 degree s. Maybe my choice of papers, light source, or developer is not ideal for conta ct printing, but I thought this combination would give reasonably ?normal' resul ts, at least for experimentation. Am I missing something here?
Many thanks in advance for any responses!
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