If this is the cause of your problem in your case, you will have a reasonable black in your prints not until g5.
If this is the cause of your problem in your case, you will have a reasonable black in your prints not until g5.
How many stops difference was there in the scene? Do you remember? Tribb could give you a good guess. So now you are left with a flat negative. Why are you using a flat paper? Flat+flat don't equal snap. Start by selenium toning you neg. As much as you can. And use some Spotone or Marshall oils to dye dodge some areas of the negative. Use a large brush and put some clouds in the sky if need be. Dye dodge some rocks. That will help differentiate the internal contrast within the neg. Next. spring for some good glossy fibre base multigrade paper. That will help with the contrast too. RC will too but FB is better. Next use a 0 filter for some (30%) of the printing and a #5 for the rest. Burn the crap out of the sky if there is even a hint of cloud. Burn some of the ground and vegetation with the #5. The bleach parts of the print with ferricyanide and wash reeeeaaaallll well. Then selenium tone the print 1:3 5mins. Should be ok now. But next time find out what the contrast ratio is in the scene and expose and process for the optimal contrast in the scene. Z3-Z8 would be optimal. And try Tech-pan if the scene is really flat. Rodial 1:100 15 mins. at 70* agitation 5secs. every minute.
tim while sooting did you use a lens shade? sand can create glare that will raise the base fog level[this may be the wrong term] or the effective toe of the curve. it has the same effect as prefogging your film and lowers contrast. just a thought.
You might try using a condenser enlarger, develop your prints to 3 minites, use glossy ilford mg fiber paper, try using edwal ultra black developer or some other very active developer, sepia toning bleaching to completion . All these will increase the impression of contrast.
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks