Zone VI variable contrast head controller settings

[Michael Wainfeld]

For those of you with this equipment-what initial settings do you use? Max brightness and 1/2 way (D) on both hard and soft? Or max brightness and max hard and soft and then dial less of one in? Anyone have a manual?
Thanks-Mike

[George Stewart]

When I had mine, I'd do two separate exposures - each would be with one lamp only set to max. So, a print would be composed of one exposure of a certain length with max hard, and another of a different length with max soft.

[Gem Singer]

Michael,

The original instruction manual described several ways to print with the ZoneVI VC lamphouse.

After working with mine for a couple of years, I found that dialing maximum on all the controls worked the easiest.

If I needed more contrast, I dialed back on soft (green lamp). If I needed less contrast, I dialed back on the hard (blue lamp).

To compensate for dry down, I dialed back on the brightness control, just before exposing the final print.

I made test strips to arrive at the basic exposure. However, after a while, it became quite intuitive to figure out the amount the amount of hard or soft light I had to remove in order to get the proper contrast and how much exposure time I needed.

Forget about trying to match contrast grades. The Zone VI VC lamphouse allows the operator to choose an infinite number of grades.

[wfwhitaker]

When I had a Zone VI VC head I used pretty much exactly the method Gem describes. But George's split-grade technique is just as viable. It's easy to get caught up in the variables. Take lots of notes and use the method which is most intuitive for you.

[Ed Pierce]

I got sick of wasting time and paper hoping to hit the right combination of hard/soft/time and decided to calibrate the sucker. I used Anchell's VC printing book as a guide.

I recently employed a step scale, densitometer and three different brands of paper and determined my hard/soft combinations for grades 0-5 in half grade increments. For lack of a better idea, I made a series of contact prints with the soft set to max and the hard set at various points, then a series with the hard set at max and the soft set at various points. All the exposures were the same. I read all the densities of the prints and plotted them on an exposure/density graph, which is now posted on the wall.

The graph guides me in speed matching; finding the change in exposure needed to match any print density when changing grades. It really works well to get me in the ball park very quickly. I can pick any tone on the print and easily look up the change in exposure needed to keep that tone constant at another grade.

One very interesting thing I learned is that the different papers required very different speed matching corrections.