Split Printing

[neil poulsen]

Due to the design of my Type 1 Zone VI VC enlarger, I can only expose one color of my two-color enlarger head at a time. (e.g. first green, then blue, or vice-versa.) I believe this technique is called split printing.

I would appreciate any tips anyone can offer on how to print in this fashion? For example, what are strategies of dodging and burning? When should one dodge and burn with blue, versus when should one dodge and burn with green? Should one expose with green first or blue first? Etc.

The reason I need to use split printing is because my compensating timer attemps to control both the green and blue colors at the same time, and this introduces variability in the final result. In reprinting the same negative at a later time, I can't expect to obtain the same results with the same box of paper and the same settings.

[Nick_3536]

This only matters for VC paper. If you're using graded paper you might be able to just use the blue light and ignore the other one?

Anyways assuming VC. Blue is high contrast. Green is low contrast. You burn with blue when you want dark areas darker. Green when you want something like clouds darker. I expose green first. Look at the test print. Then I expose a second sheet for the green time and over that do the blue test sheet. Some people do it the other way. Blue first then green.

I think you'll find dodging/burning is much easier this way.

[Gem Singer]

Hi Neil,

View Camera offers a CD version of the articles that were published in Camera Arts, "Variable Contrast Printing- A Tutorial in Four Parts", by Alan Ross. It is very informative. Earlier, Steve Anchell published a book on the basics of variable contrast printing. Both publications may help you obtain the information you are seeking.

According to Alan, it doesn't matter whether you give the first exposure with the blue lamp or the green lamp. Burning with green or blue depends on what degree of contrast you want to add to the particular area of the print. It's the total amount of exposure from both lamps that produces the final result, and that's all that matters.

I also use the Zone VI variable contrast lamphouse on my Omega D-2. Is something broken on your controller that doesn't allow you to use both the blue (hard) and green (soft) tubes at the same time?

[Tom Westbrook]

For some very interesting testing and comments on the subject of split-grade printing, see Way Beyond Monochrome by Ralph W Lambrecht and Chris Woodhouse. They have the "basics" (but not the advanced) chapter on their web site:


http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/ktphotonics/pdf/BasicSplitGradePrinting.pdf (http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/ktphotonics/pdf/BasicSplitGradePrinting.pdf)

A good read and interesting results.

(A great book forf B&W photographers. See http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/ktphotonics/wbm.html (http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/ktphotonics/wbm.html) for more excepts and errata.)

[Jim Rhoades]

I also use a Zone VI VC head. I split print using the green, highlight's first. It just seems to work better than shadows first.

Eugene; I use mine on a D-2 too. I split print only because the Zone VI lettering just makes no sense, at least to me, in corelating to grade numbers. Have you worked out a system of combining letters to grade numbers?

[Gem Singer]

Jim,

Many years ago when I heard that Zone VI was coming out with a new two-tube VC lamphouse for my ancient Omega D-2, I put my name on a waiting list at Calumet. A few weeks later, they shipped it to me, just in time for Christmas. I stopped using the old paper grading system the day I began printing with my new Zone VI VC lamphouse. I figure that with VC paper, what difference does it make to know which grade I'm printing at? Those letters on the Zone VI controller were never meant to be used for grade matching.

Take a look at the Alan Ross article that I mentioned. It's worthwhile.

[Ed Pierce]

"When should one dodge and burn with blue, versus when should one dodge and burn with green?"

This for me is the hard part of VC printing, and is a very good question. First off you have to forget about dodging - it's all burning. This makes it a lot easier IMO.

Obviously, you burn with blue to darken and increase contrast, and burn with green to darken and decrease contrast.

The tricky part is when you want something in between, so you need to burn with both filters. I highly recommend Anchell's book. Other than that, you just have to try it and keep careful notes. Adding two tablets of Advil to your bloodstream may be required.

Ed
www.edpiercephoto.com

[paulr]

I printed like this for a while, and found that an image would come along once in a blue moon that that benefited from split printing. The rest of the time, I was just wasting time and brain power trying to simulate regular printing without weird effects. Most of the time, when I wanted to work both layers equally, I would repeat the same burn/dodge routine under both colors, making sure to adjust time as a percentage of the total exposure under each color.
On the plus side, if you're printing on graded paper, just using the blue light might improve the quality of your prints, in some cases (depending on the spectral sensitivity of your paper, and on the degree of correction of your lens).