Using VC paper at grades 4 and up

[PViapiano]

Hi all...

Making my first forays into the darkroom to print after scanning negs for the last year and a half...and it is fun!

Of course, it's a steep learning curve but so rewarding so far...

Here's my question...I'm using a dichroic color head and using Ilford's suggested dual-filtration. I test-printed an image at grade 3.5 and needed to go higher for a very flat neg. I bumped it up to 4.5, which is the highest grade on the chart.

I also doubled the exposure time from the previous print, as I've heard here and at APUG. I noticed on the paper info-sheet that the paper speed goes from 200 to 100 at grades 4 and up.

However, my print was totally black...hmmm! What happened?

I eventually got the correct exposure, but I'm puzzled...

I know that dual-filtration helps equalize exposure settings but thought that the dbl-time at 4 and 5 still held.

FYI...I was making 5x7 prints from 6x7 negs.

[Oren Grad]

The doubling is only with the separate Ilford Multigrade gelatin filter set.

Using dual filtration with a dichroic head should reduce the exposure variation among grades, but unless you get really lucky and also are printing the same kind of picture all the time, it won't eliminate it entirely.

Since I know I'll have to run test strips regardless, I don't bother with dual filtration - I use the single filtration chart, which is much simpler and provides shorter exposure times overall.