Who can give me 101 on printing BW with De Vere 504 Color MK5 Head?

[Fatih]

Hi all,

So, finally I’ve upgraded myself from a toilet darkroom to an actual basement darkroom and first I’ve ordered a proper enlarger as using Intrepid enlarger kit is very fiddly.

As I’m planning to start printing colour our as well, I went for dichrom Mk2 head however that has created a problem now. I do not know how to use color head for split grade BW printing. I’m reading Ilford Multigrade paper documents but they give Durst or Kodak numbers and I believe De Vere is under Kodak. Then it gives some yellow and magenta numbers which I understand that I need adjust on the enlarger head. How about cyan channel, does that not effect the grade at all? Also if this proves to be complicated for me, I might go for under lens filter system which I’m used to now but then the question is, can I get a pure white light from a color enlarger to use under lens filters?

PS enlarger and the sink have not been delivered so I’m trying to learn everything until then.

Sorry for this basic questions.
Many thanks,
Fatih

[cowanw]

Everything you need to know for single colour grade where times may change with grades or dual colour grades where times may stay the same with grades.
Leave the cyan alone.
https://www.ilfordphoto.com/wp/wp-co...Multigrade.pdf

[cowanw]

It doesn't really matter about your light or about a particular grade. You like the image-good; you don't - then bump up or down the contrast and do it again.

[Fatih]

Everything you need to know for single colour grade where times may change with grades or dual colour grades where times may stay the same with grades.
Leave the cyan alone.
https://www.ilfordphoto.com/wp/wp-co...Multigrade.pdf

Ok, so I’ve been reading this document few times already. When you say leave the cyan alone, where should I leave it, at 0 or at 150, or it doesn’t matter.

How about if I want to get pure light from the head, do I dial 0 at each of the channels?

[ic-racer]

Cyan filter cuts out red light. For practical purposes only color paper would be affected.
You can keep cyan at zero to make the baseboard image brighter to your eyeballs.

[ic-racer]

You should make a print with maximum magenta and zero yellow and compare to Ilford #5. If they are similar you should be able to use your color head for just about all your BW printing.

[cowanw]

There should be a switch to go between coloured light and white light, Mine is in the upper right corner of the front face.
Set the cyan at 0 so you can see better while it is enlarging. Cyan is minus red and neither has an effect on enlarging paper, so leaving it on lets you see better.

[Drew Wiley]

With VC papers and colorheads, there is absolutely no need to even worry about grade this or grade that. It's irrelevant. ALL you need to know if that the more you dial up Magenta, the more the contrast increases, the more you dial up Yellow the less contrast you get. Don't use both at the same time, and leave Cyan on zero. Therefore if you want to split print, dial up M as high as it goes for the greatest black punch, and maximum yellow for filling in the highlights.

If that still doesn't give you the full range you want, the just leave all your settings at zero, and use a 47 blue glass filter over the enlarging lens for higher contrast, and a 58 green filter for your lower contrast.

But it always better to do a test strip first with all the colorhead settings on zero just to establish a baseline. Rarely do I find a need for pure split printing. Far more often, the basic contrast level can be established with some modest colorhead setting; and if extra punch is needed at other extreme, or just for sake of burning-in, then either M or Y can be ratcheted up (but never both). I personally have the luxury of true RGB colorheads, but most don't. But the same result can be achieved with ordinary CMY colorheads.

[brass.duet]

....ALL you need to know if that the more you dial up Magenta, the more the contrast increases, the more you dial up Yellow the less contrast you get. Don't use both at the same time, and leave Cyan on zero. There is you want to split print, dial up M as high as it goes for the greatest black punch, and maximum yellow for filling in the highlights.

Agree. You can think of Cyan as a neutral density tool.

Sent from my SM-G950U1 using Tapatalk

[Fatih]

Thank you very much all, I knew I can get the best answers in here. Now I’ve learned I can get pure white if I want and cyan is neutral. I know I’ve bought an enlarger way above my knowledge but I have time to learn

So I’ll do a test print with max magenta vs Ilford 5 filter with white light to compare.

The reason I was so focused on grade numbers is I usually do a test print at 2 and at 4 and depending then choose appropriate timings, that’s the main reason actually. With color head maybe I’ll do a bit more test strips until I’m comfortable with the numbers and the effect of them.

So if you do split printing and first you start with magenta, once you establish that for the blacks. Would you take it back to 0 and start to soaking up the yellow for highlights or would you keep magenta where it is? The latter one might keep effecting the blacks.