contact printing ??

[Alan9940]

If you go the Adox Lupex route, then you'll have to go the other direction with your bulb. Lupex is a VERY slow paper, as are similar papers such as Azo and Lodima.

[Duolab123]

For Multigrade papers, any modern Enlarging paper, I contact print using the enlarger light source. Adox Lupex is a Contact paper, beautiful stuff, like others have mentioned you need more light.
I would try again, with your small bulb. If you had an enlarger with a timer, doesn't need to be a large format enlarger. With an enlarger you can use the contrast control filters.
In the mean time just put the light farther away. Google Inverse Square law, light intensity diminishes quite rapidly as you move away.

[Mark Sawyer]

The negative goes on top of the paper?

[koraks]

I did use a amber safe light

In addition to what the others said, start by conducting a safe light test to verify that your safelight doesn't fog the paper and doesn't reduce its contrast.

And yes, multigrade / VC paper is very sensitive, so it only takes a very dim light to expose it.

Since you're apparently using a bare bulb, keep in mind that the negative will have to match the white-light contrast curve of the paper; this will be around grade 2 or 2.5. If you want to reduce or increase contrast, you could filter the light using a set of multigrade filters; you'll have to have your light bulb in a suitable housing for this of course, so no unfiltered light slips past the filters. If you want to go fancy, you can build a contact printing light source with a green and a blue LED that you turn on for different durations or at different intensities to increase or decrease contrast.

Alternatively, just use an enlarger with a dichroic or multigrade head for contact printing. Might not be as romantic as a bare bulb, but it works just as well and is arguably easier. If you have an enlarger of course. Bonus: even with a 35mm enlarger you can do 8x10" contact prints.

[John Kasaian]

Look around for a Kodak (or who ever makes them these days) Print Projection Scale.
An inexpensive bit of acetate that will save you quite a bit of paper, time and money
when figuring out these kinds of things.

[Alan9940]

The negative goes on top of the paper?

Yes. Paper emulsion up, negative emulsion side down. Some photographers have the printing light mounted in/under a table and flip the printing frame over, but the "sandwich" in the frame is the same.

[Maross396]

Here are the 2 I finally managed to get, the darker one was for 3 seconds and for the other I bounced the light off the ceiling for 4 seconds. I see these you tube vids where they have the bulb hanging above the print and seems to take much longer?

[Doremus Scudder]

Here are the 2 I finally managed to get, the darker one was for 3 seconds and for the other I bounced the light off the ceiling for 4 seconds. I see these you tube vids where they have the bulb hanging above the print and seems to take much longer?

You're on the right track for sure!

The next step is to rig up a way to mount contrast filters over your light source so you can control the contrast of your contact prints. Mounting filters will also help with the light intensity problem. FWIW, I like 15-30 second exposures when I'm printing so I can dodge comfortably. Dodging contact prints is a little more difficult than when enlarging, since you can't see the image as well, but certainly doable.

When I rigged up a contact printing set-up in my apartment in Europe (my regular darkroom with all the enlargers was in the U.S.), I just taped together a box out of white boxboard and hung the light in that. I made a small frame for 6x6 filters. I wired a cheap hardware-store dimmer in line with the power cord for the light to control exposure time a bit. The light was hung over my washing machine in the bathroom; I used the top of the washer for the work surface. Worked fine for making contacts for years.

Have fun,

Doremus

[Alan9940]

I see these you tube vids where they have the bulb hanging above the print and seems to take much longer?

They were probably using a contact printing paper like Adox Lupex. I use a 300-watt flood about 6 feet above my enlarger table and get ~30 sec exposures with Lupex and my 8x10 negs.

[Vaughn]

They were probably using a contact printing paper like Adox Lupex. I use a 300-watt flood about 6 feet above my enlarger table and get ~30 sec exposures with Lupex and my 8x10 negs.

That sort of turned me off of using Azo...I felt I needed to retreat to a safe room like the X-Ray technicians do, before I turn the light on. Of course I just got done with a four hour exposure under a 750W Mercury vapor lamp (carbon printing) -- but those lamps are out in the garage where I don't have to look at them. My neighbors think I grow weed probably (I don't...that'd be coals to Newcastle).