is a good negative for contact printing also a good negative for enlarging?

[BetterSense]

I just developed half the negatives from my vacation. I'm not positive on my developing time yet and only have estimated starting development times. The well-exposed negatives look nice, but before I developed the rest of the negatives I was going to contact print the ones I have to see if the contrast is ok. If they contact print will with a grade 2 filter, does that mean they will enlarge with a grade 2 filter?

[Ken Lee]

Some people say (and were taught) that your enlarger should give you the same basic results as a contact print.

You might even say that if it doesn't, something is wrong somewhere.

It's best to use the light from the enlarger, when making contact prints. That way, you've eliminated a big variable. Make sure that the glass you use for contact printing, does not have a heavy color-cast, since that will introduce a factor not present during enlargement.

Much has been written concerning the nature of the light source, the Callier Effect, and point-source versus diffused lighting. I vote for diffused light in the enlarger, and have use a Cold Light head since the early 1970's, as suggested through my "lineage" of teachers. Documented and published at that time, the approach has been born out by long experience.

Photography is hard enough already. It makes life that much easier when we can spot a nice negative as a contact print, and be confident that an enlargement will result in the same basic image, only bigger.

[D. Bryant]

I just developed half the negatives from my vacation. I'm not positive on my developing time yet and only have estimated starting development times. The well-exposed negatives look nice, but before I developed the rest of the negatives I was going to contact print the ones I have to see if the contrast is ok. If they contact print will with a grade 2 filter, does that mean they will enlarge with a grade 2 filter?

That depends, but to give a broad general answer - yes!

Don Bryant

[Andrew O'Neill]

If they contact print will with a grade 2 filter, does that mean they will enlarge with a grade 2 filter?

I wouldn't worry about that as long as your negative shows sufficient exposure in the shadows and good development. If they contact print well with a grade 2 filter, then you are doing okay. When you go to enlarge, just make another test strip with the no. 2 filter and go from there.
When I contact print a negative, I always print it flat (00 to 1 filters) so that I can see all the detail the negative has to offer and then I go from there.

[ic-racer]

Enlargement with a collimated light source will increase the contrast of the projected image when compared with contact printing.

[Andrew O'Neill]

Yes and no. It will print with higher contrast for the unadjusted negative. If you adjust the negative accordingly (lower the DR), you can get it really close. But alas, the contact printed negative always looks better than when enlarged.

[Michael Alpert]

You must be using large format film for the first time. Every time you print any negative, there will be small factors, such as strength of developer and temperature, that will have some effect on contrast and sensitivity. But you will find that a negative that you can print well as a contact print will also print well as an enlargement. The two wild factors that enter into the mix are softness (due to a number of different causes) and dust. Very small dust holes that might be ignored in a contact print grow dramatically in an enlargement.

[Oren Grad]

As a general rule, if you're using a relatively diffused light source for enlarging - for example, a dichroic color head or variable contrast head - you're likely to get contrast that's similar to that of your contact print; if you use a condenser head, the enlargements are likely to be somewhat contrastier than the contact print.

So long as you have adequate shadow detail and overall contrast is in the middle of the range your paper can handle, you should have no trouble printing the negative. As you gain experience, you can tweak your development to suit your specific materials and tastes.

[John Berry]

As a general rule, if you're using a relatively diffused light source for enlarging - for example, a dichroic color head or variable contrast head - you're likely to get contrast that's similar to that of your contact print; if you use a condenser head, the enlargements are likely to be somewhat contrastier than the contact print.

So long as you have adequate shadow detail and overall contrast is in the middle of the range your paper can handle, you should have no trouble printing the negative. As you gain experience, you can tweak your development to suit your specific materials and tastes.

The correct answer. I'm glad you did it, I only type with two fingers.