Printing with Jobos?

**cyrus** · 13-Jan-2012, 11:17

Originally Posted by D. Bryant

You are really doing this the hard way, read Drew's post again. trays are fine but judging print density by safe light isn't. I use a Thompson safe light with the appropriate filter and have plenty of light after it has warmed up.

For rough adjustments your method works but not for fine nuanced adjustments which require viewing of a dry print under appropriate lights. If you print frequently with the same paper you can make judgments about the print in the wash tray once you gain your dry down vision or by using a wet step wedge in the wash tray for comparison.

If you are proofing, quickie printing is fine; for fine printing there really aren't any short cuts.

I thought you were doing gravure printing ...

I don't know what a Thompson safelight is, but I do have a Thomas in my darkroom though I prefer my amber LEDs right over my sink, which are mucho bright and quite safe (since they emit only on a single wavelength.) Judging density of a print during development can be done just fine if you're only comparing it to the density of another print that was also in development. I just need to see if it is more dense or less dense. Once I've made up my mind about how the print should appear I use this technique to know how and when my changes to exposure are going the right way, and whether there are potentials left in the negative that I haven't used yet (for example, to get more of a contrast separation.)

I should point out that I didn't invent or create this process of "reading" the print while it is developing - this was standard practice, at least back when I was being taught.

**cyrus** · 13-Jan-2012, 11:28

Originally Posted by Larry Gebhardt

I see. I've never tried to make exposure adjustments based on how the print comes up, so putting a print in a drum wouldn't limit me. I guess for you you would just need to change how you adjust things to only looking at the finished print. I know - not helpful.

I'll have to try your method and see if it can save me some paper and time.

I don't know if it will necessarily save paper but it does give quite a bit of feedback during the printing process that gives me (at least) a better sense of what the possible range of contrast/exposure settings are and how they can change the print.

**cyrus** · 13-Jan-2012, 15:11

By the way something else I was taught: to see if there's any more detail in your shadows that you can bring out, I was trained to put the print on a lightbox. The small amount of light that comes through the paper has a way of lighting up the shadows, and you can cleary see details in there.

**jm51** · 14-Jan-2012, 10:16

Originally Posted by cyrus

How do you folks who develop BW prints with Jobos or tubes do it? There is so much information about a print that is provided by watching a print develop in a tray that I can't image how you could develop without it.

People manage to develop film ok without inspection.