Print consistency

[Kirk Gittings]

Because of the demands of my commercial business, my B&W art printing time is rare and must be very productive. This week I was in the darkroom again printing a small portfolio for a museum and ran into some old demons. I have struggled for years to remove all the variables so that I can do a very consistent print edition of say 12 prints from the same negative in one sitting. Some of the variables I have worked with include: switching from a Zone VI stabilized head (with all the do dads which only help amrginally) to a voltage stabilized Beseler color head, temperature controling the room and the developer, replenishing the developer after each print, going to longer dve. times, 4-6 minutes, (there are other good reasons for this too), and carefully testing the safelight (threshhold test) so that I have at least twice the time I need to run a print. What am I missing here? I still occasionally get about a 5% variation (lighter or darker density in non dodged or burned areas) in the middle of a run out of nowhere. Is the problem in the timer? I use an old Beseler timer which when I test it is always consistent, but I swear in the middle of a run with long exposures (60 seconds plus) that it shorts me a few seconds. I'm ready to replace it. Any suggestions for a really accurate enlarging timer? What other variables might I be missing?

[Merg Ross]

Kirk,

Have you considered a metronome?

[Bill_1856]

Amazing, isn't it. The only solution seems to be to print twice as many as you need, and select the ones nearest each other. I remember George Tice, who may be the best printer in America, saying that no two prints ever come out the same -- NEVER!

[Jim_3565]

Read Michael A. Smith's paper entitled "On Printing" at his website. I'd put a link here, but you can't bookmark anything at that site due to those infernal framesets.

Using his techniques, which absolutely require a metronome, BTW, you can churn out print after identical print all day long with very little effort. I've come to regard the metronome as every bit as essential for printing as a negative is.

[Jorge Gasteazoro]

As a pt/pd printer I have not made 2 prints that look the same in years, they are close, but never the same. Yet when I was printing with fiber base paper, I remember changing from VC to graded paper was the solution. You dont mention what paper you are using, but this might help.

[Kirk Gittings]

Thanks for the input. I didn't mention a few particulars because the problems are universal. I currently do split filtration printing on VC Berger and Ilford papers in various vc developers with amendments, but the problems were present and in some ways worse when I was printing on graded papers (primarily Zone VI Brilliant and Elite [a terrible paper but I had a grant] from about 1978 thru 1998).

I have tried a metronome. I think the key sylable in that word for me is "nome". I have very complex burning and dodging patterns with filtration changes (sometimes three filters). I simply cannot keep track properly with a metronome. I space out and lose count. I need an accurate timer with my aging nomish brain.

So there are a couple of things I am not interested in changing here. One is the use of a timer and the other is VC papers. Split filtration has enabled me to turn many of my old "unprintable" negatives into beautiful saleable prints. It is the best tool i have mastered in years.

[Kirk Gittings]

Jim, Thanks for the reference.

I went and read Smith's article on metronomes. I am familiar with the procedure, have tried it and didn't like it for the reasons mentioned above. But in particular it doesn't work with my split filtering technique as I have to set my instruments down with the light off, turn on a red filtered flashlight so I can change the filtration, turn off the flashlight pick up the tool and go again repeating this maybe three times. I need an accurate timer. Help!

[Gudmundur Ingolfsson]

There is a compesaiting timer METROLUX. I bought mine through CALUMET because I needed it 220 volts. There is a probe put into the enlarger light and 4 different memory channels for different exposures through different filters. I have had a much better consistency when printing an edition since I got it four years ago. We can only hope it is still made.

[Henry Ambrose]

Kirk, I have an Saunders ET500 digital timer which offers times divided as fine as tenths of a second and can switch 500 watts. As far as accuracy goes it seems to be great. I wonder if you're getting something besides timer inaccuracy though. Have you checked your timer with a stop watch? If it checks OK then thats obviously not the problem.

I have always wondered about cold light heads and the inconsistencies that might be associated with them. I know they are well thought of but have always wondered about how they start and stop emitting light and how that starting and stopping is not instantaneous and probably not consistent. I've always thought that the only way to turn them on and off instantly was with a card blocking the light path. An incandescent lamp turns on and off pretty darn instantly and seems lots easier to control. But I might be all wrong as there are plenty of folks who consider cold lights the best thing going. The only one I've used was an old style Aristo and I was never pleased with it. My LPL Saunders 4500 is a much superior light source in my opinion. As far as I can tell my set-up gives consistent times/exposures if I do my part. Printing good negatives that don't need much/any manipulating which I can screw up, with paper from the same box, the prints look the same to me.

I burn/dodge by blocking the light path, starting the timer and counting -- even though I have the nice timer. I get the base exposure with the timer and then the fine adjustments come by "one thousand one, one thousand two, etc" which is kinda like the metronome idea. But a metronome ticking would make me pull my hair out so counting is it for me. A courser adjustment like what I'd call in my head in the dark a "one stop edge burn" I do with the timer. The fine adjustments I time by counting and the course ones by timer--logically backwards as far as the need for exact timing but I don't know how to do a 4 second burn with a timer - it'd never work!! For burns at different filtration I start my timer with the light path blocked and adjust the dial looking at the lighted grade window on the enlarger head, then do the counting thing. This I wish I could change about my enlarger so that the grade dial was always lit and I guess I could do that but its not that important to take the time to figure out how to do it. At least I can hit the button on the timer and check it without a flashlight.

I've been tempted to buy one of the Heiland Splitgrade units and I might if I could try one first to see it at work. It just seems like a load of money to spend but I think it can automate the process so that you can program in your times and grades but you still have the problem about how to start all that crap and have your card/hand in the right place to burn in the measured time. And its too much like a computer anyway which I want no part of in the darkroom. But it could be a good answer for production work.

Disclaimer: There are plenty here who know more than me and you're one of them and I'm not claiming anything I wrote is factual, just relating my thoughts and experience.

[Ralph Barker]

While I understand your frustration, Kirk, I'm not sure that an analog system exists that will come any closer that what you're already producing. It sounds like you've dealt with the electro-mechanical elements reasonably well, except that an electronic timer might give more consistency. My guess is that the variation is coming in through the human-factors door. It's virtually impossible to dodge and burn, particularly with split filtering, across multiple prints with absolute consistency. We just aren't made that way.

If you're producing prints for sale, I'm of the opinion that over-printing is the only solution. Then, edit out the ones you wouldn't be willing to sell, and go from there. After all, isn't the "no two prints precisely the same" element part of the non-digital marketing appeal?