Hi Bob,

Thanks for posting.
When I get my darkroom finally up & running, I will try your method.

Quote Originally Posted by bob carnie View Post
That is a nice compliment, thank you Hans .. when Ilford introduced this wonderful paper, Sample kits were sent to printers world wide approx 1994 or 95 era, if I can remember correct we got 5 boxes each that contained about 10 sheets of 8 x 10 paper, the only reference was the colour of the box. We were asked to give our straight out opinion of which paper was in our opinion the best paper. I chose the red box as did most of the printers and for a long time Ilford used a reddish box for this paper.

I have been split printing from day one this paper was released, many people have different opinions and ways of using this paper... Some use 0 and 5 - I do not use 0 unless I want to flash in some density in the highlights , I have found that using 0 has a solarizing effect on the blacks with this paper .... so for me in my darkroom I use a low contrast and 5 contrast method of printing, If I am using my Devere enlarger which is dichroic I will adjust the aperture and timer to have around a 8 second to 20 second base low filter exposure. then I will hit the timer without adjusting the time or aperture to balance out the contrast that is determined by the ORIGINAL scene. If its a low contrast ORIGINAL scene then I could hit the timer with 200 magenta two, three , or four times to get the over all contrast. When setting the low contrast , once again the ORIGINAL scene lighting ratio is determined , so a bright sunny day with deep shadows I may start with grade 1/2 or equivalent magenta, and I will make a light and slightly soft print to get as much highlight detail in my print, then I will hit the timer with 200 magenta or grade 5 filter as many times to accomplish the overall print I need.
By keeping my time around 10 seconds for the initial exposure I can determine dodge and burns by % of the overall time in the low contrast hit and the high contrast hit. If the ORIGINAL scene is low and flat lighting ratio then I will start with a higher filter or magenta number but still make a light and soft initial exposure then hit the timer with the higher contrast setting as many times I think needed.

Then when I am happy I will make two or three prints more with the same dodge burn , contrast settings but adjust the timer 1 or 2 seconds up or down so the next day I have three prints with the same PLAN but slightly different densities and I let the client or myself pick the image they like.

We do this with enlarge digital negatives as well via contact , it is obvious that the dodge and burn is harder. My young assistant has never made enlarger prints YET but she has done many shows with me and the fact she does not know the difference between dodging and burning on an enlarged contact verses an optical enlarger print is good, she is learning the hard way and when she starts putting negs in the enlarger she will see how easier the dodge and burn actually is.

I hope this makes a bit of sense to some using split printing methods.