Although I have been a roll film photographer for over 35 years, I have finally set up a darkroom for large format and am making my first experiments to refine my process. I have made my first prints using tentative materials, and the results are putrid!

What I did was take four sheets of identically exposed negatives, now I want to develop them one at a time, make the best possible print, make corrections in the development of the negative and make another print and hope I get it right before I run out of negatives. Never heard of anyone doing it this way, but I am because I don't think I should need a step wedge and a densitometer to get good pictures.

I am trying to use the incident system described in "Beyond the Zone System" and my enlarger has a non variable contrast cold light so I am hoping to be able to make good negatives that print consistently on grade 2 paper.

The lighting was very flat, an overcast day. Using a incident light meter there shade was EV 13 and full light was EV14. I exposed the frames on HP5 at ASA 500 using the shaded reading at f22 1/8 sec.

My first negative was developed in DK-50 in a Patterson orbital at 62 degrees (cold!) for 5:20. The negative appeared very dense to me, and required twice the exposure at the enlarger to get a decent but weak black. The shadow detail is great, but the highlights are muddy without good separation of tones. The print lacks punch. Yuck!

Now...here is my real question. Should I give the next negative more development to add contrast? This would be my instinct, but the density of the negative tells me to go with less development.