Originally Posted by
Michael Rosenberg
When I was making darkroom prints I did what Doremus described, but I would develop for 3-4 mins based on my developer dilution (Dektol 1+4). This was based on minimum exposure time to get full blacks, and then for highlights to become fully developed. Pulling a print before full development of blacks can result in muddy shadows with little contrast. Shadows will develop faster than highlights, so if there are delicate highlight tones you want to capture you need to fully develop the print.
Contrast is controlled in exposure, and what developer/dilution you use. This is why some use two part developers.
Mike
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