A little rant about contrast, beginners, and gaining experience printing

[brian steinberger]

Photography is such a craft of trial and error, and learning a lot on your own. I've been doing alot of printing lately, and the more I do it the better I am getting at it. But one thing that stands out to me the most is that the more experience I gain at printing, the more I'm realizing that I used to print with too much contrast.

I've heard before that beginners tend to print with too much contrast due to the "wow" factor. A higher contrast print always wows a beginning printer, but doesn't hold the viewers attention as a nice long scaled print with beautiful gradation from black to white. Obviously this is subject to personal taste and aesthetics as well, and this, ultimately, is the printers choice.

In the past I was printing to nail down a black in the shadows and many times drowned out the other subtle shadow detail around it. Then once I selenium toned I killed all detail. It's taken me years to get to this point of realization, and much wasted paper.

My personal experience lately is that now that I've realized this, I have been making prints at lower contrast grades than I previously did. Once highlight exposure is obtained (with a nifty test strip printer modeled after Ralph's in his book "Way Beyond Monochrome), the test strips may not show absolute black, but experience is also telling me that once selenium toned these areas will become black, and also sometimes now I'm realizing that these areas don't have to be black! The result? I'm creating some of the most beautiful prints so far in my photography "career."

So I just wanted to throw this little story out there to others and beginners in particular that if you wish to print negatives with a full range of tones, don't drown all the detail out dialing in a higher contrast than necessary. Let some areas fall a dark gray instead of black (if there is detail there in the negative). Learn dry down for your paper. I dry all my test strips for this reason. Some figure out a percentage of time to lessen the exposure. If selenium toning at higher concentrations (I tone at 1:9), take into account the fact that this will darken your shadows as well.

And here I was at the point of thinking I was developing my film for not enough time, since I was frequently printing at grades 3 1/2, 4, 4 1/2, when really I was just not letting my negatives sing!

[2F/2F]

The important thing with beginners is avoiding generalizations, and avoiding passing ones opinion off as fact.

Beginners need to learn to make a high contrast print when they want a high contrast print, and vice versa. It is as simple as that.

I do not find that beginners print with "too much" contrast. I find that they just can't print at all, with the problems being there independent of specific tendencies. Unless they have a natural ability for it from the start, most cannot print, and never will be able to...but usually those who can photograph well can also print well.

I find that beginners are a varied group, consisting of mostly people who have no innate visual skills with a camera or an enlarger. IMO, a good printer is a good printer from the start. Those who purposefully print with "too much" contrast usually just want a pic with some contrast. As long as they are going for what they want, and learning how to get it, I am happy. The best beginners, IMO, are the ones that are the least impressionable.

[paulie]

i think the switch from rc - fb can be difficult for beginners, the contrast leap and dry down , + selenium or sulphide .

i always think that if the print looks great in the tray then you have likely overexposed it and its time to bleach or start over

i think that most negs will print many different ways and it just worth exploring all these differences

[mikebarger]

I guess that's why some people test against a dry toned print. Testing your materials/equipment lets you determine what the facts are for you and your process/materials. Not many people shoot gray scales in white light.

There are a lot of ways to skin a cat in this hobby.

Mike

[tiberiustibz]

i think the switch from rc - fb can be difficult for beginners, the contrast leap and dry down , + selenium or sulphide .

I ruined about a dozen sheets before I figured out what was going on after a few years of RC work...

I don't recall noticing myself having too much contrast, though I have begun to dial back recently. I do want black blacks and white whites however. I typically run test strips to give myself a black black off the base of the negative with the filter I think I'll need. If the whites look good, I print, if they don't, the contrast goes up and I repeat the test strip. The one thing I did want was thicker and thicker negatives--I wanted to be able to see what was there clearly and have a lot of detail. Well, I ended up printing one of my negatives at 00 and then decided I had gotten enough density.

Now I have begun stand development with rodinal because I don't feel like sitting by the sink constantly for hours. I just set up the developer and leave for an hour.

I think a lot of things change with experience, but they're not necessarily the same for everyone. Some people use too much contrast, some people don't know what filters are...

[DaveOttawa]

... I do not find that beginners print with "too much" contrast.
...As long as they are going for what they want, and learning how to get it, I am happy.

Two points that match my experience in teaching.
Beginners in fact seem to often be afraid of straying too far from the #2 filter, at least in my experience.
When you think about it it isn't easy to define what "too much contrast" actually is in any objective way so I am happy if a printer can achieve the contrast they want anywhere from 00 to 5; i.e. be accountable for that aspect of the finished print.

[Peter Schrager]

trick from Bruce Barnbaum....proof with the number 1 filter and you will begin to see how you have been printing the whole time with too much contrast
it really does work...
Best, Peter

[CPorter]

I've heard before that beginners tend to print with too much contrast due to the "wow" factor. A higher contrast print always wows a beginning printer, but doesn't hold the viewers attention as a nice long scaled print with beautiful gradation from black to white. [I]Obviously this is subject to personal taste and aesthetics as well, and this, ultimately, is the printers choice.

As long as the negative will provide it, print Dmax is equally achievable with low contrast filtration (more shades of gray between Dmax and Dmin) as it is with high contrast filtration (fewer shades of gray). When hard filtration is relied upon for that "wow" factor that you describe, fewer shades of gray can be utilized in the print and, IMO, will fail to "sing" because of the lack of a robust range of print tones. Of course this is subjective, but I rarely view a black and white print and feel that it "sings" or "pops" because there's a lot of very low print tones and high print tones, it's always because of robust mid-tones in combination with subtle low and high print values.

I'm not at all suggesting that it is always an easy thing to do. For sure it is not, but the better the quality of the negative, the better and easier will be the job of printing it as visualized.

[Reinhold]

"Way Beyond Reality Contrast" has a counterpart in those people who go crazy with sharpening in FeauxTeauxShop.

There's a place for printing that looks like an ad for a carnival, but it gets old pretty quick...
Good printing doesn't need extra lipstick.

A long time ago I discovered the need for appropriate lighting when viewing a wet print.

Reinhold

www.classicBWphoto.com
if that doesn't work, try: http://mysite.verizon.net/res14rg7y/

[Rich Ullsmith]

I'm with you, Brian. Except now, either the negative prints itself or it doesn't. And if it doesn't, then it doesn't. I have the attention span of a circus monkey when in the darkroom.

Years ago, I spent a day printing a portrait of the wife and our dogs. I mean a full day. I became very tired and frustrated at the results, and wadded them up and threw them in the garbage. My wife fished them out, chose one, rewashed it and toned it, and it has been on the wall for a long time now. For the record, you can actually wad Ilford MGWT fiber paper into a ball, let it get tacky-dry, then rewash it and dry mount it. It works.