Negatives for Contact Printing v. Enlargements.

[Roger Hicks]

"I'll make judgements on how to develop the second..." Roger

Since I don't own a densitometer, this is the way I work as well. Shot some Efke 25 in dead-flat light yesterday and am playing with stand development and pyrocat-hd. Did the first shot, guessed at correct time, developed and printed. Next negative needed about a stop more development, did same, will print tonight to see how close I was. Plot curve, look for different lighting and do again, etc, etc. tim

Dear Tim,

Despite the fact that I do own a densitometer, I'd still rather do it your way, because I'd much rather take pictures! After all, which would you rather do: take a picture, even possibly a flawed one, or shoot grey cards?

Cheers,

R.

[Steve Sherman]

After all, which would you rather do: take a picture, even possibly a flawed one, or shoot grey cards?

Cheers,

R.

Can't say it any better than that!

[avandesande]

I would check out Mortensen's 'the negative', he explains this stuff better than i have seen anywhere else.

I'm almost sorry I asked the question in the first place and perhaps it would be more diplomatic to just walk away from the conversation but I'm bad at that.

It's not my desire to be argumentative but I'll risk it to suggest that nothing on your list is beyond my comprehension but that by insisting that they must be considered variables, you're trying to reframe my question as more complicated than I had inteded for it to be read.

You're suggesting variations where I did not. To begin with, let's assume that your #'s 1&2 are the same for both contact and enlarger printing.

#'s 7, 8, 9, 11 & 12 come under the umbrella of optimizing a prinitng processes for one or the other. I didn't ask about that. It's a worthy endeavor but I deliberately tried to keep the scope of my question narrow. Let's assume that those variables are also constant in both scenarios.

I would even prefer to eliminate #4 as a variable.

#10 is a variable that cannot be eliminated. It may or may not be an issue for enlargements, it is not for contact printing.

My question relates to #'s 3, 5 & 6. I'm asking if ALL ELSE IS EQUAL, do you think that a negative for contact printing should most often have different characteristics from that of a negative that will be enlarged and what are they.

When you plan to contact print, do you meter/expose/develop differently than if you plan to enlarge. Yes? No? How? To achieve what distinction in the negative?

Thanks.

[JBrunner]

When you plan to contact print, do you meter/expose/develop differently than if you plan to enlarge. Yes? No? How? To achieve what distinction in the negative?

Thanks.

No. I expose my negative for the density I require based on the subject and conditions, the known performance of my stock, the developer I am going to be using, and for favorite silver gelatin papers, pt/pd, or both. If the negative will be contact printed or enlarged on silver gelatin has absolutely no bearing on my exposure, or any other part of my process. In all practicality, there is no difference in the papers response, other than exposure time, no matter where the negative is in relation to the paper when the paper is exposed. It is a non issue.