Limiting light output...

[Scott Peters]

You can get a roll of neutral density filter film for relatively cheap...I think I paid $6 and you can either place it over the contact frame. Makes dodging and burning tougher. If you have a cone or shade around the bulb, you could cut a piece of the film and attach it to the cone/shade/reflector. Raising the buld is a good idea too. Make sure you get even light on the neg.

[sanking]

You can get a roll of neutral density filter film for relatively cheap...I think I paid $6 and you can either place it over the contact frame. Makes dodging and burning tougher. If you have a cone or shade around the bulb, you could cut a piece of the film and attach it to the cone/shade/reflector. Raising the buld is a good idea too. Make sure you get even light on the neg.

When I print silver I use a 7.5 watt bulb in a small reflector. At the base of the reflector I attached a small frame that allows placement of 6X6" ND filters. You could also use VC filters in the frame.

Sandy King

[DougGrosjean]

Another update.

I turned the light source 180d and bounced it off the ceiling, and that improved things a bunch - but my development times were still very short compared to the makers reccomendations. About 15s instead of 60s, with an exposure of around 20s.

So I tried another tack to limit light. Went into my son's room, and found an orange frisbee from Hooters. Put that over the 15W light (still shining upward off the ceiling), and ran some prints.

Success! Exposure times on a negative with nice density and tones is now around 20s, with dev. times around 60s. The blacks are *black* now, whites remain white. Contrast is far better than I had been getting, the prints really pop and the tones are nice and crisp rather than muddy and low contrast.

I think I was overexposing, and then compensating for that with short development times, and not allowing the blacks to ripen properly; if that makes sense.

[tommy5c]

hooray for Hooters!! and their wonderful Frisbees!!

[bliorg]

I bought a rheostat, an outlet, some wire, and a box. Made a dimmable outlet for about $8. Plug my light source into it, and I can dial in the proper light intensity.

Easy peasy.

[Joe VanCleave]

I've been using this 7.5 watt, standard base frosted bulb for contact printing.

One benefit of a white frosted bulb is that the color is neutral; a red colored frisbee may work, but I would be concerned about it's effect on contrast, or how it affects your ability to control contrast.

~Joe