How to make the different tones more defined

Joined: 06 Jan 2007 Posts: 4 Location: Farmville, VA

Hi there - I am stuck developing with this one photo - I just put this enlarger together and so far most of my photos are more gray than black and white -

I want my blacks to come out darker and my whites to be more bright - any suggestions or tips as to how to do this???

Joined: 26 Oct 2006 Posts: 53

You can do it in Photoshop. CTLR+L and you will see a level table. Scroll the pointers to change dark (the left pointer), white (the right pointer) and midtones of your images.

Joined: 18 Nov 2006 Posts: 288

Use harder (contrastier) printing paper.

Posted: Tue Apr 10, 2007 12:32 am

yes i would adjust the contrast to a higher setting or give more overall time.

Joined: 13 Jan 2007 Posts: 245 Location: Maryland

-If your using variable contrast papers, buy a set of variable contrast filters (Ilford makes some nice ones) his will allow you to adjust contrast darker (or lighter) for your print. Maybe your enlarger has some filters built it, like dichroic filters?? Use these instead.
-If using single grade papers, do what Hoosiershooter said.
-Use fresh developer

Your best results will come when you calibrate your enlarger printing times with your paper, filtration, print developing times with your film and processing times for your film. That's putting it really simple.

Calibrating all that needn't be complicated or hard... just time consuming, detail oriented... and worth it!

I'm sorry, I don't have any links to point you to more info on this. If you really want more on this let us know, I'll find some and I'm sure others may have them.

Jacque

Joined: 11 May 2006 Posts: 62 Location: 70802

Check out this site. It's got some good stuff.

Joined: 30 Nov 2006 Posts: 69 Location: Sheffield, England

Jacque D

What do you mean by calibrating your enlarger?

Joined: 14 Feb 2006 Posts: 214 Location: Corona, CA

You already know your print is lacking contrast from your enlargement but a way to know this in advance is to look at the negative. If it was underexposed (got too little light) then it will be light when you look at it and it will tend to need a higher contrast paper or a filter with multi-grade paper. I just did a photo where my camera mistakenly underexposed 1 stop and I had to use a #5 filter to get the print to look right.