Darkroom Exercise: Contrast

Part 1:
Make three b/w prints from a single negative. Make sure you ask the instructor if it is a good negative for this exercise
  1. printed with low contrast but acceptable (but if printed with any less contrast, would not be acceptable)
  2. printed perfectly, and
  3. printed with high contrast but acceptable (but if printed with any more contrast, would not be acceptable)
On the back of your prints, write down your exposure time, filter #, and fstop you used on the enlarger. To repeat, it should be from the same negative so that we can evaluate what contrast does to an image



Part 2:
In one of your prints in Part 1, select an area of the image that can use burning/dodging (making darker/lighter). Using one of the techniques (burning or dodging) make an area "noticablly" different.


Procedure to make a print using contrast filters
  1. with widest aperture focus projected image onto focusing paper
  2. engage filter - light should have color
  3. close down aperture so you have larger depth of field
  4. place strip of photo papero
  5. make test strip (1/2" incremental exposure from one side of the strip to the other)
  6. develop test strip to find right exposure time
  7. place full sheet of photo paper
  8. expose full sheet of photo paper using exposure time from test strip, write down exposure time and f-stop on paper
  9. develop photo paper and evaluate. Hold in water bath if printing more
  10. wash all prints
  11. place prints in drying rack
I suggest you make a test strip every time you change the contrast filter number by more than 1