Darkroom Exercise: Exposure

1. Make a good contact sheet
   
   1. place strip of photo paper, then film negative, then glass in this order
   2. make test strip (1/2" incremental exposure from one side of the strip to the other)
   3. develop test strip to find right exposure time
   4. place full sheet of photo paper, then film negative, then glass in this order
   5. expose photo paper using exposure time from test strip
   
   
   
2. Make three b/w prints from a single negative. Show instructor negatve before you print if it is a good one
   • printed dark as possible but still acceptable (but if printed any darker, would not be acceptable)
   • printed perfectly in your mind, and
   • printed light but still acceptable (but if printed any lighter, would not be acceptable)
   
   
   
   
   We never know what a perfect print/exposure is until you have comparisons and know where the limits are. This is to instill in you that the first print you make probably is not the perfect print.
   
   On the back of your prints, write down your exposure time and fstop you used on the enlarger. To repeat, it should be from the same negative so that we can evaluate what exposure does to an image.
   
   
   
   
   Procedure to make a print

   1. with widest aperture focus projected image onto focusing paper
   2. close down aperture so you have larger depth of field
   3. place strip of photo paper
   4. make test strip (1/2" incremental exposure from one side of the strip to the other)
   5. develop test strip to find right exposure time
   6. place full sheet of photo paper
   7. expose full sheet of photo paper using exposure time from test strip, write down exposure time and f-stop on paper
   8. develop photo paper and evaluate. Hold in water bath if printing more
   9. wash all prints
   10. place prints in drying rack