Questions on contact printing

[Grandpa Ron]

After restoring a 1910 view camera I inherited from my uncle, through lots of trial and error, I have been able to produce some decent 4x5 negatives. I scan them on a desk top scanner, printer, copier with a an external light source and process them with a minimal post processing (exposure and contrast) with good results. My next step is to contact print them on my Uncles 50's vintage Kodak ABC Photo Lab contact printer.

Though it only uses a 7 1/2 watt bulb, the exposure time was usually 5 seconds or less. Therefore, I places layers of white copy paper between the bulb and the negative to absorb some of the light reaching the paper . This increased the exposure time to 10 to 20 seconds.

The problem is, I seem to have lost the mid tones. Here is the data.

The swing negative has plenty of foreground detail.


The swing digital print also has foreground detail.


The contact print with 3 seconds exposure has looks to light with the foreground washed out.


The contact print with 9 seconds exposure has the background okay (about the same as the digital photo) but again the foreground washed out.


I thought that if I increased the exposure even longer the background would be too dark.

The paper Arista EDU grade 3, the developer is Arista EDU photo paper developer. Unlike an enlarger, I cannot change the aperture for more light, without dismantling the unit and removing the paper sheets; so my only variable is exposure time, which is controlled by an electronic timer. I also noticed the negative is reversed.

So my questions are,
* Would increasing the light output (removing some paper) give me more mid tones than increasing the exposer time?
* Would there be a lot more mid tones with grade 2 paper?
* What else am I over looking?

At this point I am just trying to get a contact print with the tone latitude about the same as the digital print. I would appreciate any suggestions

 

[Derrel]

The key is matching your negative and its degree of gamma or contrast to your paper and your development time in relation to your development time on the print. I think you should develop for 90 seconds even when using resin coated paper. In short I think you need to lower your paper grade to number two with a negative that looks like the one above.

 

[compur]

If it were being printed with an enlarger you would expose for the BG while dodging the FG. So, maybe you can find a way to dodge the FG with your setup?

 

[webestang64]

I'm thinking the only way to achieve that goal is to do a print using the traditional enlarger method. You need to be able to dodge/burn as compur mentioned. The system you are using won't let you do that....maybe you can cut the sheets of blank paper to let more or less light hitting the photo paper.

 

[Derrel]

You need to get some paper with a lower contrast grade. Perhaps you could possibly preflash your paper for 1/2 second to 3/4 of a second and possibly lower the grade of your paper. You really need to have the paper match the exposure and the negative perfectly for contact printing. It is a certainty that your negative its not matching up with your contact printing paper... you need to be able to make a straight exposure that will allow you to get detail in both the shadows and highlights. As your example shows you cannot get adequate highlight detail without the background getting too dark. Ergo you have the wrong contrast grade of paper for the negative. This would be a fairly easy shot to make an enlargement of, but you are contact printing.