filter for printing!

[bj333]

From last 2 weeks i am taking photography class, today i hv printed some of negaives, made some test stripes but i can not figure out which is best exposure on same exposure setting from same film negatives i can get different kind of image. (when i put all my negatives to test on same print paper after tring lots of test stripe for different negatives)

Today my instructor has introduce regarding filter, she was showing different kind of filter to us by thier number. What does this filter actually do when we print? Like she was saying regarding cotrast but i didn;t got chance to play around with it, may be i am gonna try ti tommoro, Does this helps (filter) me to get good picture.?
What is burning?
Regards i know this sounds boring to answer back but please help me to understand!
Cheers!

 

[bj333]

Sorry!
I hv posted this question to correct topic section .

 

[Skyeg]

baisicly what the filters do is increase contrast. a 00 filter lowers the contrast the most and a 5 increases it the most. filters can help make a photograph look the way you want it to, but they are not some kind of miracle thing that makes all photos perfect. when you use a filter you need to change the developing time so do a test strip with the filter in.

burning is exposing parts of the photo for a longer time, to darken it.

 

[bj333]

So filter has got thier own number to represent right? According to increase in filter number they increase the contrast.

What kind of changes it brings in picture, exposing time for filter? can u explian me more on this issue how should i deal with filter exposing time with diffrent filters.

So how can i burn the picture can i do like this-
first expose my subject on correct reading and then can i burn my background for longer time for instance backgraound like white wall.