Printing Problem

[khushi2004]

As i hv mentioned that in last class i had developed the film and today i tried to print some picture making test stripe. But i can't expose my picture correctly, as i am doing balck n white photograpy as basic. As my teacher told me to keep wider aperture speed while exposing i tried my same negatives for several times making 2, 4, 6, 8 seconds. But i still couldnot figure out what will be my correct exposure so that i can print my whole proof sheet at same time.
Is there any tricks or important stuffs that i should be careful while exposing my negative on print paper?
Regards
Khushi

 

[havoc]

If its contact sheets (proofs) for 35mm negatives i always look at the negative sprockets for the right exposure. If you can just barely see the film advance sprockets then you have most likely exposed your proof for the right amount of time. Try using a 0 filter as well.

 

[ksmattfish]

I'm not sure I understand your question, but I'll give it a shot.

How ksmattfish makes a strip test print:

Regular lights off, safelights on.
Neg is in carrier and focused correctly.
Paper is in easel, and I have a sheet of cardboard handy.
#2 contrast filter, or no contrast filter
Enlarger is off, but ready to go.
Set lens aperture to f/11.
Set timer to 4 seconds.
Lay cardboard across paper only leaving a strip exposed.
Hit timer and expose strip.
Move cardboard over, exposing a little more of the paper.
Hit timer and expose strip.
Keep doing this until you run out of paper.
Develop.

Now you should have a print that shows you exposures of f/11 at 4, 8, 12, 16, 20 seconds, etc... to determine a good exposure time from.

If the whole thing is too dark, then decrease aperture size (go to f/16 or f/22) and try again.

If the whole thing is too light, then increase aperture size (go to f/8, f/5.6, f/4) and try again.

The strip test print doesn't work well for all images. Sometimes you'll just need to blow a whole sheet of paper. Sometimes you can get away with tearing a sheet into forths and just using the quarters for testing.

Eventually you will develop a more uniform exposure/development style, and you will have a good idea what your negs tend to print at.

Anyway, I think this is what you are asking about....

 

[khushi2004]

Is that the best way to check exposure by looking at sprockets?

 

[havoc]

Thats how i was taught how to evaluate my contact sheets, to expose until you can "barely" see the spockets in on the negatives. I first use a test strip to figure out the overall exposure time. I use the same method that Matt described for the test strip. That should give you a good basis for what you have on our negs. Not every picture will be exposed properly because ever negative will have to be printed alittle differently. But it give you a good basis to see what you got. You also want to check your negatives to see if there is adequate detail in the negative to print it.