ZONE SYSTEM paper grade

Hello,

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How can I define the grade of my printing paper in the darkroom. Which is the easyest solution?

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Martin

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P.S. how can i make an ordinary green bulb for developing by inspektion.

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10x

1)Buy graded paper(s)<br>2)You can't. You need to buy a safelight.

Even then, you'll probably find that the light is too dim to see

anything, unless you use a desensitising bath on the film.

If you insist upon developing by inspection, why not start of with

orthochromatic films? You can use a red safelight and they are quite

common.

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When in high school I made some B&W enlarged negatives for Christmas

cards using ortho copy film. I found developing by inspection wasn't

very useful for me, but the safelight helped me in processing just

because I could see what I was doing.

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You can barely see an image by inspection. Not like a print at all.

Greetings,

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To define the grade of your printing paper, print a transmission

density step tablet and develop the paper. The range between base

paper white and black will determine the grade and is based on ISO

range numbers. The Variable Contrast Printing Manual by Steve

Anchell describes the process and gives the relationship between

density steps and range numbers.

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Regards,

Development of film by inspection is easier than some seem to think.

If I can do it, anyone can. The misconception seems to revolve

around seeing an entire image on the negative. When you d.b.i. all

you are interested in is the density of the highlights relative to

the base.

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You can judge by reflection - looking at the base side, allowing the

safelight to reflect off the films surface - or by transmittance -

judging a shadow cast by your finger against the density of the

highlights when viewing the film with the light behind it and the

base facing you.

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You DO need the appropriate filter (Wratten #3 Green) and bulb

wattage (15 watts) and distance between bulb and negative (4 feet)

and you DO want to allow at least 2/3rds the development time to

elapse before judging for a few seconds. As development proceeds the

film becomes progressively less sensitive to exposure - this is

especially true with staining developers.

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It is easier to judge larger formats (8 X 10 +), but it can be done

with 4 X 5 and 5 X 7. It helps if you start with "test" negatives

with simple compositions with clearly defined highlight areas and use

your standard developer and time. With experience it becomes quite

simple - although some negatives will always be easier to judge than

others.

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You can read more about this here:

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http://www.unblinkingeye.com/Articles/Inspection/inspection.htm

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and here:

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http://www.michaelandpaula.com/devinsp.html

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and in the 2nd edition of Steve Anchell's "Darkroom Cookbook"

I would add only two things to Sean's message. First, make sure you

have a foot switch with which to turn the safe light on and off. It's

much too cumbersome to try to hold the negative in one hand and look

for the highlights while using the other hand to try to find an on

off swith. A foot switch eliminates this problem. Second, if you

develop by inspection it's very helpful to make notes that indicate

where on the negative the brightest highlights are located. As Sean

said, you don't look at the entire negative under the green light,

only at the highlights, and it's helpful to know where they are in

advance.

why develop by inspection when you can test your film and be

confident in your results instead of going to all that trouble with

each and every negative???

"why develop by inspection when you can test your film and be

confident in your results instead of going to all that trouble with

each and every negative???"

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I would turn that around. Why go to the trouble of testing and trust

that every element of your system is absolutely correct throughout

all the time, every time when you can simply D.B.I. ?

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If you want the ultimate in control over the outcome, why deny

yourself the opportunity at one of the most crucial steps? You went

to the trouble to expose the negative, and you've got to develop it

anyway, right?