Hello,
About 3 years ago I changed my photography to 100% analog. I installed a darkroom in the garage and the results have been quite interesting and I can see my own improvement in developing / printing.
One area which became totally frustrating is the control of contrast with the Durst AC 707. I use the table provided by Ilford papers in relation to the combination of magenta and yellow filters to reach a desired grade with VC papers. I used Ilford, Ultrafine Silver Eagle and Oriental Seagull. With all of them I get the same results: when I want to increase contrast (for example from grade 2 to grade 3) I get a print that is considerable with less contrast instead of more. I made a try from extremes (without filters, with filters at grade 1 and with filters at grade 5) and the results were amazing: the most contrasty print is the one without filters, then the one at grade 1 and the print at grade 5 is almost all white. I used the same exposure (21 sec at f11) for all of them as it is supposed that the combination of filters (between magenta and yellow) are predetermined to use the same exposure.
Any help on this area is more than appreciatted!!!
thanks, Nestor