Atherton & District Amateur Photographic Society

The contrast problem has been sorted, so no longer will I be ridiculed by Terry, John, Walter and Phil for no blacks or whites in my prints. The problem is the under lens multigrade filters that are at least 1 but more likely 2 grades out. I printed the trees in snow on grade 5 @ 15sec as the step wedge, using the under lens filter. I then removed the under lens filters and printed using the built in colour head set at grade 5 @ 15 sec and the contrast was unbelievable. I have really deep blacks and pristine whites. I am actually stunned with the print I made using the colour head. I did the same with a print with no contrast and the under lens filter print had no blacks while the colour head filter print had black, using the same exposure. I hope now I can produce the prints I have been searching for.

That is fantastic and I'm delighted you've found the way to get the contrast you wanted. I'll look forward to seeing some soon.

Mark - Don't be too over the top with Grade 5 or you may have great Blacks ('D'Max) and pristine whites but no greys.
You may still need our collective critisisms.
One thought - Ilford changed their under-lens filters some years ago to suit their new multigrade papers and the old filter sets could be exchanged for new issue sets - it is possible you are using an outdated set.

Terry

Mark - good news! and every cloud has a silver lining. Does that mean you have a set of under the lens filters going cheap? after all they are faulty

Walter

What would you want the filters for Walter, surely not for printing, oh I know you could use them as coasters for your cup of tea. I will bring the prints along on Thursday for you to look at and you will see a big difference. I will be in the darkroom tomorrow and I hope to have a few keepers for the annual comp.

Hi Mark

I'm pleased you have it sorted, it will save me bringing some of my night school prints from 1996. They have black/white and even greys.

TomR