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As I do more and more contact printing on various papers with several different developers, it has become apparent that many of my negatives that might be correctly exposed for “enlarger printing” are too thin for contact printing using the enlarger as the light source. Note, of course, that the contact printing negatives are 8x10, and the negatives for enlarging are 4x5. Fred did my BTZS testing using negatives I developed. An ES of 1 is typically used to construct the film curves in plotter, and to derive exposure and developing data for the ExpoDev. After glancing again at Phil's book, the object is to make negatives that easily print on Grade 2 paper-I am not sure what Phil meant by "easily", but he does clearly state that the more desireable negatives are somewhat thin. To continue, when contact printing on grade 2 using VC and settings on the Durst color head, the contrast is inadequate, and one ends up needing to raise the contrast to “3” or 3 1/2 in order to get an acceptable print. In some instances, I made 2 or 3 negatives of the same scene, and used an ES of, for example, 1.3 and 1.5 on the subsequent negatives ( I now have plotter and can manipulate my curves as desired ). Obviously the developing time with DDX was longer, and the negatives are denser. As you might suspect from my introduction, with contact printing, these denser negatives print easier and with much more highlight detail using both grade 2 and 3 on VC paper. Is such a situation common with BTZS methodology i.e., will negatives need to be developed differently for contact printing? Should the paper ES be obtained by contact printing the step wedge on the printing paper one is testing, rather than accepting the ES obtained by projection printing the step wedge? Would the difference in methodology for determining the ES be the "cause" of the shorter developing time with the resultant "thin" negatives used for contact printing?
I hope that I have made myself clear, and that those of you who are using the BTZS methdology for contact printing can help. The essence is, I suppose: Can negatives used for enlarging also be used for contact printing using the exact same paper and "matched" to the same ES OR, must the ES be changed for contact printing. Many thanks for helping.
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