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Hi,
I am confused about what the paper scale really means in practise. I did a paper test on Agfa fiber glossy VC paper, with a diffusion head enlarger and Agfa Neutol WA developer. The scale was discovered to be 1.32. I read it myself with a used reflection densitometer, and the VCS got the same result from the same paper test. So I think this is correct, although it seems rather long.
Also I tested Tri X film in DDX 1:8 and loaded the curves into Expo Dev, and told it that the paper scale was 1.32. I did a test exposure the other day. But I couldn't remember if, when I did the film test, I had presoaked the negatives prior to developing them in tubes. (I sometimes presoak to prevent streaks.) So I made four test exposures of the same scene and processed two of them with a presoak and two without a presoak.
The presoaked negatives came out much denser in the highlights to my surprise. I made test prints of the presoaked and not- soaked negatives today, and the not-soaked came out perfect. This made me think that when I did the film test, I probably did not presoak the negatives.
I took the "good" negatives to the densitometer, and I was very surprised to find that the highlights in those negatives only measured 1.0! The highlights for the soaked negatives were about 1.35. Now, this has me confused. If the paper scale is 1.32, how can the densest part of the "good" negative be only 1.0? Wouldn't it have to be at least 1.32, to fit the paper? Or do I not understand the relationship between the paper test and the film test correctly?
--shannon
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