Liam Lawless (lawless@vignette.freeserve.co.uk)
Thu, 04 Mar 1999 15:54:17 +0000
Hi Joao,
What you say is absolutely correct and the answer is to increase the first
development time, but, for reasons that I'll try to explain, I'm not sure
how satisfactory that answer will prove to be.
The reason for the problem you describe is the base exposure rather than the
flash: a short base time (i.e. a low factor) increases the strength of
shadow detail, but also reduces highlight separation whereas a long base
improves highlight separation but results in thinner shadows. Mostly, I
find that a base exposure of 3X the normal time is a satisfactory
compromise, though, as you report, the tonal scale of the original is
"distorted" to some extent.
A possible remedy would be to adopt a low exposure factor (of maybe 2X) and
extend the first development time to 8, 9 or 10 minutes; longer development
has a similar effect on highlight densities to increasing base exposure, but
without thinning the shadows. As an alternative to increasing the dev time,
you might instead try reducing the developer dilution. (But with different
development, the exposure times will also need to be altered.)
The method is probably capable of reproducing original densities more
accurately than it does, but I have not tried very hard to do so because a
base exposure of 3X normal gives a result that I have found more than
satisfactory for those processes that I do. In addition, I wanted the first
development time to be a constant instead of a variable, in order that the
method should not become too complicated, and also to avoid very long
development times. However, I am not claiming to be an expert on the
method, or that I have presented it in the best possible way, so I would ask
you to share your experiences if you explore extended development, or indeed
anyone else who can shed light on the matter.
Liam
-----Original Message-----
From: Joao Ribeiro <jribeiro@greco.com.br>
To: Alt-Photo-Process <Alt-Photo-Process-l@usask.ca>
Date: 04 March 1999 01:08
Subject: Reversal Neg. contrast control
>Hi Liam and all,
>
>I got a box of Arista APH and the reversal process is working, just a
>few things I'd like to discuss.
>By the amount of base exposure I can control shadow detail, so I get all
>I want in the shadows and control highlight with flash to decrease dmax
>but I am loosing separation in the highlights.
>Is there a way to control it?
>By comparing the enlarged neg. with the original one, the original has
>more highlight texture (local contrast, is this what it is?)
>Any suggestions?
>
>Thanks
>
>Joao
>
>
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