Re: Beginner Question: Digital Negative to Silver On Variable Contrast Paper

Michael:
        Working on RC paper w/out filters is theoretically grade #2.
        The negative you'd print on the backlit film should do well @ that
setting.
        Or, you can fiddle w/the curves.
        I've not made one for RV variable contrast myself but assume you would
be
able to further adjust during the printing process by working with
filters in addition to the 'perfected' negative. But, the idea for that
neg, rather than just make a print, is the adjustments of dodging and
burning, raising the contrast in certain areas, and other aspects
necessary to a perhaps multi-filter print with burning & dodging. The
hope w/the digital neg is to make it right the first time and all
adjustments are created in Photoshop so it will print nicely on the #2
aspect of the paper.
        Too, further adjustments can be thought of in terms of changing
developer dilution or time.
Jack

On Nov 6, 2004, at 2:04 PM, Michael Koch-Schulte wrote:

Thanks Jack,
 
I'm completely new to alt process and have only had my own darkroom
less than a year. I realize many on this list probaby don't consider
silver gelatin prints "alt" enough, but the way I see things these new
digital negative techniques are my going to be my "gateway" to a whole
gamut of different alt process in the future. I'm trying to work out my
techniques in the darkroom on silver paper first. If I can master that
then it should be a matter of adapting to different processes, right?
 
I guess where I'm going with this is that with VC paper you can either
use polycontrast filters to set contrast from grade  0 to grade 6.
Light yellow to dark yellow going from grade 0 to 2.5 or 3, then light
magenta to dark magenta taking the contrast up the rest of the way to
grade 6. Or, if you don't use filters you can calibrate a colour dichro
head to do the same thing as the filters argueably with even more
control.
 
So, I'm guessing that since the nature of B&W VC paper is to respond
differently to yellow, magenta that I can use these colours and others
(O/C safelight orange for example) to control the contrast via color on
the negative output from my printer (an Epson R300 using dyes).
 
My original question might be better put as "is VC paper a moving
target, therefore, harder to hit calibration wise" than say if I just
used regular grade 2 paper.
 
Thanks.
 
 
----- Original Message -----
  From: Jack Fulton
To: alt-photo-process-l@sask.usask.ca
Sent: Saturday, November 06, 2004 3:25 PM
Subject: Re: Beginner Question: Digital Negative to Silver On Variable
Contrast Paper

Yes, you can print to a material such as Epson backlight film and
tailor your curves for paper contrast. A nice prinet each time you
expose.

On Nov 5, 2004, at 8:31 PM, Michael Koch-Schulte wrote:

This is my first post to this list, forgive my ignorance I'm still
learning. Am I crazy to think I can contact print or calibrate my
digital neg workflow to use Kodak Polycontrast (VC) paper? Would using
"color table" methods work better or worse because of VC paper's
tendency to change contrast with different color (e.g. filters). Thx.
Received on Sat Nov 6 17:16:49 2004