Re: Shadow and High Key Contact Printing

I haven't heard of such things specifically for contact printing, but
if I have to guess, I'd rather think that you are referring to general
techniques in the context of contact printing.

High key images are best made on a negative with gentle shoulder, with
quite a bit of overexposure to lose sufficient amount of
highlight. You can do this with Plus-X or Delta 400, but expect quite
dense neg and exposing paper for quite a lot of seconds or
minutes. With digital manipulation, this is very simple, and your
choice isn't constrained to manufactured films.

Similarly, low key images are best made on a negative with gentle toe,
so that you get some shadow details but with greatly reduced
contrast. Quite a bit of shadow details are also purposefully thrown
away. Try this with either of those films, or Tri-X Professional (TXP)
or TMY. The printing exposure can be short, and quite critical. Again,
the stuff is much easier to deal with in the digital world.

Once you get a normally exposed negative, it may or may not be easy to
get good high-key or low-key prints by simply changing the exposure
and contrast. But it's trivial in Photoshop... oh well.

When I aim this sort of effects, I tend to set my camera's bracketing
range to +2, 0, -2 and rate the film speed 2 stops faster or slower
than actually it is, so that I get 4 stops worth of bracketing range
on one side, including the normal exposure. And it's hard to judge
which negative would print the best. It's always the one that is too
thin (for low key) or too dense (for high key) that prints the
best. Maybe not so true for the low key ones but true for high key ones.

I forgot how the famous quote goes, but the organ player of Booker
T. and the MGs said that the secret in creating their sound is to turn
sound effectors dials all the way up... the same thing applies
here... (Does anyone remember how this quote goes?)

From: Loris Medici <mail@loris.medici.name>
Subject: RE: Shadow and High Key Contact Printing
Date: Fri, 17 Mar 2006 10:53:06 +0200

> It doesn't imply necessarily making two (or more) negatives, since one can
> make negatives - that include all the tonal information present in the
> original, and prints well with the intended printing process - either
> digitally or in the darkroom.
>
> _____
>
> From: Loris Medici [mailto:mail@loris.medici.name]
> Sent: 17 Mart 2006 Cuma 10:47
> To: alt-photo-process-l@sask.usask.ca
> Subject: RE: Shadow and High Key Contact Printing
>
>
> Well, I never heard of a contact-printing-specific techniques named shadow
> printing and high key printing... Why don't you ask the workshop
> instructor(s) directly (what did he/she/they meant by using these terms)? To
> me, shadow printing implies making negatives that print with detailed (open)
> shadows, high key printing implies making negatives that print high key
> images with detailed highlights...
>
> _____
>
> From: Michael Koch-Schulte [mailto:mkochsch@shaw.ca]
> Sent: 16 Mart 2006 Perşembe 18:58
> To: alt-photo-process-l@sask.usask.ca
> Subject: Shadow and High Key Contact Printing
>
>
> I stumbled across the terms Shadow Printing and High Key printing in the
> context of making contact negatives (ok I'll admit it, it's part of a
> workshop that, for logistical reasons, I'll never be able to attend). Is
> this a new idea or an old one? Can someone explain this technique and theory
> in general terms? Does it involve making two or more seps instead of a
> single negative?
>
> ~m
>
Received on Fri Mar 17 03:23:48 2006