From: bjs@RUTS.ccc.amdahl.com (Barry Sherman)
Newsgroups: rec.photo
Subject: Re: high contast film processing using D-19 developer
Keywords: high contrast processing
Date: 11 Dec 92 20:14:25 GMT
Reply-To: bjs@RUTS.ccc.amdahl.com (Barry Sherman)
Followup-To: rec.photo
Organization: Amdahl Corporation, Sunnyvale CA

Ron Speirs writes:

>In article <1g64i6INN78o@crcnis1.unl.edu> kting@cse.unl.edu (Kea Ting) writes:
>>Hi,
>>   Did anyone use the Kodak D-19 developer to develope T-max film or
>>tri -x ffilm ? I am trying to get some very high contrast negetive,
>>to print the picture with black and white only with no intermediate
>>tone. Any suggestions ? 
>
>Whenever any high-contrast film is used (or a film is developed high-
>contrast), the exposure must be very accurate to avoid the image being
>all blocked-up or mostly clear.  You may not be able to achieve this
>exposure accuracy immediately, and several tries might be needed.
>
>If I were contemplating the task, I would probably shoot the scene with
>normal film and develop it normally.  Then I would make derivations of
>the negative using Kodalith (developed in Kodalith 2-part).  When the
>Kodalith negative is made, you can choose what parts of your original
>image will map into the high contrast film: high tones, middle tones,
>or low tones.  This is essentially what is done while making 
>posterizations.
>
>Of course your first kodalith derivation will be a positive, and you
>would need to transfer it onto another kodalith to get a negative from
>which to print.  If you are starting from a color slide, then only one
>step is necessary.
>
>If you start with a well-exposed negative, it is a much easier task to
>get the right exposure onto high contrast film in the leisure of your
>own darkroom.  If you want to play exposure roulette, load your camera
>with Kodalith to start with.  Plan on bracketing in 1/3 stop increments.

I'll second Ron's motion on deriving the high contrast negative from a
"normal" original, but my technique is a little different.  This is how
I did it before I had a darkroom at home or much of any equipment other
than a developing tank, camera and tripod.  I made an 8x10 print of the 
original negative  at the rental darkroom where I was printing.  Then I
taped it to the wall at home, set two lamps equidistant from it on either
side, set up the camera and tripod and photographed it onto Kodalith
film.  I think they callit Ectalith or something like that in 35mm.
 
As Ron said, with high contrast films, exposure determines which areas
will be black and which will be white.  So definitely bracket widely.
I dedicated an entire roll of litho film to each  print that I was "copying",
bracketing in 1/2 stops (finest granularity permitted by my bodies).

Then after developing in a two-part litho developer (Naccolith cuz it's
cheaper than Kodalith developer) you can contact print the negs and decide
which has the look that you want.

Just another method to the same end.

Barry

--


|----------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Barry Sherman, Amdahl Corp. | "It's much easier to go to exotic places and | 
| bjs@uts.ccc.amdahl.com      |  capture spectacular scenes than to take a   |
|                             |  spectacular picture of a really boring      |
|                             |  green pepper". - Anthony Tse                |
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| Amdahl, being a corporation, is a legal fiction.  Therefore it is incapable|
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