Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1998/10/28
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Contact prints......my latest project. The facts: amber safelight......2 feet from printer 100W soft tungsten bulb.......1 foot from printer Ilford MG Paper Developer at 20C for 60 seconds Kodak Indicator Stop Bath at 20C for 30 seconds Ilford Rapid Fixer at 20C for 60 seconds Ilford MG Glossy Paper RC Kodak Glossy Paper RC wash under running water for 2 minutes hang dry Well, I got the TMax 400 negs developed perfectly, but when I tried to folow Hedgecoe's instructions on contact prints, I messed up a few times. In his book he explained how to run a test to determine proper exposure time for contact prints. Since I do not have an enlarger yet, I improvised. Under safelight, I placed the neg strip over the paper, then placed the combo under the contact printer glass sheet. I exposed with the tungsten desk lamp for 5 second increments, as Hedgecoe recommended. I then ran through the chemicals and times stated above. Jet black paper. No images at all. Hedgecoe said there would be a gradient strip on the paper from light grey to black and the proper exposure would be the one where the paper just turned black, but my entire strip was black! After some more testing, I assumed the safelight was not really safe, or that the Ilford paper was not safe under that light, since the Ilford paper insert said the light had to be a special one. I switched to Kodak paper, and tried again. Under the safelight, I got black paper again, even at 5 seconds. Now I thought the safelight was certainly not safe, so I removed it. This time I tried the same thing in the dark. This time I got the faintest of images to appear, but very very faint! I deduced the light was on too long, so I knocked it down to 5 seconds. Still too long.....I got images, but very faint and dark. I then decided that the tungsten bulb was too strong, so I changed the setup and I exposed with the amber safelight at a 2 foot distance from the paper, and used no tungsten light. At 5 seconds, same thing....faint images. At 3 seconds, I was getting tired and when better, but still faint, images appeared, I was relieved and figured I was on the right track. But I quit for the night. I remain confused. I know all of you darkroom veterans are ROTFL right now, and that's OK, but what I am doing wrong here? A million things are going through my head as to what the problem is: light source too close, time is supposed to be very short (under 2 seconds), light source is too strong, etc. Am I on the right track? Can someone tell me the proper timings for making standard contact prints? Is it posible to do without an enlarger or am I wasting my time, paper, and chemicals? Francesco PS......what is the difference between a developer such as HC-110 and XTOL? Is XTOL a paper developer?