Re: [Leica] Split printing - was Focomat V35 enlarger

[Mark Rabiner <mrabiner@concentric.net>]

Ian Stanley wrote:
> 
> Mark Rabiner wrote
> 
> >My own personal and perhaps not common take on this might be the fact
> >that I've gotten really enamored with this whole split printing
> >approach... snip
> 
> Hello Mark & all,
> 
>         I have been using the split printing method for about three years now with
> a Zone VI enlarger and VC cold light head.  Graded papers have always been
> my favourite but the practicality of brining in a supply of paper in
> various grades and sizes into Nepal was too much so I switched over to VC.
> I am very pleased with the results and the printing control that this gives
> me.  What works best for me is to do the high contrast first and do the low
> contrast second.
> 
>         My wife just came back from New York and brought in some books that I had
> ordered.  One of them is The Variable Contrast Printing Manual by Steve
> Anchel and it has some very interesting information on VC papers and split
> printing.  I haven't had a chance to read through it all yet but so far
> this is one of the best books on the subject I have come across.
> 
> Ian Stanley,
> 
> Kathmandu, Nepal


I will check out these books. Just got off the phone to Larry Shlim, a
Portland OR Leica photographer who does well in the Galleries and spends
much time in Kathmandu.
I also follow the blue with the green where I do 99%  of the dodging and
burning which, if I get my balance just right is often not at all
needed. I would have thought this split printing thing would have
revolutionize the black and white darkroom world by know and I read it's
easier to teach as students have trouble with the concept of contrast.
But such is probably not the case. For a while we'll have an edge.

The Ilford multigrade warm fiber paper I just bought a box of and would
love any input on. I have been gleefully standardized on the regular
Ilford multigrade for years.
Mark Rabiner