Harry the K
Established
Instead of buying the 8th Leica M body, one could invest in a super useful splitgrade machine built by the lovely company Heiland:
No regrets & no more tears in the darkroom.
No regrets & no more tears in the darkroom.
Hans Berkhout
Well-known
Right on Harry. The Heiland Splitgrade Controller unit can be used with their enlarger V.C. light source, or on manual mode with two (high and low contrast) Multigrade filters, or a dichroic enlarger light source. No more test strips, just the probe to measure high/low density areas of your negative. The unit will then suggest Y and M (or you can use green and blue) filter exposure times which you can manually fine tune as necessary.
Harry the K
Established
x-ray
Mentor
There is a place for split grade printing. When I worked for the Department of Energy in the mid 70’s all of us photographers also had to print from archive negatives for various scientific and government reports. It wasn’t unusual to have a stack of 4x5 B&W negs to make one or more 8.5x11 prints from 100 or more negs in a day. We printed, processed, dried and packaged by hand a hundred or more prints regularly. They weren’t works of art, just prints documenting a research project or a device manufactured for a project.
When you’re just interested in laying an image on paper, split grade will be fine. If you want to make your best image as a piece of art then dodging and burning are necessary.
When you’re just interested in laying an image on paper, split grade will be fine. If you want to make your best image as a piece of art then dodging and burning are necessary.
Harry the K
Established
Hey, that is a misunderstanding. It´s super easy to dodge and burn with the Heiland machine. I can do it as much as I want, the system encourages me to do it, because in no time I can program additional phases of exposure with any time and gradation I find necessary.
I don´t know where this misunderstanding comes from.
x-ray
Mentor
That’s excellent then. I use an Ilford MG head and frequently will print one area at one grade and burn another at a different grade. Through decades of doing it I can pretty much eyeball my neg and know what grades to start with. I go through my normal test strips then print a section of the image. From there I do a full sheet and see how it looks. I’m pretty picky about my prints so I usually print several with slight variations and pick the best after they dry.
That system would have been a huge time saver when I was at the DOE. A lot of the negs were pretty bad and shot under terrible conditions on a speed graphic using a flashgun with flash bulbs. We were still using the same speed graphics and using flash bulbs when I got there in the 70’s. Government!
If I owned a commercial custom lab and did work for the public that would be great for enlarged semi custom work too.
PRJ
Another Day in Paradise
My intent was to help Erik but if he doesn't want any help, or can't see that he might need it, nothing more needs to be said. At this point I think he has an issue with how he thinks his images look on the internet and how they actually do. If he calibrates and profiles his monitor I think he will then understand what everyone is telling him. Being super defensive isn't doing him any favors though. You catch more flies with honey than vinegar.
PRJ
Another Day in Paradise
Another Lumen print hot off the presses. I should state that this is actually what the print looks like. Most lumen prints you see on the internet are, shall we say, digitally masseused.
Erik van Straten
Mentor
The problem is that ALL the monitors are different, so adapting mine is of no use. Everybody who puts pictures on the internet, has the same problem. The tonality of the internet changes every 14 days, btw.
Around my pictures is a white border. That is a guide. When the border is white, you will more or less see the other tones correct. Btw, I get likes all the time.
Erik.
PRJ
Another Day in Paradise
Erik you keep stating that but it is far from the truth. That is what calibrating and profiling takes care of. I could send a file to X-ray for example and I would know he would be seeing it exactly as I do within probably 99%.
i'll tell you a story about differences and what lack of understanding of these things can entail. Years ago a certain computer company that shall remain nameless was getting images taken in a studio from a Mac. The default gamma of Macs back then was 1.8 and the gamma of Windows has always been 2.2. That makes a huge difference. Somewhere in the mix the computer company thought the images were terrible because they weren't translating the gamma correctly on their screens. A couple clicks of the mouse changed everything. The computer companies designers didn't understand color management. It appears you are making excuses to avoid understanding it too. The story I'm relating was from over 20 years ago when things were way more complicated. In this day and age there is no excuse. You literally just have to buy a puck, put it on your screen and click go.
The reason why people keep harping on this is because what you are putting out on the internet in your name doesn't appear to be what you think it is. You are doing a disservice to the time and effort you spend making the prints in the first place.
Erik van Straten
Mentor
OK, PRJ, thank you very much for this tip! What shall I do? I surely would like to buy a "Puck". How are these called? I live close to a good computershop. When I have one, I will let you know. Thanks again. This is positive.
Erik.
Erik.
PRJ
Another Day in Paradise
Someone earlier in the thread posted this link to a current rundown of pucks available.
The best monitor calibrator tools
Ensure your screen displays accurate colours with one of the best monitor calibrators available today.
It is one of those things that you only have to buy once for many years so I'd recommend just spending what you have to spend. If I were going to buy a basic one today I'd probably get a Calibrite ColorChecker Display Plus. You don't need fancy since you don't do inkjet prints or need to control color coming out of a digital camera.
Erik van Straten
Mentor
Thanks a lot, PRJ, I'm going to get one.Someone earlier in the thread posted this link to a current rundown of pucks available.
The best monitor calibrator tools
Ensure your screen displays accurate colours with one of the best monitor calibrators available today.www.creativebloq.com
It is one of those things that you only have to buy once for many years so I'd recommend just spending what you have to spend. If I were going to buy a basic one today I'd probably get a Calibrite ColorChecker Display Plus. You don't need fancy since you don't do inkjet prints or need to control color coming out of a digital camera.
x-ray
Mentor
PRJ you’re absolutely correct. I think Erik would be surprised at how many people calibrate their monitors. I’ve discussed this before as to the value of calibration if part of your viewers aren’t calibrated. The best you can do is calibrate to a standard like we’re suggesting so that at lest those people see the image correctly. Otherwise no one would see what you were intending to show. Try here have to be standards in every industry, for example ISO. As we know this organization established standards for film speed. They set standards for all types of manufacturing for that matter so everyone around the world is on the same page. If there were no manufacturing standards General Motors would use totally different and possibly unique screw diameters and thread pitch. Tools wouldn’t fit nuts and bolts and parts for cars wouldn’t interchange between manufacturers.
If ISO didn’t establish film speeds then you’d have to use a different system for every maker of film and you’d never be certain if the actual speed. A good example was DIN and Weston speeds. Don was European, Weston American then ASA which became ISO. Lens f stops were by another standard in the 1800’s into the 1900’s. I don’t remember the name but I had a 1900’s triple convertible Protar VIIa that used the old system.
My cousin who’s a retired physician and should know better absolutely refuses to calibrate her monitor. She asked my questions, ignores the answer because it’s not what she wanted to hear then goes to her husbands friends for advice and winds up hating the end result. Go figure!!! She runs out a box of printer paper trying to make a good print and can’t figure why it doesn’t look like what she sees on her monitor. I gave up!!!
You mention the early days of 1.8 and 2.2 gamma. In those days about the only way to calibrate a monitor was with the monitor calibration module in Photoshop. What absolute crap that was!!! It never gave a calibration that was even close.
I did advertising related photography and worked with production managers and prepress and print shops. When profiles came in the printer / prepress house didn’t understand what they were and would discard them and imbed a generic Adobe profile which caused the color to be wrong. Then there are multiple color spaces. I’ve seen people releasing files with weird color spaces that can’t be reproduced. For web you use SRGB and for graphic arts printing Adobe RGB as you know.
Well we now have standards and for a good reason. This of us that survived printers blaming us for terrible color understand the need for standards.
Some people like my cousin don’t want to learn, I’m convinced. I finally took the attitude it’s her time and money, screw it. That’s where I am here. I’ll continue to do work to the standard I’ve always done and could care less what someone else does. They don’t make my work look bad, just theirs.
I think Erik’s problems l, as I stated before, go beyond his monitor. Looking at the tonal difference in his images, the high values that should be just under paper white are down around middle gray or just above. Dark values where he should be holding solid detail are down just above solid black. I’m comparing values within a print with the white border and black li e around the image.
Enough for me.
Erik van Straten
Mentor
gelatin silver print (summicron rigid 50mm f2) leica m3
Amsterdam, 1979
Erik.
Amsterdam, 1979
Erik.
Out to Lunch
Menteur
I love that photo. Cheers, OtL
Freakscene
Obscure member
I love that one too but am very sorry for your lungs.
Dogman
Mentor
We all smoked in 1979. Well...a lot of us did anyway.
Erik van Straten
Mentor
The beautiful woman besides me is the great translator Pauline Moody. She translated many books from English into Dutch.
I now have a Calibrator Checker Plus. I hope this helps.
Erik.
I now have a Calibrator Checker Plus. I hope this helps.
Erik.
Andrew Sowerby
Well-known
I will just chime in to say that I have one of Erik's prints framed in my house. The contrast is lower than prints I have by others (including my own prints), but the tones are very pleasing to me.