RE: Pre-Flashing of Paper Negatives

That sounds very Joe,

Will have to give this a try .

Cheers

Eric M

  _____

From: owner-pinhole-discussion@spitbite.org
[mailto:owner-pinhole-discussion@spitbite.org] On Behalf Of
JVCABACUS@aol.com
Sent: 15 November 2004 16:52
To: pinhole-discussion@spitbite.org
Subject: [pinhole-discussion] Pre-Flashing of Paper Negatives

Dear All;

Just a brief note to describe some experiments I've been making with
pre-flashing paper negatives in the darkroom, prior to exposure in-camera.

As background, I shoot primarily in the American Southwest. Scene brightness
range can be very wide, and typically shadows get lost below the paper's
sensitivity threshold. A typical camera exposure in bright sun is 1 minute,
but the shadows are often paper white in the negative - no detail at all. To
expose enough to get shadow detail would entail an exposure of 5-10 minutes,
at which time the highlights would be blown out. I've also had little or no
luck in dilute develoment of paper. It doesn't seem to respond like film
does.

Enter pre-flashing, an idea that popped into my head. I expose a paper neg
for 1.5-2 seconds under grade 2 light from my enlarger, lens set to f/32,
then load into the camera. A scene/camera combination that would normally
expose for 1 minute in bright sun I expose for 30 seconds, or about half of
normal exposure. Upon development in standard paper developer, I find
amazing shadow detail, with highlights that aren't blown out!

A contact print of this negative is hard to tell apart from a film
negative's print.

BTW, this same camera requires 1 minute exposure for Arista ortho lith film
in bright daylight, then extended development to get somewhat normal
contrast. Therefore, I find pre-flashing of paper negatives is cheaper, and
delivers better results than, ortho lith film, and seems to increase the
effective film speed of the paper.

I recommend others try this out on their own, and report their results.

~Joe VanCleave

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Received on Mon Nov 15 15:02:35 2004