Pre-Flashing Example

This past weekend I pre-flashed about half a sheet of 8X10" Panalure and took a picture of an aging plant on my porch. As you can see, the contrast is reduced and the shadow areas opened.

The negative can be viewed at http://mywebpages.comcast.net/hmpi/Temp/Flash_Neg.jpg
with the positive version at http://mywebpages.comcast.net/hmpi/Temp/Flash_Pos.jpg

Of course, the contrast can be accommodated when printing the negative, so I selected the flashed portion and used Photoshop to return it to full scale (the light area is where the separation point is located).

This adjusted print can be seen at http://mywebpages.comcast.net/hmpi/Temp/Flash_PosAdj.jpg

The problem with flashing, as I see it, is that although it may open shadows, it may also blow out highlights. If you encounter a contrasty scene then your flashed paper will make it more likely that the paper cannot handle the range.

When using paper, one way I dealt with this was to use the filters that came with my enlarger. Since I had to cut them down for use in the enlarger itself, I made variable contrast filters by placing the scraps in slide film holders. Of course, if you use film in your pinhole camera you can simply adjust the exposure and development to get what you want - it is just a matter of taking the time to do the testing.

Cheers -

george

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http://www.GLSmyth.com
http://DRiPInvesting.org

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Received on Tue Nov 30 16:48:28 2004