Darkroom Printing Pt4 - Split Grade Printing 101 

When I split grade, I lock in my grade 0 time. Then on the grade 5 test strip…I first hit it with the grade 0 time established. Then you see the cumulative exposure on the test strip.

Here’s a good one. Very good. As a commenter near the top suggested, Bob Carney taught us (test strips) to make the soft-contrast exposure (Gr. 0-2) just a little fainter than if we were going to do a straight grade print, then lay down the high-contrasts tones ON TOP of the base #0 or #2 exposure. Always put the soft filter on the left side of the workbench, hard on the right!!! Mixing up filters in the dark is just TOO EASY. And: in this example, Carney would keep the timer at 5 s. And blast TWICE with #5, then count “1-Mississippi” (twice) to add 2 more seconds. Changing the timer invites wasting paper. Once you have 1 good print, make 2 more for archives. Then move on, smiling.

I‘ve spent some time in the darkroom, but never tried this technique, the result is stunning. Thank you for the masterpiece tutorial!

Congratulations John, this series is building to be a first class introduction to the art of silver gelatin printing. Many thanks to you and your patrons for making it available.

best explanation I have ever seen on this subject!

Best split grade tutorial I've come across, answered some questions I had, love the detail of how it works, and how to apply using it.

amazing the difference between the two images. thank you for the clearest demonstration of split grade printing ive yet seen. and ive seen a lot..

Thanks 🎉

Merci pour ce tutoriel de grande qualité. Oui sans doute que faire les tests grade 0 et grade 5 sur la même bande est économique et montre un aperçu global, mais pour cette démonstration, l'approche en deux bandes tests séparées est très pédagogique, on voit bien l'effet des différents grades, le moment où ils agissent fortement ou pas du tout et ca c'est d'une grande valeur d'apprentissage à mes yeux. Donc ne changé rien à votre approche. Elle est parfaite.

Thanks for sharing your technique John. As you say, there are different ways of achieving this. Having established the low contrast exposure time as you did, I then print that on my high contrast test strip before making the test exposures so I can see the combined results.

Thank you for sharing!! Cheers from Greece!!

Terrific instructional video, John! You've given me something to think about seriously the next time I'm in the darkroom.

thank you for this! will definitely try this process.

lovely video, great teaching

Thank you for explaining and illustrating the split grade process. I have just started printing my negatives and I am learning as I go along. It is a hit & miss thing so far and there are times when I just want to give up...but your simple straightforward explanation has filled up the blanks for me...and now, I can't wait to get home and try it again. Thank you for doing this.

What a great lesson!!! Thanks a lot.

I just started split grade printing and still working on my own techniques. It's really changed the way my prints look. This is an excellent explanation and video. Cheers!

This is a phenomenal tutorial. I'm guessing, as a rule of thumb, that O and 5 filters are used as they cover both extremes of the spectrum, correct? I'm very excited to try this and it seems like it would great much more vibrant images with significant less trial/error on test strips. Thanks again!

nice simple explanation, thank you.

very good, explained and demonstrated, thank you so much

Thank you for your video, John. I've been getting mixed results with split grade printing but somehow I hadn't yet tried making separate test strips for low and high contrast. My trial and error process has been inefficient. (lots of wasted paper even as test strips...) Looking forward to putting your knowledge to use in my darkroom!

Nice print. Have you considered the intermittency effect? "Having made a test strip in a series of intermittent short exposures, the subsequent print is mistakenly made with one long composite exposure. For example, if the test strip showed correct exposure at seven one-second exposures, the print is then made with one seven-second exposure. Due to what is known as 'the intermittancy effect', this is wrong. The single longer exposure will produce significantly greater density than several intermittent ones of the same total duration. Even many professional printers are unaware of this..... .. So make your actual prints exactly as the test strip, in exactly the same multiple intermittent exposures" Quoted from Elements - by B. Thornton (p22 par5) and Edge of Darkness (p124). An interesting approach to setting G-0 and G-5 exposures - well worth a try judging by the differences in your print examples.

I have been printing so long, but I have learned so much from your videos.. Thank you! Is this paper your holding a warm tone Ilford mat paper?

Hi John, wonderful class. I’m just grasping the split grade concept. Is there a possibility of you of doing another class using a traditional land or seascape? The image you created have very subtle tonal separations and I would think an image with wider totality with clouds, sky and foreground might make the spilt grade process more apparent. Anyway, just a thought. Your ability to teach is a gift.

Thanks buddy

very educative

Grazie per lo splendido lavoro.

...or better still; make a test exposure using your 17 seconds @ grade O, and then make an incremental test strip @ grade 5 *on top* of your grade 0 strip. Develop the twin grade test and select the optimal combination.

Great class, thank you very much! I wish you could do a work around about dual toning a print. I'd be really interested. Thanks^^

Nice video; I only have a couple of years of darkroom printing experience but I learned using split grade so that is what I know...and I'm puzzled about the way you choose the 0-grade...you said you choose the exposure where things are "formed". The way I learned is 1) choose the LONGEST exposure that will give you PURE WHITE with grade 0 2) choose the SHORTEST exposure that will give you PURE BLACK with grade 5 and then adjust slightly as indeed 1) + 2) are additive hence you might lose a bit the pure white

Thanks for another informative video John Is the sequence of the grades important ? I mean grade 0 before grade 5 In my understanding, exposing grade 5 before 0 should yield the same result. But who am I to know that ? LOL

Thank you sir for your clear explanation. So, i understand that you always use grade 0 and grade 5 for your test strips? you prefer the grade 0 and always u print based on it? Thank you

it may sound silly but i have to ask this. Should't we make the grade 5 test strip on a paper that have previously been exposed to grade 0 for the amount of time determined from the grade 0 test strip?😀

Great explanation! o/

I just wonder how it's possible that split grade printing make your image 'sharper' I understand we put more contrast to the image, that's why we have illusion of sharper image, isn't it that way ? But indeed it look much sharper on video :)

I really like your tutorial and explanation. Would there be any reason to use alternate filters - 1 & 4 or 2 & 3 ?

Question: why would you not make the second (Gr5) test strip on paper that has already been exposed at Gr0 for 5 seconds? This would eliminate some of the guesswork for the Gr5 exposure.

But where is the additive lighting from the 5 sec/grade 0 teststrip? You made a grade 5 teststrip and chose 17 sec lighting, not taking in consideration the 5 sec/grade 0 previous lighting. The endresult should be darker than the grade 5 teststrip. What am I missing?

To me, split grade printing is something I go to before dodging and burning. The reason is to be able to duplicate my work with a high level of consistency.

I wouldn’t make a print without split grade printing and consider it a fine print…. Blacks just give a slight more punch to image