We really enjoyed working with Rachel on this series of darkroom guides. We hope that you have found that they have expanded your knowledge of darkroom techniques such as split grade printing and that they've given you the confidence to take the next steps in your darkroom printing journey. Please let us know if there are any other topics that you would like to see covered in future videos
I believe F-Stop-Printing explained would be the most beneficial to get more out darkroom printing. As a comment on the current video on split grade printing: a) some information written on the screen is going by way too fast, b) evaluating the test strips could (should) be explained more in depth: soft exposure to get the high light details "right" (I might go for just about visible), hard exposure to get the blacks "right". Combined this with f-stop printing is a very efficient and fast way to dial in the amount of hard and soft exposure in combination; test strips done with the f-stop printing technique can than be used to arrive exactly at the right tone in - selected - parts of the image.
@@rlfsoso Thanks for taking the time to feedback. We thought that people would likely pause the video to read the on screen comments but will take the speed that they appear on board for next time. You are the second person to request f stop printing as a future video so this is definitely something we'll look at.
@@Ilfordphoto Thanks! The real issue would be to show a way without special timers… …handling tables and dialing in ever changing times manually is taking some fun out of it. Nobody is ever going to separate me from my RH Design Stop Clock Pro… !
I see an enlarger with a colour head in the background. It is a lot less mucking around to just use the colour head with varying proportions of yellow and magenta, you can even keep the exposure constant using the settings in the data sheet that comes Ilford paper. Using this method or a colour head gives you the same results, so it gets down to the method that works best for you.
I printed three different negatives yesterday using this method and it worked well for me, it's probably the fastest and least wasteful way to get from a test strip to final print that I've used. Thank you!
The most powerful darkroom technique I know of, which lends the capability to dodge and burn at different contrast grades on different parts of the paper. Extremely useful! Great video!
@@Ilfordphoto Yes, particularly when I have a somewhat challenging negative to work with, in therms of contrast. It’s interesting to note that with this technique it’s possible to stretch boundaries further, by processing the film to a higher contrast, knowing more details can be eked out in printing. By doing so we will notice more differences between different films and film developers, as it’s at the extremes of their capabilities those differences emerge. This makes the whole process of learning our materials even more interesting, as a much greater degree of variability becomes available at the time we print. The only kinds of negatives that print poorly using this technique are thin ones and low contrast ones. The low contrast filter does nothing for these negs at the printing stage; they need high contrast right away.
@@Ilfordphoto Yes, it was indeed the simplest explanation I've seen too. I liked her suggestion of starting with 2.5 and moving on from there. However, Rachel was a bit quick explaining her final print (I think it was 10 sec total?). Did she give the print 5 seconds on the lowest filter, and an additional 5 on the highest which gave a total of 10 seconds? Lastly, I see you show two boxes of filters. Maybe you could tell me what the difference between the two boxes are? Thanks in advance.
You guys are great, I've been printing for like 15 years, did burns with two different contrast filters but actually never thought of combining the two filters on the same emulsion, that's rad!
Absolutely fantastic videos Ilford and Rachel! Very very well explained and shown. I've been researching about darkroom techniques for months now and yet these videos albeit being the shortest, were the most informative and best quality. Love it!
Thanks for the great feedback, we're glad that you found them useful. Are there any other darkroom techniques that you'd like to see us explore in future videos?
Just to clarify the final image was for 10 seconds total exposure time w 5 seconds @ 0 Grade and 5 seconds @ 5 Grade filters? As always, love it when ILFORD comes out w new videos. Thank you!
Well that has certainly made something that I thought was quite complex seem a lot simpler! Thanks Rachel. I have a hoard of quite strong contrast Ilford PanF 50 shots where this technique may come in useful...just as soon as I get round to buying some of those filters!
Hi Tomas. Thanks for watching, and the lovely feedback. We love Lina's videos so that's huge compliment. Have you used the split grade printing technique yourself?
@@Ilfordphoto Not much because I don't have my own darkroom. But while I was a student, I had the opportunity to print and it was really exciting. If you had to recommend an enlarger to me, what would it be? Thanks for answering
Awesome series of little helping movies, this one is extremely helpful and give a very good understanding of splitgrade techniques. Rachel speaks a very good english which I can understand easily. Well done! I would ask for a video on f-stop printing (Gene Nocon), if possible for you guys to make. Many thanks.
Hi Martin. Thanks for the feedback.Great to hear that you found it helpful and simple to understand. We will look at the F-Stop printing method for a future darkroom video, thanks for the suggestion.
I'm confused by this. If you have a 10 sec exposure at Grade 2.5 and you then create two 5 sec exposures at 00 and 5, aren't you just recreating the Grade 2.5 filter?
Покажите, как работать со встроенными фильтрами в Kaiser! Видео очень полезное! Show me how to work with built-in filters in Kaiser! The video is very useful!
Check out the previous video about filters. There is a section in there about using the settings in the colour head ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-vY3bbXkuAfw.html The information is also available on our technical data sheets www.ilfordphoto.com/technical-downloads/technical-data-sheets/
Ilford=Quality Ilford=black and white Ilford=the best. I have a question, english is not my mother language so maybe I missed something when you explained. You said that first you find The Right Time for the exposure. And divide by two, so one for a Filter and one for the other. In your exsample was Ten second, so Five Seconds for filter 0 and five for the 5 filter. But for filter 5 should not be 10 seconds cause starting from filter 4 the time is twice than lower filters? Thank you.
Hi Yes you are correct, this will give you a starting point and whilst we'd like to think that everybody will use our ILFORD Multigrade darkroom papers you have to remember that all Multigrade papers act slightly differently.
@@tomasnovotny4108 I agree on that too, perhaps he should start on RC paper first, as a begginer should, then move up to fiber. It's certainly an expensive paper to begin with, getting used to long washing times and the hefty price for each sheet.
@@Ryan-lu9km I have started with FB graded papers and I wanna stay with these papers. But for the start I haven't chose the FB Galerie but lower priced papers from different producer. Here are my some first paper photographs 30x40cm dryed on a glass plates. www.temnakomora.cz/gallery/album/651-papírovky-zvětšování/
Has anyone noticed a difference in the image if the sequence of filter grades is changed? Do you have to expose with the 00 before using a high grade filter?
Hi. Im a bit confused about filter 0 and 1 - when would one use a filter 1 and 5 in a splitgrade print ? It seems everyone uses filter00 /0 and 5 combi here on youtube
We wanted our video to be relevant to as many people as possible and not everyone has access to a colour head. We do share more details of using a colour head in the previous video about filters ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-vY3bbXkuAfw.html
@@JJ-vy7bc ......true but IFORD made a popup around 1:50m stating to more or less double the time .......that's why I asked......going to try it out......happy printing stay healthy
Since the contrast grade is determined by the ratio of blue to green light, did you misplace your filter set and only had a 00 and a 5 to improvise with? Or are 12 grades insufficient??? Teaching people how to do things the hard way is not helpful. Or is it a particular British vice? Split printing only makes sense when you are seeking to localize contrast adjustments on a print. It is odd that an Ilford employee doesn't understand that what she is doing is just emulating a filter between 00 and 5. I guess I wasted my money ordering a set of Ilford filters when I could have just used a blue filter and a green filter. But then I would have to figure out two exposures rather than one.