Paper grades and filtration
for Black & White
Black and white papers are available in different grades from
soft (low) to hard (high) contrast as well as variable contrast types. Contrasty papers
produce much wider tonal range and give less grays between black and white. When working
with a low contrast negative, using a hard-grade paper eliminates some of the grays which
will broaden out the tonal range. A soft-grade paper reduces a contrasty negative and
gives more grays than a hard-grade paper. 0 grade paper is considered the softest, 2 is
considered normal, and 5 the hardest. When working with a normal contrast negative for example, softer grade papers produce most gray tones and hard graded papers giving few grays. You need to match paper grade to negatives. Low contrast negatives look very flat and has limited tonal range. By using a hard grade paper such as 3 or 4 you can produce a print with richer blacks and cleaner whites. Normal contrast negatives have good range of tones and gives the best result on grade 2 paper.
You can use softer or harder grade papers to lower or increase contrast if you like with a normal negative depending on the effect you want to achieve. Very contrasty negatives show a big difference between the lightest and the darkest tones. A soft or normal grade paper can produce the best prints. Instead of using graded papers, you can buy variable contrast (multigrade) papers. With variable contrast papers, you can use filters to alter contrast. You can buy a set of filters or use a color head enlarger. Without any filtration variable contrast papers print as grade 2 normal. By adding filters you can lower or increase contrast. For example, with a color head and a normal contrast negative, setting filtration to 50 yellow will reduce contrast.
25 yellow produces a more contrasty print than 50 yellow, 50 magenta adds much more contrast while 150 magenta produces a very contrasty print. If you are using a set of enlarging filters, lower numbers produce lower contrast images. Number 1 for instance gives a very low contrast print from a normal negative giving most gray tones, while number 6 produces a very contrasty print with few grays between black and white. You need to use a calculator disk to see exposure corrections required for different brands of paper when changing filters.
Before making any prints, examine your
negatives carefully and make a contact sheet. This will help you decide which paper grade
to choose or which type of filtration might be required. You may need to make several test
prints to achieve best result.
Recommended Filters |