Darkroom Printing Pt4 - Split Grade Printing 101

Today's video covers basic split grade printing. I take last weeks print, taken on FP4+ and developed in Dixactol Ultra, and try to improve it through adjustments to highlight contrast and shadow contrast. The resulting print really starts to shine with a 3D quality!

John

[ccoppola]

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.

[seanchang]

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

[catherinewright]

Thank you so much for this Darkroom Printing Series. I'm a complete beginner and I really appreciate how you build up from basics and explain everything so clearly.

[stephenscott]

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.

[Larpy]

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.

[kyledarrenhanson]

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.

[markbloor]

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..

[ebreevephoto]

best explanation I have ever seen on this subject!

[mike]

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.

[OskarFilms]

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

[mvill]

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.

[ChristopherKovacswanm]

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!

[ChrisVidouras]

Thank you for sharing!! Cheers from Greece!!

[sheelios]

thank you for this! will definitely try this process.

[didierandrieux]

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.

[MrJollybox]

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 .. 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.

[martin-f]

very good, explained and demonstrated, thank you so much

[davidottman]

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!

[jacopotassinari]

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^^

[daveh]

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.