This is probably the best b&w print making tutorial on youtube. Clear, simple, informative and well presented. Thank you Andrea!

@AndreaCalabresiSilverprint

7 жыл бұрын

Thank you Dilbert !!

By far this is the most straight forward video I have seen on how to choose exposure time and contrast! You must be a very good professor!

@AndreaCalabresiSilverprint

5 жыл бұрын

Thank you Philip. I've been teaching since 1996. It is still something i love doing.

That was quite possibly the best explanation and tutorial in making a test strip I've seen on KZread. Thank you so much. Can't wait to see the rest of your videos.

I studied with Ansel Adams and I can assure KZread readers that your printing demonstration is one of the very best I've ever seen here. Bravo. One comment I would make (basically agreeing with your method but with a slightly different approach): I make my test prints in three-to-five basic steps. The first step concentrates ONLY on using an important white area (the lightest white which shows detail) to determine an over exposure time (which be tweeked later). Instead of moving a card to expose the whole print for my test, I expose ONLY that same white part (and, at a low contrast, such as grade 1.5) to various times by sliding the PAPER past a slot cut into a card which covers it. In that way I can compare this important white section, side by side. From here I can derive a basic exposure time for the whole print. After that I make an overall print at the best looking time to see what that exposure time does to my important dark & shadow areas, whose density I can test and control in my third test print by estimating which contrast filter will best do the job. I can normally arrive at a good "first" print after about five test prints (which, to save paper, needn't be whole sheets!) Thanks again for your excellent demonstration.

@AndreaCalabresiSilverprint

8 жыл бұрын

+mefourb Thank you very much. An expert appreciating is, indeed a great compliment. :) NB. A more technical answer is above.

@GigiDAmico

2 жыл бұрын

So you make the first test without filter?

@TheJanisyt

Жыл бұрын

Yes, I do the same, I even narrow it to a smaller test strips with a special mask I created. Wasting a whole pieces of paper sheet just for testing is not an option, at least not for me in these crazy times when paper is so expensive. I am amazed how many people said it’s a great tutorial and I noticed no comment about paper wasted to do it.

By far the best explanation of what to look for in contrast, and how to achieve the correct results I have ever seen.

@AndreaCalabresiSilverprint

5 жыл бұрын

Thank you Mark

In my opinion, the best and most well explained darkroom tutorial on YT. Thanks so much for sharing this info and I would love to see more!

@AndreaCalabresiSilverprint

8 жыл бұрын

+A Bakken. Thank you very much!

@simo8x

8 жыл бұрын

I agree! Grazie Andrea!!

@MarieAhlen

7 жыл бұрын

I also agree, thanks a lot for sharing this tutorial!

@adrianlong6701

6 жыл бұрын

That was so informative I hope you post more in the future so we can learn from your expertise

@kephren333

6 жыл бұрын

I second that, very nicely made video, clear explaination of the concepts, could we have some more please ? Books are good, to be shown is better. Thank you

What a Great Guide! Often you find videos where just some guy talks in front of the camera, not here! Realy helpful

I appreciate your patient manner; it's the sign of a good teacher. Thank you.

I came to find out about filters, I left wiser about a dozen things. Very concise, straightforward and well executed.

This is the most useful darkroom video I have watched. Your explanations are clear and concise especially the part about getting the test strips. Well done and thank you!

The absolutely critical phase, which Mr. Calabresi touches on, is evaluating the whites - or highlights - determined by exposure (+usually much lighter than you think). Dialing in contrast for the blacks is relatively easy. Developing judgement to evaluate the highlights is pivotal - otherwise you will be turning round and round, like a dog chasing it's tail, as I did for many years, so I harp on it. Split grading while doing whites first is a good way to develop this judgement.

@AndreaCalabresiSilverprint

8 жыл бұрын

+Igaluit I am sorry, you missed the point. Yours is the old approach that suits graded paper. The statement - exposure determines the whites, contrast the blacks - is not true on multigrade papers, hence the need to find a method to determine exposure and contrast at the same time, as I show in this video. Your approach could only work with a condensor head and contrast filters IF the tone that does not vary when changing contrast was a highlight, but the tone (when it exists) is not so much a highlight and it is not so stable. You can see it clearly on the characteristic curves of papers, where the curves of the different grades tend to cross each other at densities of around 0,5 (and not so exactly), that's more a midtone than a highlight. The approach I suggest works with any paper on any enlarger. I am not a fan of split printing. Split printing makes it easy to get a work print, but afterwards it is simply double the work. I am not a fan also because split printing is a procedure and not a method and this means that you don't need to understand how things works to make a (work) print.

@Igaluit

8 жыл бұрын

Thank-you for taking the time to explain this for me (and correcting my misconceptions), especially since there are few experts now of this arcane art. What we find in old photography texts is so often cursory and even misleading. I had nagging doubts about the highlights as a focal point and was more or less reverting to looking at the general aspect of the print. What you say about split-printing is true; it's sometimes a lot of work. Also, it seems to give a very distracting sheen or shine to the image. Still, on very difficult negatives I seemed to get better results. I prefer straight printing if I have a choice. I have never seen the methodology you teach before having seen your video. The beauty of your method is that it immediately orients you in the direction you ought to go - minus the endless tries and the going around in circles. Am looking forward to trying it. Thanks again for the feedback. Mille grazie.

The point at 10:30, about correct highlight in 1 exposure and the correct shadow in the other is the first objective description of picking correct/incorrect contrast I've seen on youtube, thankyou! (Obviously, it's still subjective, but adjusting contract filters makes a lot more sense to me now)!

thank you for being so generous with your time

Excellent tutorial. I learn something new every time I watch this.👍

Fantastic tutorial ! better than being in a class room !

Finally! A method that makes logical sense of a subjective art form

@AndreaCalabresiSilverprint

4 жыл бұрын

Thank you @mosephina, that was my aim.

I was taught very basic darkroom technique at highschool. This is how I've always done it. Your video has completely revolutionised my printing! Wow, thank you!

This is now my new test strip method! Thank you!

Yes the best printing tutorial I have seen. Love to see more tutorials from you.

Sir, you just gave a clinic! So you have more content on KZread on another channel. I'd love to see more.

I could not help but notice the cover on the book at his left elbow :-) Very good tutorial. Thanks.

most would not bother to go through the 3 contrast attempts, but this video is fascinating as you explore the 'correct' contrast through trial and error. thank you!

Mr Calabresi, thank you so much for your dedication to your art, the outcome of which is this very informative gem of a video! And thank you for your kindness to share!

Awesome tutorial! I have been printing for years and I have never seen this explained so clearly.

@AndreaCalabresiSilverprint

5 жыл бұрын

Thank you Garvin!

Thank you - great video, you have cleared up many questions I have had about my printing.....

In the past 12 months I have started shooting and developing my own film. I have recently purchased an enlarger to learn to make my own prints. Fantastic explanation, you are a great teacher. Thanks for taking the time to do this video.

@AndreaCalabresiSilverprint

9 жыл бұрын

Multi8991 I love analog photography. Sharing and keeping analog photography alive is a pleasure.

Thank you for the such a great instruction in master printing Andrea. I really look forward to you next tutorial.

Very useful insight about contrast control on printing. Thank you very much for your video. Looking forward to more videos like these. Regards from Greece!

Thank you! Excellent video and I hope to see more.

Thank you very much for this great video, andrea!

An excellent tutorial, very helpful with regard to contrast. Thank you very much - I shall watch it again.

Great tutorial, you are a wonderful teacher!

As much as i simply love the technique, your amazing teaching skills and the result i can't help but thinking those test pieces were also amazing artworks.

thanks a lot Mr Calabresi for sharing this method of finding the best contrast for a print. I've always struggled with contrast while printing. Really appreciate your kindness on sharing this. Best wishes, Santiago

@AndreaCalabresiSilverprint

5 жыл бұрын

Thank you Santiago, I am very glad to have been useful.

I just made my first ever print from a Ferrania P30Alpha negative, thanks to this video. Grazie molto, Andrea!

Mr Calabresi, I thank you sir for this video. I hope to start printing some of my images this year.

This was a very informative and fun experience, i really enjoyed the way you explained everything. Thank you so much.

Reading AA's The Print, you both evaluate correct contrast in the same way, but your way is a measurable, easy to follow method with a nice demonstration and explanation. Thanks very much.

elegantly explained. Thank you.

Brilliant! thanks for sharing your knowledge

This is amazing, I just built my darkroom and this is wonderful.

@Kaemaci

3 жыл бұрын

Any way you could help me out

@nickfanzo

3 жыл бұрын

@@Kaemaci what help do you need?

Thank you so much! Very helpful! It took me 5 times to get the correct contrast.

very good explonation for beginners. especially the contrast development was helpful. thanks.

Thank for sharing. The best explanation which i have seen. Grazie

Andrea! Many thanks for taking the time to share your skills and expertise. I am just setting up my first dark room and there seems so much to learn. Thanks again for your help in your video,so well presented and understandable. Regards Ken

Thank you Sir!!! This is an excellent tutorial for beginners like me!

I really enjoyed your video and learned a lot. Thanks!

This is extremely useful! Thank you so much for this video. Greetings from Malaysia!

Amazing. Great video. Thank you.

Mr. Calabresi, thank you so much. Ultra professional. Grazie.

@AndreaCalabresiSilverprint

8 жыл бұрын

+Bill Leontaritis Thank you!

Great explanation, thank you! Also a great picture

Thank you very much, starting darkroom printing from medium format and this was the best video

@AndreaCalabresiSilverprint

8 жыл бұрын

Thank you Fred! Glad you find it useful.

Excellent demonstration!

Thanks so much for making this video! It's a huge help to me! Thank you!

@AndreaCalabresiSilverprint

8 жыл бұрын

+Joey Pasco I am very pleased to have been helpful. Thank you!

Thank you for a very informative video Andrea! I can't wait till my next day off so that I can go into the darkroom and put this new knowledge to use. :-)

Thank you Mr Andrea! This is perfect!

@AndreaCalabresiSilverprint

9 жыл бұрын

Glad you appreciated! Thank you!

thank you great video ,love the explanations.

The lesson on contrast grade selection is strong in this video.

Great video! please do more!

Wonderful video. Thank you.

Very educational video for a beginner like me! Great work and thanx !

@AndreaCalabresiSilverprint

9 жыл бұрын

Hans Schumacher Thank you for watching. ;-)

Super helpful! Thank you so much

very good video, thanks very much......cant wait too try your method next time printing....thanks

That's how you do it. I was thinking about it this week.

so helpful, thank you!!

Very insightful, thank you

Thank you for sharing your technique, this is greatly appreciated! I've always been doing actual test strips by cutting up photo paper and exposing several single strips - then developing. This makes so much more sense and the work process feels much cleaner.

@AndreaCalabresiSilverprint

8 жыл бұрын

+Jakob Reisinger Thank you for watching and appreciating.

@sewbizar1

8 жыл бұрын

+Jakob Reisinger, it seems to me that you get a better reading by exposing a full sheet and in the end actually save paper by not having to keep printing with each adjustment. This method looks pretty accurate and I'm excited to give it a try. Best of luck in your work!

Congratulations. This is a great darkroom tutorial. Excellent in every detail, technical and not only,... including the tone of your voice. Really superb. Thanks

@AndreaCalabresiSilverprint

3 жыл бұрын

Thank you very much!

Great job... Thank you so much for sharing your know how

@AndreaCalabresiSilverprint

8 жыл бұрын

+Emanuele Altieri Thank you for watching.

I would take a photography course with you, any time and any place. Thank you so much for sharing your magnificent stores of knowledge.

@AndreaCalabresiSilverprint

7 жыл бұрын

Thank you Sandra, I teach courses every weekend in Bologna, you're wellcome. :)

Excellent illustration....

yes. would like to see more :)

Very helpful! Thank you!

Watching this gave me a whole new map in editting digital photos. Wow, thanks!

@nickfanzo

3 жыл бұрын

Shoot film next 😜😜

@geotsaou

3 жыл бұрын

@@nickfanzo i am honestly considering it, but only for personal photos :D

@nickfanzo

3 жыл бұрын

@@geotsaou once you start, there’s no stopping it

Best video on this topic. Thanks a lot. Greetings from Slovenia. I hope to meet you in person one day.

@AndreaCalabresiSilverprint

3 жыл бұрын

Thank you, I'm glad to be useful. :) We're not too far, it may well happen. :)

Thank you so much for sharing .

Best!!! More!!!

Very very well explained. Some expert just say my feeling is to use this or that filter, but you explain why the filter you use is higher or lower. This helped me alot

@AndreaCalabresiSilverprint

5 жыл бұрын

Thank you Jreey! Glad to be useful! Keep on printing!

Your DRKRM feels So Medieval... I love it... Great vid

@AndreaCalabresiSilverprint

9 жыл бұрын

newmutant1 It is Medieval! The drkrm is located in an ancient building of a middle age village in Tuscany.

Very interesting, I did learn something here. Thanks

woooooooohaa man, it is amazing to work and experiment with what we are made of:light.

Great video Andrea.

@AndreaCalabresiSilverprint

9 жыл бұрын

Thank you Olivier!

Great explanation!Tnx 4 share.

I hasten to add: I said that my test print "needn't be whole sheets". Of course, I'm only referring to the first and second test strips I do for judging exposure time, and then, contrast. The prints to see the effects of these judgements are of course full sheets.

@AndreaCalabresiSilverprint

8 жыл бұрын

+mefourb Very interesting comment. In my opinion the procedure you suggest here is better suited to expert darkroon user and fits graded paper better than multi-grades. I aimed to give an operating method to less experienced users that was both universal (any paper, any enlarger) and technically valid. For your procedure to work properly we need to assume that the bright tone we need will not change when we change contrast and more important that that tone is the same we targeted. This more likely happens with graded paper (more likely because not necessarily our targeted tone is the one that remains the same on a certain paper-developer combo). When using MG papers the tone that doesn't change when changing contrast doesn't really exist (color head), or isn't necessary a bright enough tone (condensor with filters) if there is at all. Hence the necessity to always evaluate highlight and shadows at the same time (on one big test strip, as suggested in the video) or to run more strips if we use your method.

@Christopher-ld9yt

8 жыл бұрын

Dear Andrea, Of course, you are absolutely correct, for the most part. It's true, as you have said, that the method I suggested (and the concise and rather quick way I described it) doesn't reveal that -yes- you would have to adjust a little for the slight exposure change necessitated by the contrast change found in the second test phase. I look forward to someday meeting you, if you happen to be in Paris, to show you and discuss -in my darkroom- how this can and does work with multigrade paper . . . and, afterwards, to share a glass of wine!

@AndreaCalabresiSilverprint

8 жыл бұрын

+Chris Nisperos I won't miss a glass in Paris. ;-)

@Christopher-ld9yt

8 жыл бұрын

TO:Andrea Calabresi... I have sent you a private message with my personal email address so that you indeed won't miss that glass of wine in Paris! By the way, beautiful website.

Great explanation of contrast. Thank you

@AndreaCalabresiSilverprint

9 жыл бұрын

Pedro Rica Thank for watching!

very informative and interesting!

Thank you for sharing! It's very very helpful

@AndreaCalabresiSilverprint

9 жыл бұрын

Simon Tay Thank you for watching!

that was incredible!

@AndreaCalabresiSilverprint

7 жыл бұрын

Yeah, pure magic. ;)

WOW Great video !!!

@AndreaCalabresiSilverprint

9 жыл бұрын

Thank you Din!

Wow This turned on the light for me. It's really quite simple when someone explains it in simple terms. Thank You for this. I'd like to see you explain the change of enlarger f stops and the results obtained. Thank You again

@AndreaCalabresiSilverprint

8 жыл бұрын

+EFD620G Hi. Glad you appreciated. Changing enlarger f-stop will affect exposure the usual way: closing one f-stop will require double the exposure. E.G. if the exposure is 12" @ f:8 it becomes 24" @ f:11. This follows the main exposure rule (reciprocity) wich says: E=txl - exposure= is time per light. Less light, more time and viceversa. Lens performance is also affected, but with good lenses this is visible only on higher magnification (bigger prints). Generally speaking the intermediate f-stops will yeld the better lens performance. It is advisable not to use the lens wide open or fully closed. For best performance every single lens shall be tested individually in a perfectly alligned system and at different magnifications. This requires equipment and expertise.

Thank you very much

amazing tutorial, thank you for sharing.

@robert.aleksander

4 жыл бұрын

Still the best explanation of darkroom situation on KZread.

great video, its very informative. any plans to continue the series?

Thanks for chiming in so quickly. I will say the split grade works very well for and a lot success in tough negs situations. Like bullet proof skies like we have here in New Mexico. I do float between technique simile it to yours in low contrast negs and the other. Thanks for posting. Your technique is another tool I can use in my darkroom tool chest.

@AndreaCalabresiSilverprint

8 жыл бұрын

+ToddB987 I know. That's exactly what I intended about non optimal negatives quality and use of split printing. Why don't you reduce film developing times instead of saving them while printing? The results will be dramatically different and the freedom in print interpretation will be saved. The newest T-grain films can accomodate some 20 stops of dynamic range even on grade 2 if properly processed. BTW, Which light spource are you using in your enlarger, condensor or diffuser?

@ToddB987

8 жыл бұрын

Condensor on 120 and diffuser on 35mm. I usually develop film on recommend manufactures recommendations. For example using Delta 100 developed at 12.00 min at 68 degrees using D-76. I know less time reduces contrast and more time adds more. I usually shoot a lot of varing light situation on a single roll that's why I use manufacturers recommend times. I usually shoot a lot of black and white film with a orange filter on most everything.

@AndreaCalabresiSilverprint

8 жыл бұрын

+ToddB987 Hi, this time I am late... Ilford developing times are generally producing negatives suitable for low contrast scenes to be printed with diffuser enlargers. So development times should be reduced (sometimes a lot) when printing with a condensor head, and/or shooting high contrast scenes. This is normal. I warmly suggest you an experiment: do dev times "bracketing" combined with exposure bracketing. Make the same images on three rolls of film (if you have a MF camera with film backs it's easy), expose with bracketing and then process for 50% 75% and suggested developing time. Finally print it all.

Beautiful.

Just learned something. I have been leaving my print in the developer until the time was up. He takes it out a few seconds before and then waits for the time to end. Will start doing that tonight.

That is a very good system and I will try it. Thank you.

@AndreaCalabresiSilverprint

9 жыл бұрын

Michael Carter Than you for watching, Michael, And happy darkroom printing!

Grazie Mr. Calabresi!

@AndreaCalabresiSilverprint

8 жыл бұрын

+Matei Gruber Thank you for watching!

Video extraordinario. Grazie mille!

@AndreaCalabresiSilverprint

7 жыл бұрын

Grazie a te!

I never saw a contrast filter being inserted in the enlarger, you said there is s need to change contrast but not how did you do it, I'm so confused, thank you so much

@AndreaCalabresiSilverprint

4 жыл бұрын

Hello Brenda, The main image adjustments in black and white printing are esposure (darker - brighter) and contrast (the relationship between darker and brighter tones). They are related and shall be adjusted at the same time and that is the difficult part. This video shows a method to make these adjustments. While exposure is more intuitive, the more light you give the darker it becomes (it's a negative process) contrast is a much less intuitive thing. Maybe if you can imagine (figure in your mind) a picture where you like the midtones, but you would like to modify the darker and/or the brighter tones... that's exactly what changing the contrast does, it modifies the extremes of the tonal range, making them brighter or darker as you wish. To modify the contrast on contemporary (so called) Multigrade photo papers you need to change the colour of the light. This change of colour of the printing light can be obtained in different ways, one consists of putting coloured filters in the light path and many enlargers (the projection devices) have a specific drawer where you can place these coloured filters.