I was in the darkroom this morning trying out this technique along with F stop printing, on a particularly difficult negative, made it so much easier to get a fairly decent image. Better than my first attempts, bit like layering a cake. These videos are invaluable. Thanks

I do enjoy your videos, the best I have found so far. Keep the videos coming please John.

@PictorialPlanet

4 ай бұрын

Thanks, Anglo!

again and agin you hit the nail, it's a perfect guideline how to get most of your negatives and there are plenty of them, thanks a lot!!!

@PictorialPlanet

4 ай бұрын

Cheers, Martin!

Thank you John. You've answered some of my questions regarding graded vs. split grade printing. I've been going with one or the other, depending on my estimation of where to start with any given negative. This technique adds finesse to answering that question. I use a lot of X-ray film. It makes 8x10 size very affordable and I like the look! It tends to run fairly high in contrast, although developing in Rodinal at 1+100 (about 5 minutes) mitigates that to some extent. Anyhow, this partial split grade addition is a new avenue to explore, I'm looking forward to using it!

@PictorialPlanet

4 ай бұрын

Thanks for your comment, David! I do like this way of split grading as it gives me a baseline to start with.

Thank you for sharing John

@PictorialPlanet

4 ай бұрын

You're welcome, Steve!

great video! cant wait for the next in this series

@PictorialPlanet

4 ай бұрын

Cheers!

Thanks for another great video John.

@PictorialPlanet

4 ай бұрын

Cheers, Andrew! I appreciate your support!!

This is a great video, thanks, and perfect timing for me to share with my darkroom instructor. We’re about to talk about dodging and burning and filters in class.

@johndaily263

4 ай бұрын

One question, perhaps for a follow-up video: I’d be very curious to see the difference between your final print here and a straight grade 5 print.

@PictorialPlanet

4 ай бұрын

Try it on one if your own flat negatives and see what you think.

We have very similar skies in Wales - if not actually chucking it down. So the majority of my prints are split-grade to help separate the tones. A bit more effort but well worth it for the results. Cheers John.

@PictorialPlanet

4 ай бұрын

Cheers, Ray!

Excellent insights John, thank you!

@PictorialPlanet

4 ай бұрын

Thank you!

Wow this is fantastically useful. Thank you so much. Answered a bunch of questions I had

@PictorialPlanet

4 ай бұрын

My pleasure major!

I really enjoy your videos, they r all very informative and helpful!!

@PictorialPlanet

4 ай бұрын

Thank you!

I envy your exposure times . I did a 20x16 print this evening. 43 seconds contast 5 - . 50 sec burn to foreground contrast 5 . 220 seconds burn to sky contrast 5 ! 5 seconds contrast 0 over all

@PictorialPlanet

4 ай бұрын

Wow!

another great video about printing after the other one about F-Stop method, thank you

@PictorialPlanet

4 ай бұрын

Thanks, Chris!

Thank you so much for this series, John. If I understand correctly, Grade 5 affects the low zones by expanding the tonal range in those zones. It impacts the lowest zones the most and less and less as you move up the scale up to around Zone 4 or so. Grade 0 affects the high zones by compressing the tonal range in those zones. It impacts the highest zones and less and less as you move down the scale to around Zone 6 or so. If we make our base exposure at Grade 3 the reason we would choose to burn in the sky with Grade 5 (as opposed to Grade 0) is that we don't want to compress the tonal range of the clouds. Is that correct?

@PictorialPlanet

4 ай бұрын

Spot on! We use grade 5 so we only darken the lower zones in the clouds but keep the nice white stuff white. If we use grade 0 the cloud goes all grey.

I spent some time printing last night and for half of it I was desperate to rewatch this. I think I need to make some notes from this in my notebook. Very well demonstrated! Does your book cover this? If not, do you recommend a (readily available) book? (I have AA's The Print, but haven't spent enough time with it).

Another well explained video. I wonder if a summary of what you had done with the times and grades applicable to the different areas written on to the finished print might have been worthwhile to reinforce the lesson? Given your earlier split grade video it might be worthwhile to use that technique on the same negative to compare and contrast the two outcomes

@PictorialPlanet

4 ай бұрын

These are good ideas! Thanks!!

HI John. brilliant explanation, i get a cold sweat with white bland sky`s, what if there is say a tree or church spire in the sky part of the picture, how would you get around burning the sky and not inadvertently darkening the tree etc, another cold sweat !!

@PictorialPlanet

23 күн бұрын

You can try a 0 or 1 grade filter. It's often used to burn in windows and not affect the surrounding wall too much.

Hi John! i had a question for you. i like photos that have (when using digital processing) an increased "clarity" or "sharpness". a look with increased local contrast/crispness/definition. can that be achieved with burning and dodging in the darkroom? am i correct to say i should burn in at grade 5 to achieve this look?

@PictorialPlanet

3 ай бұрын

Hi! Use an acutance developer and split grade printing for that kind of look.

@sheelios

3 ай бұрын

@@PictorialPlanet ah i will look into that! is there a developer you would suggest? thanks for the quick reply!

@PictorialPlanet

3 ай бұрын

@sheelios check out my videos Getting the best from PanF

@sheelios

3 ай бұрын

@@PictorialPlanet will do cheers!

why don't you talk in stops? The 10 seconds on top of the base exposure would be about 1 stop wouldn't it? I believe this gives more meaning and clarity to your (really good and interesting) video…

@PictorialPlanet

4 ай бұрын

Good point. I just did an f-stop video as well. You got me there ;)

@rlfsoso

4 ай бұрын

@@PictorialPlanetI'd like to add to. my comment: what about doing test strips (f-stopped 1/4 or so ;-) ) say for example of the sky and then add _precisely_ the amount you need? That's the way I do it (though of course with a combination of grades there stikll remains some trial and error)

@PictorialPlanet

4 ай бұрын

This video was about which grade too use for burning in, not about test strips. I didn't show the whole process because I wanted to focus on the issue I made the video on. What grades do use use to burn in?