arhphotographic

I can’t believe that I have had my Kaiser enlarger for a year now! I have deliberately used only a small number of it’s features as I take my first faltering steps in home printing. Now seemed like a good time to explore a little.

So to better appreciate what the Kaiser colour Enlarger head is capable of, I embarked on a little experiment. I wanted to produce a set of reference images that would serve to help me see what effect varying degrees of contrast ( 0 – 5 ) had on an image. I appreciate that this will differ from paper stock to paper stock but my reference cards would remind me of where I would be going with an image when I employed a certain contrast level. At least that was the theory.

My Paper stock for this test was Ilford Matt RC Delux Multigrade III which was included in a load of developing stuff I purchased. I don’t know how old the paper is but the box was unopened so I had nothing to lose but everthing to gain by using it. Inside the box was a very helpful leaflet that laid out what Yellow/ Magenta values I needed to dial into the colour head to achieve the degree of contrast I wanted.

I started at 0 contrast for what I will call my base image. So having dialed in 110 on the yellow I did my usual test image and established that I wanted 8 seconds at f11.

Looking back to the table above I then took the yellow down to 70 to achieve a contrast level of 1. This resulted in the image below.

Next Contrast level 2, Y set to 0.

Contrast level 3 Magenta dialed to 45

The effects of the filters, 0- 3, is subtle up to this point but definitely discernable

In the leaflet, that comes with the paper, it states that when using filters from 4 and above you should double the exposure time. I meant to go to Contrast level 4 for the next image but made a mistake, which meant I was actually at 3 1/2 with the magenta dial at 55 but I had doubled the exposure to 16 seconds.!!!

Contrast level 4 then.

Looking at the base of the pot in the front the level 4 image looks to be a little lighter than the 3 1/2 image above it, no doubt due to the fact that the extra time burnt in more to the picture. Comparing it to the original base image, below, I’ve come a long way.

I was thoroughly enjoying myself, so I thought I would investigate the density diaphragm. According to the manual “The enlarger light can be steplessly reduced by the density diaphragm by up to sixty densitometric densities” ???😳 ” which is equivalent to two stops” Ohhh🤓

So this is something that could be used in conjunction with the filters, particularly 4 and above, to affect the level of contrast of an image.

Setting it to 30 resulted in the image below

Setting it at 60 led to this..

It’s amazing how much control there is at your finger tips to effect the appearance of the final image. I’m so pleased with my little experiment and resulting reference cards that now make that control less intimidating and more fun. I now have a much better understanding of where an image will go, in terms of contrast, when using these controls.

——

My time was almost up so I thought I would investigate the subject of aperture choice and how it affects the image . It would also reveal the sweet spot of my particular lens, a Schneider Componar – C 50mm f 2.8.

So 16 seconds at f16

f11 8 seconds

As expected, at f16 and 11 things are nice and sharp.

f8 4 seconds .The front pot starts to get a little soft.

f 5.6 2 seconds

Finally f 4 1 second

The final two images are definitely softer and darker no doubt to the very short exposure times but larger apertures allowing more light to expose the paper.

I had been using f8 up until now, however in view of these results I will try f11. The added advantage is that it will give me longer exposure times to try other things. I’m sure there will be images that will be better served with apertures around f 8 – 4.5, perhaps there’s another darkroom session for that 🙂