Split grade printing, what technique(s) do you use?

[Xícara de Café]

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Newton ring/Focomat post:

 

Edited January 6, 2022 by Xícara de Café

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[Alan Siqueira]

15 hours ago, Xícara de Café said:

It's been a few years since I messed around with the focus and have forgotten what is involved. I do have a Focotar, it's just that it's in terrible condition so I don't use it. The autofocus did work with it when I tried. I could not get it to work however with the Schneider-Compton S 50/2.8 (a nice lens too and and has the advantage of a lever to switch between the chosen f-stop and f2.8, for focussing/framing, etc). I have the PDF manual for the 1c, so I'll look again. Perhaps I missed something, thanks!

Had no problem with the negative holder itself but I did have occasional problems with Newton rings appearing in the prints. I cut a window on a flat piece of plastic (a type of credit card with no embossed lettering) and drilled two holes in it to mount on the two posts of the negative holder. It sits between the condenser and the film. I wrote about the problem on this forum, I think. Will see if I can find the link....

Great!

I was luck, mine came with the anti-newton filter. 

[Alan Siqueira]

I need to scan some of these so I can post. But these are made with the my focomat and split grade technique (using filter #0 and #5)

I don't know, but at least on my negatives I don't think it's always needeed to use split grade, sometimes I just need to use one or any filter at all. Anyway, I'm really happy with the results i'm getting.

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[Aryel]

52 minutes ago, Alan Siqueira said:

I don't know, but at least on my negatives I don't think it's always needeed to use split grade, sometimes I just need to use one or any filter at all. Anyway, I'm really happy with the results i'm getting

Take it with a pinch of salt as I haven’t tried split grade yet: as far as I understood, you can get the same results with a single filter and appropriate exposure. However, the advantage of split grade is that you can dodge different part of the image during the exposure at #0 and #5 resulting in greater control. Maybe someone with more experience can confirm or correct me if I am wrong 😊. 
 

More importantly, your prints look beautiful, hope we’ll get a chance to see the scanned versions!

Edited January 7, 2022 by Aryel

[Michael Hiles]

One clear advantage is, as you say, greater control. Much greater control. First there are no intermediate filters. So if you actually need a 3.2 filter, tough tarts. You can also control specific contrasts. You can also fine tune the two exposures, by which you can make very subtle changes to the highlights and shadow areas. Generally for the highlghts by changing the grade 0 filter with a .5 or1. This might punch up the highlights as an example.

A very powerful tool.