Very High Contrast B&W Print Options: Film and Digital

As with all creative departures, manipulation done for its own sake may be interesting, but the true test of any applied technique is whether or not it serves the image. The goal should always be to use technique to enhance your thoughts and feelings about the moment. You may photograph with a certain end look in mind but change your approach and techniques later. Or you may come upon an image in your files that suddenly strikes you as apt for an approach radically different than when you first made the exposure. Following are some interpretive high contrast approaches and the techniques that you can use to achieve them. Note that some references are made to materials no longer available; scanning prints or negatives, or working with digital image files, and using digital processing can achieve the same ends.

High Contrast Processing

High contrast printing involves eliminating or subduing the middle tonal values, thus producing an image where the visual information is communicated in black and white, with little or no gray tonality. High contrast can be used to make near line-drawing renditions, or to create highly graphic interpretations of a scene. As it mutes information in the middle values it accentuates the lines and forms that define the subject.

Virtually every image can be printed in high contrast; critical decisions, however, will limit this technique to certain moods or scenes. Fashion, urban landscapes, portraits, architecture and winterscapes are the most common types of images to which high-contrast techniques are applied, but this list by no means limits the possibilities.

This high contrast image was made from a digital file of leaves and branches in the snow. The image was loaded in Photoshop into the Threshold Adjustment Layer. After merging the Layer and then creating a Duplicate Layer on which painting work was done, a white foreground brush was used to paint away certain areas and details, and a black foreground brush was used to paint into the darker areas where discontinuous glitches of white appeared. Similar work can be done on lith film using opaque dyes. The image was then printed on a slightly warm background layer.

For darkroom workers, the simplest way to achieve a high contrast effect is to work with a high-contrast paper or high-contrast filter when using VC paper, namely a #5 grade. With most negatives, this choice eliminates many of the middle gray values.

Unlike more commonly used grades, such as #2 or #3, grade #5 has a rather narrow exposure latitude, which means that critical testing is key. Expose too long and the whites will "gray up"; underexposure may yield a very weak image. (#5 can also be used to correct very underexposed negatives, and will often reveal details not seen by the untrained eye.)

If even a #5 grade fails to yield the desired result use of a "lith" film as an intermediary will do the trick. Lith (also called ortho) film is still available today from Freestyle (note: no commercial affiliation) in 8x10 sheets, mainly used by those who do platinum and palladium and other "alternative process" work. In the past it was available in formats from 35mm up. When developed in a special high-contrast developer no middle gray values will record. You could also have used Kodak Tech Pan film developed for high contrast. (Note: No longer available.)

You could make an intermediary lith negative from an original negative or slide. To make it from a slide, all you need to do was enlarge or contact print the slide onto the lith film, just as you would make a print. This creates a reversed, or negative image, which you then use to make a positive print. To make a lith negative from a negative, you first enlarge or contact print the negative onto the lith film, and then enlarged or contacted that positive onto another sheet of lith film, which creates a negative. (All film imaging, when done on film or paper, goes negative-positive-negative-positive, and so forth. This allows for some interesting image derivations.) Lith film can be processed under red safelight conditions, so you can inspect the negative as it developed to get it just right.

Once the lith negative is created, you can retouch it with dye to eliminate any gray values that may still exist; when you opaque a negative that opaqued area will print white. After you're satisfied with the negative you can print on virtually any grade paper to obtain a high-contrast image, though a #5 will guarantee the best effect.

You can also photograph with a high-contrast film in the camera, though experience shows that working from a full-tone negative and then converting it to high-contrast yields the most options.

The digital high-contrast conversion is quite simple. You can use presets in many programs; work with a Curve or Levels Adjustment Layer in Photoshop; or, my usual technique, work with the Threshold Adjustment Layer. The latter has slider control options that allow you to fine tune results. And, just like using dye on lith film, you can paint with black (or sometimes white) to remove any "flaws" or even eliminate details by covering them so they do not show through on the final image. 

High contrast does not always mean just black and white and no gray values: there may be an alteration of tonal values to accentuate a "hard" contrast with some gray values remaining. This effect can be used effectively for all manner of imaging where you don't want a line-drawing effect yet want the graphic appeal of a higher-than-normal contrast image.

Customizing Black-and-White Film Processing: The Ringaround Test

The processing instruction sheet packed with most film tells you to develop for, say, 8&1/2 minutes at 68-degrees F. It outlines an agitation schedule and advises on adjusting times for variations in temperature. Though following these guidelines should yield printable negatives, they don't necessarily result in optimum negatives for each person or more importantly for each type of scene. In some cases, the times and temperatures given are an average, and only through testing can you arrive at what's best for you. Also, everyone's in-camera meter or handheld meter--and way of reading light--is different. 

Coupled with idiosyncrasies in processing, such as faster or slower agitation, is the fact that some thermometers aren't totally accurate; also, chemical mixing may be off, with dilutions varying as much as +/- 10%. The result is that two people may shoot the same scene with the same film, and develop in essentially the same way, and still get slightly different looking negatives. Though following procedures strictly is one way out of this problem, you may also have to modify your developing technique to get the most printable negatives for your style of printing. Before we examine a way to gain this personal touch, let's get one thing straight: there's no sense getting involved with your own printing unless you handle your own negative developing.

Below: Hong Kong Market, 1976. Tri-X 400. Exposure: Spot reading on highlights, +1.5 stop compensation. Processing: D-76 1:1, 8 minutes (-25% recommended), 30 second agitation cycle.

                                   

 Personalizing Negatives

The first step in gaining control over your negatives is knowing the look of the negative you want to produce. Some printers like dense negatives (slightly overdeveloped and/or overexposed), while others prefer thin negatives (slightly underexposed and/or underdeveloped.) This preference has to do with a number of factors, including the type of light source you print with (generally, printing with a condenser type head means you'll go for thinner negatives, while denser negatives are preferred by those using a cold light head); what a favorite negative looks like (by accident, one negative prints perfectly for you; though you can't put your finger on what made it happen, you know you want to have it happen again); and the feeling a negative imparts to a print (this may have to do with contrast, but it also can be the grain or the amount of detail in shadow areas.)

All these preferences are valid, but they are too often a subjective matter, one that can't be quantified or qualified by graphs and charts. The point is to be able to reach your goal consistently, and be able to produce the kind of negative you want without having to resort to luck. This can be accomplished by running a few tests, and then sticking to a technique you'll follow again and again.

Givens: Stick to the Plan

The first given in this procedure is that you'll stay with a set time and temperature: we do this to cut down on the number of variables in film development. Then we'll use a certain way of reading exposures. For example, if you read through-the-lens (TTL), with a handheld incident meter, or with a spot meter, stick with it; if you meter highlights and shadows and average, spot meter shadow or highlight readings and compensate, or allow your in-camera autoexposure meter to average readings, keep it the same throughout.

Once you've set up your “house” rules you can begin to make subtle changes in film processing. 

Agitation, Pours, and Dilution

While it's known that agitation can have an effect on film development, it's not generally understood that the fashion in which film is agitated can result in thinner or denser negatives. Some agitate gently, while others shake film cans as if they're mixing a martini. Some may use drums mounted on electric rollers, while others agitate every 30 seconds or once a minute. Again, stick to your method, but understand that changing it slightly can have an effect on results.

Removing chemistry from a film developing tank after each step is done in various ways--some people start their pour 15 seconds before the end of each step, others wait until the total developing time is elapsed. If you wait until time is expired you're actually adding from 10 to 30 seconds developing time. There's no right or wrong here--we're just interested in controlling the process. Be consistent.

The same goes for developer dilution--some dilute 1:1 for more even tones (or whatever your developer solution requires), while others use a lower dilution ratio than suggested for the added "punch" it gives negatives. Stick with a dilution time after time until you find out how it alters the look of the image; try another if you're dissatisfied.

Once you've lined up all your procedures, and made sure that you follow them consistently, you're ready to begin a test that will help you determine how to apply your personal disciplines to getting the best results from your film. You'll need three rolls of film and developing tools and chemicals.

Below: White Sands, 1982, Kodak Plus-X, shot at ISO 100. Exposure: f/11 at 1/500 second, spot reading on highlight with +1 exposure compensation. Developed in D-76 1:1 for 8 minutes, 30 second agitation cycle.

Film Test: Ringarounds

Load your preferred film in your camera and set the meter at the film's rated speed--ISO 400, for example. Find a scene, or set one up, that has a 5-stop brightness range. For example, use a scene with f/4 for a shadow reading and f/16 for a highlight, with all tones in between. Don't pick a high-contrast scene where you have a bright highlight and deep shadow. Set the shutter speed so that the "correct" (or averaged) exposure is f/8. (Thus, if the meter reads f/5.6 at 1/500 sec, alter the balance to get a reading of f/8 at 1/250 sec.) Do this with three rolls of film. On each roll make three five-stop brackets of the scene; shoot one set at ISO 100, one at the normal setting of ISO 400 and the last at ISO 1600. In other words, shoot a series at f/4, f/5.6, f/8, f/11 and f/16 at ISO 100, 400 and 1600. This is your exposure ringaround.

Load each onto a separate reel. Develop one roll in your normal fashion, with whatever time, temperature and dilution you normally use. Develop the next roll at 50% over your normal developing time, then the last roll at 30% less than your normal time. Keep time, temperature and agitation cycle constant throughout. In other words, if your normal time is 10 min, develop roll #2 at 15 min and roll #3 at 7 min. After the negatives are dry, make contact sheets (on a “normal” or #2 grade paper or by using a variable contrast #2 filter) of each set or simply check the negatives with a loupe.

Study the negatives and/or contact sheet; find the negative that has the richest tonal range, with detail in the shadow areas and controlled, printable highlights. Once you've chosen the negative, note where it appears on the ringaround and see how it was obtained.

Judging Results and Making Adjustments

If the prime negative was of the averaged reading developed normally, then your technique is right on target and you can go on your merry way. But if the prime negative is, say, the averaged reading negative developed plus 50%, then you've got some adjusting to do. Adjustments can be made in either your camera meter setting or your developing time. Let's say that the best negative is obtained at the f/5.6 setting with normal developing time--in this case, you can rate the ISO 400 film at EI 200 when using your metering system. Don't be afraid of "fooling" the camera--all you're doing is recalibrating your system for optimum results.

Or, if your best results were obtained with the plus 50% developing time at the f/11 setting you can adjust your meter to EI 800 for an ISO 400 film and adjust developing times accordingly. After you've made the necessary adjustments, refine the test even further by shooting a few rolls of everyday scenes at the new settings and developing times. You may end up clipping a few seconds of the time, or changing your meter setting by 1/3 or 1/2-stop (changing ISO is the easiest way to do this.)

Each camera/metering system you own should be subjected to this test, as each one represents a variable. However, if your results are really out of whack have the unit serviced. No amount of fine tuning can make up for a truly faulty system. Also, you can change results somewhat by going from a once a minute to a 30 sec agitation cycle (this increases developer activity); adding a degree or two to solution temperature; or switching to a different dilution. Whatever you do, be consistent.

Below: West River, 1982, Tri-X at ISO 320. Exposure: f/8 at 1/125 second, CWA metering, no exposure compensation. Developed in D-76 1:1 for 8 minutes, 1 minute agitation cycle.

                             

One side benefit of this test is that it can open your eyes to how negatives can be manipulated with time and exposure variations. You may find yourself having very strong feelings about a particular scene and decide to expose and develop it accordingly. The test will give you a reference catalog of all the variables and their consequences. You'll see negatives that are overexposed and overdeveloped, underexposed and overdeveloped, underexposed and underdeveloped, and so forth. This can also become a guide for tracing mistakes and problems. In any case, knowing the procedures that will give you the negatives you need gives you a real sense of control over your photography.

Roll and Sheet Film

Note that these procedures are easily done when using sheet film, as you can customize processing and settings for each frame. On roll film my procedure was to have one camera for "normal" contrast and one for high-contrast scenes. (I even swapped film mid-roll at times using a changing bag or simply finished a roll in the same general lighting conditions.) 

Be Consistent to Get Consistent Results

Everyone is an individual, and each person's technique should be a tool, rather than a hindrance in expressing that singular vision. By customizing your procedures and shooting for your individual tastes you'll be getting the most out of every situation. There's no need to have every piece of equipment you own calibrated, or to make graphs and charts of developing curves, but you need to be consistent and know the consequences of your actions. If you follow this course you'll gain the most photographic freedom and produce the best possible negatives for your printing.