Targets printing light in the highlights

I just downloaded Piezography Professional 2.2.1, got a new i1 spectophotometer, as well as switching to my home darkroom to work on my images and wanted to spend some time trying to linearize several processes. Basically with all the new variables I wanted to start over with my workflow. I started with silver gelatin for curiosity and thinking it would speed up the learning curve. I am working on the Espson 3880 with the K7 selenium inkset and using Pictorico Ultra premium for the substrate. I printed the PiezoDN-256step-i1Pro2.tif from Print Tool 2.1.1 using the PiezoDN-silver.quad. (processing in dektol 1:2 for 2.5 minutes) After figuring out base print time using a stouffer step wedge and looking for minimum print time through blank Pictorico I printed the target negative onto Ilford fiber gloss, matte, and the textured art papers. I exposed the paper under my durst enlarger. All three seem to progress to white way too quickly. Any thoughts on what I did wrong?


You can probably double your exposure and would be just fine.

Silver printing doesn’t always require min-time or at least the min-time is actually elongated way far. Most likely the black is actually NOT that black on your max dmax right there and you have a ways to go to incrementally increase it.

best regards,
Walker

So expose more for good highlight rendition? basically use the target negative and test print for the highlights?

use basic darkroom skills. You are printing on multigrade paper (you can change filters) and generally silver paper does not reverse during over-exposure so there is way more latitude that with PtPd here. If need be you can go through the curve limit or tuning workflow as documented to open your highlights with your current exposure/filter setup. I generally recommend calibrating at a 0 or 00 filter as this creates the least noise.

best,
Walker

I have had this problem too. I don’t know how the silver master curve can possibly work for any kind of silver paper. It is way way too dense. Just print the limiter target and go through the limiting workflow, it’ll be fine. The tip about printing grade 0 is good for noise mediation, but you need a vacuum easel, or a very tight contact frame to avoid flare on high contrast areas (especially test charts )

I calibrated this curve with a condenser enlarger (approx 16 secs f/8) dev’d in sprint chem on ilford MG IV at #2 filter.

But that was long long ago. That being said, the DR is about 1.8 or so and that is what silver paper needs. The exposure in the photos above is too little.

best,
Walker

Maybe something is messed up with my printer/driver/curve or something, cuz with a densitometer, the penultimate patch reads 2.6… this has been the case at latitude and other printers as well. I just took to limiting it, but yeah, I was expecting it to be a typical density.

Really it’s not that last patch but the second to last minus the film density

-Walker

Sorry, missed this. That’s just straight, not fb+fog, but even so, pictorico is only .06 base