I recently bought a Kodak enlarging exposure scale to try and simplify making test strips. It looks like this...
The numbers in the circles correspond to different exposure values. Place the transparent sheet on a piece of photographic paper and expose for 60 seconds. The values in the circles then correspond to the number of seconds of exposure. They are divided into roughly 1/2 stop intervals. My conventional test strips consist of a strip of photographic paper that I cover incrementally in the order of 8, 11,16, 22, 32, 45, 64 seconds which are 1/2 stop intervals. I decided to try this new method with a number of prints I had planned for the weekend. This one is of a tractor badge I liked which was in the back garden of a house we rented at one time.
To use the test wheel in split grade printing I cut a 5"x10" strip from my 8x10 sheet of paper. I place the paper on the easel where I want to make my test. Then I place the test wheel on one end of the paper and cover the other half of the paper with thick black paper so it does not get exposed. I then make my number 5 filter exposure for 60 seconds. Next I move the other (covered) end of the paper to the same spot on the easel and then put the test wheel on top of that end. I then make my #00 exposure for 60 seconds. If the guess of the aperture is correct (in this case f11) the the test print should look like this.
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| Test wheels f11 #5 on left #00 on right |
From this my first full print I determined to be #5 at 12 seconds and #00 at 6 seconds with the following result.
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| Fordson Badge #5 at 12 seconds and #00 at 6 seconds |
Too light and the sky was too white. I like the sky to be defined from the border. So I flashed the paper at f32 for 8" to bring the light areas up more. The result...
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| Fordson Badge #5 at 12 seconds and #00 at 6 seconds with 8 second flash. |
This is a bit better. I found the test wheel a little difficult to get used to. It imposes a structure on the image which can make it sometimes difficult to see the image. It requires much less attention as there is no moving of a piece of paper to cover up more of the test strip in the conventional case. This makes it less error prone for me. I am going to continue to use it.
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