Black and White Photography

3. Cut the sheet of paper into three or four strips. You will need just one strip

for the test, so put the others safely away in the paper box (or paper safe)

for the future. You can use a full sheet of paper for the test but this is more

costly and not really necessary (although a full sheet of paper will yield

more information than a small strip).

4. Lay the strip of paper under the easel blades, emulsion side up. Identifying

the emulsion can be difficult, depending on the paper type, but in general

the emulsion side appears to be a little shinier than the base, and the paper

tends to curl toward it.

With experience you will learn where to place the strip of paper in the

easel to provide the best test result. Look at the projected image and position

the strip in an area with good distribution of light and dark areas.

Avoid areas that are totally light or totally dark, since tests made in these

areas aren’t useful when trying to judge the correct exposure for the entire

image.

5. Cover about four-fifths of the strip with an opaque mask—one that blocks

light entirely, such as a piece of cardboard, a book, or (closed) printing

paper package. Don’t use a sheet of paper since it’s not fully opaque; it

will let some light through.

6. Set the enlarging timer for 4 seconds. This is a starting point only; the time

you will actually need can vary widely, depending on many factors, including

the density of the negative, brightness of the enlarging bulb, size

of image enlargement, speed of the printing paper, and variable-contrast

filter (if you are using one).

7. Expose the section of the paper that’s not covered by the mask. You usually do this by pushing a button on your enlarging timer. This will make a 4- second exposure on one-fifth of the paper strip, while leaving the rest of the strip unexposed. 8. Move the mask so it exposes another one-fifth of the strip. Do this by lifting the mask off the paper and gently laying it back down in the desired spot, taking care not to move the strip in the process. To ensure that the test strip doesn’t move, you should put the ends of the strip under the easel blades. 9. Expose for another 4 seconds. This will produce a total exposure of 8 seconds in the section first exposed (4 plus 4) and 4 seconds in the second

section.

10. Move the mask and expose the strip two more times, as directed in steps 8

and 9. This will produce total exposures of 16, 12, 8, and 4 seconds in the

various sections.

11. Remove the mask altogether and expose the entire strip for a final 4 seconds.

Now the strip has five sections with a range of five different exposures