Contrast - Print Making

Contrast is the characteristic that makes a photograph stand out from a snapshot. Contrast adds clarity to a photograph. Contrast is defined as the relative lightness and darkness of different areas of a scene. The goal in making a good photograph is to get a full-scale print that has a complete range of tones that gives the photo a realistic sense of texture and material. A full scale print will have a visible texture in the shadow area of the print that resulted from proper exposure of the film. The highlight area of the print should also have a visible texture that results mostly from the proper processing of the film and the proper exposure of the photo paper. Contrast can be effected by the lighting of the subject as well as the processing of the film or the contrast of the photo paper or the development of the photo paper. Lots of details to pay attention to for a good print. All must work together. A low contrast lighting can be improved with a high contrast film processing.

Printing on a low contrast paper like a #1 or perhaps Polycontrast paper without the proper filter can result in a low contrast print. Lacking in difference between shadows and highlights this photo needed more contrast in the printing process. Details in the shadow are visible as well as in the highlights which indicates the problem was in the print processing. Most common error for this is a print that was given too much light by the enlarger to allow the print to stay in the developer until full tones develop. A print that is pulled from the developer before a full minute minimum because it came up TOO FAST will lack in contrast.

Printing a high contrast negative that was probably over exposed a little and over developed in the HC110 making it too dark can lead to a contrasty print like this one. Loss of detail in both the shadows and the highlights is the result. This print can be rescued by using a lower contrast paper such as a #2 or polycontrast paper without a filter. In our lab polycontrast paper does not get as good of a contrast as a graded, number 3 paper does.

There may be occasions where a photographter wants to intentionally make a print lower in contrast or higher in contrast for an effect. The key is that it was intentional and a plan made in advance and there is some artistic reason for the change in expression of the reality of the photo.

Negative Contrast - what does a normal negative look like and what does a high contrast negative look like? Below are some samples for you to judge. These are the negatives used for the prints above.


				A normal negative will have some areas of darkness as you see here, but the key is actually in the DETAIL in the texture visible in the film. IF detail can be seen in the clear areas the film was properly exposed. IF detail is visible in the highlights or dark areas then it was processed correctly. FULL TONE is the key. A good negative will usually have a nice neutral gray in the mid tones as you see in this negative.



		Contrasty Negatives have pluged or filled in detail in the highlight areas which are the black areas of the negative. Notice also how there are not many neutral gray tones in this negative. Detail is also lost in the shadows or clear areas which means the film was under exposed. This was likely the result of over development of the film to make up for an under exposure.

Low contrast negatives like this one have too much detail in the shadows. There are too many neutral gray tones and the whole negative is THIN, lacking in density or darkness. This usually comes from under developed film. The cure may come from a higher contrast paper, but ideally things should have been done from the start. Sometimes these negatives will be very clear lacking in detail in the shadows which may have come from exposure AND processing problems.