Printing on Multigrade Papers Using a Colorhead

Using an enlarger with a colorhead is probably the easiest way to print on multigrade papers. Instead of using polycontrast or multigrade filters to achieve different grades, a color equivalent of the filter desired can be dialed into the light source of the colorhead. Generally, higher contrast is achieved with a more magenta light source; lower contrast is achieved with a whiter light source and extremely low contrast can be produced by dialing yellow into the light source.

There are several color enlargers in the lab, located in the private darkrooms. Ask your instructor to show you how to use them. When printing with graded papers, the colorheads must be set to the "white light" setting (no color filtration). When printing with multigrade papers, the lever is flipped to the "high" setting and the appropriate amount of magenta filtration is dialed into the light source.

The following table indicates the approximate filter grade that corresponds to the filtration on the colorhead:

*M=magenta; Y=yellow

Consider these figures as starting points only. With some experience, you'll be able figure out the appropriate filtration for your negatives with the particular multigrade paper that you are using. Notice that the cyan filter on the colorhead is never used. Yellow will be used rarely.

One advantage of printing with multigrade paper on a colorhead is the ability to easily and quickly change the contrast when a negative has areas which require different contrasts. For example, burning in a stubborn highlight area (such as a dense sky) is much easier if you do this burn with white light only, even if the main exposure required a filter. For example, suppose you've determined through test strips and a few test prints that such a negative requires a filtration of 100M (approximately grade 4), but that the sky requires a burn in order to bring out tone, clouds, etc. After giving the main exposure at 100M but before doing the burn, flip the filter switch to "white" and burn in with white light (the equivalent of 0 filtration or approximately grade 1 ½ ).

Obviously, since the filtration on a colorhead is continuously variable, you are not locked into the specific contrast steps that you would be with multigrade filters (for example, 3 1/2 , 4, 4 ½, etc.). If you need exactly grade 3 ¾, then you have the ability to dial in exactly that amount of contrast on the colorhead. Additionally, since the colorhead is a diffusion light source, the field of light that it produces to project the negative tends to be more even than that produced with a regular black & white condenser enlarger (such as those in the group lab). If you find yourself regularly having to burn in the edges of your images in order to even out the overall density of the image, you might want to try printing on a colorhead, even if you are using graded papers.