Anyone else out there can correct me if I'm wrong, but the filters do the same thing in printing from a color neg - correct any problems with contrast.
So I would say it depends on your particular negative's original contrast BUT I hear from lots of people that for color film, they have to print with extremely high contrast - a #4 or #5 filter.
I've printed only two b&ws from a color negative and I never needed that much contrast. Remember that for anything above a #4 filter (ilford kit), you need to double your exposure time or open up your enlarger aperature one stop... You'll find the printing time is long enough as it is already for a color neg, so if you don't want to veer off f8, well I would suggest staying at a #31/2 filter or below.
I would start based on evaluating the negative. Try a #2 filter if the contrast looks high, if not, start at #31/2 and try from there.
Unfortunately, printing a color neg in b&W does involve using lots of paper. Getting the exposure time was difficult for me because we're talking minutes, not seconds. Make test strips with 20 sec. intervals at least, and incease the intervals if your test strips don't come out good.
At the end of all this, the prints don't look that right either, because color doesn't translate into the right shades of grey. Skin tones will be overly dark. Kodak's Panalure paper will correct this, but being a panchromatic paper, you'll need to work in total darkness, which is another headache I have avoided...
Regards,
Dave |
