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Basic Darkroom Techniques: Drydown
There is a strange phenomenon in Black&White printing which some people call "dry down". As the print drys the tones darken a bit, making whites a bit grayer. That is why you have to dry the print during the test print process to make sure you have the right finished tones. There is, however, another solution to having to dry the print between each exposure, that will enable you to make your prints the way you want them in the darkroom. The idea is to determine what the "dry down percentage" is for your paper, and then to reduce the exposure on the final print by that percentage.Determining Dry Down Compensation Percentage
- Make a 'perfect' print where the highlights are bright and show the required texture.
View this print in your normal darkoom viewing environment.
A change in viewing environment will make a slight change in the appearance of a print, so set up a viewing environment that will be stable for all your sessions. I use a 60watt bulb overhead, you might use an inspection lamp of say 15watts at a distance of say 2 feet from the print, whatever you use, you will have to change your dry down compensation if you change the environment later
- Keep that print wet, write down the exposure information in your notebook.
- Make several more prints at reduced times. One at -3%, one at -4%, one at -5%, all the way up to -10%. Write the percent correction on the print, either on the back or in the corner.
- Process these prints normally, dry them, if you normally tone your prints, tone these prints.
- Cut these prints across a highlight area, so that you can lay the dried print on top of the wet print to compare highlights.
- Lay the dried prints on top of the wet print, in a well lit area, preferably under the same kind of light that the prints will be displayed in.
- Decide which dried print matches the wet one. One of them will be right.
- Record the compensation percentage used to make the dry print. This is the percentage you will use for this brand of paper.
- Repeat this process for the other brands of paper you use.
Using the dry down percentage
When you make a print in the future, you can look at in the same light as you used for your test, in the darkroom, while the print is wet. Adjust all your exposure with the wet print, and find the best exposure.Then, when everything is as you want it, you will adjust the exposure by the amount calculated above. In the example above you would reduce the exposure by 5 percent. So if the exposure for this print was 40 seconds, you would reduce that to 38 seconds for your final print. There are enlarger timers that have the dry down percentage built into them, so that all you do is set the percentage dry down, and then use the same exposure time, but not everyone can afford one of those. Round the exposure adjustment to one second, it should be close enough. Try it, see if it works as well for you as it does for me.
