[Leica] Medium Format Digital

[henningw at archiphoto.com (Henning Wulff)]

Unsharp masking was used in the darkroom sometimes, but anyone who 
has tried it knows what a long and painstaking process it is, and 
it's another thing that has to be done numerous times to be able to 
predict the results. Even if one does get a handle on it, it is then 
used only occasionally, and on prints that _really_ need it.

A common way to 'sharpen' was to use some kind of 'high accutance' 
developer, if the result was to be B&W. If you used a developer with 
a relatively low amount of solvent, and didn't agitate too much, you 
could easily get 'sharpened' edges. I still use a bit of that 
technique with Xtol; For a given area of film and tank volume I mix 
just enough developer with water so that the developer is close to 
exhausted by the time the process is done. One-shot naturally. That 
means in my case that HP5+ gets developed 7 rolls in an 8 roll Nikor 
tank, Xtol at 1:3, 17min total developing time with the last 5 
minutes no agitation. By that time the developer is almost exhausted, 
and the only increase in density is a slight edge enhancement 
(sharpening) and lifting of the shadow density. The result is an 
effective speed of EI 640-800, and a very slight 'sharpening'.




At 8:38 AM -0700 7/8/11, Bob Adler wrote:
>Hi Doug and all,
>
>I certainly did not feel that Mark had implied, in any way, that I 
>was misleading. I value Mark's input as he has a deep understanding 
>of photography and photo techniques both in film and digital arenas.
>
>So thank you Doug ( and others) for coming to my defense, but I took 
>Mark's input as valuable constructive (and correct) observations. 
>And I learned that I like a bit of sharpening!
>
>Does anyone know how sharpening was done in a darkroom? Was it in 
>the selection of the paper contrast or something else?
>Best,
>Bob
>
>Bob Adler
>http://www.rgaphoto.com
>
>On Jul 8, 2011, at 3:11 AM, Doug Herr <wildlightphoto at earthlink.net> 
>wrote:
>
>>  Mark Rabiner wrote:
>>
>>>  I will say the so called unsharpened ones dong look at this mag not 
>>> soft.
>>>  They seem to have an edge even.
>>
>>  If you're accustomed to working with AA-filtered files, 
>>medium-format digital can be quite a revelation.  Bob has no reason 
>>to mislead us; this is what I expect to see from his camera at that 
>>location.  Technically his photos look like DMR*5.
>>
>>  Doug Herr
>>  Birdman of Sacramento
>>  http://www.wildlightphoto.com
>>
>>
>>
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-- 

       Henning J. Wulff
  Wulff Photography & Design
mailto:henningw at archiphoto.com
   http://www.archiphoto.com