LESSON 2
(1) With your negatives placed on the printing glass, you are now
ready to make a test exposure. Place the photo paper, emulsion down, on the
negatives.
(2) With the paper in place, raise the padded back and clamp it down
securely on the glass so the negatives and paper are in direct contact. Now
flip the frame over so the glass side is facing up at the projection
printer.
(3) Now you are ready to make the first exposure. Start by giving
the entire sheet of paper a twosecond exposure.
(4) Next, cover a portion of the paper approximately 1 to 2 inches
wide with a piece of cardboard or other opaque material, and make another
exposure of two seconds. A sample of this procedure is shown in Figure 23.
Repeat this procedure to make as many exposures as needed to bracket the
correct exposure.
(5) After development, there are, on one sheet of paper, five bands
with exposures of 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10 seconds. From this test you should
easily be able to determine the correct exposure time.
(6) Inspect the test strip. Determine the best exposure by observing
any of the highlight areas. The highlight areas should be slightly darker
than the base of the paper that didn't receive any exposure. The highlight
areas should contain detail. Too much exposure is indicated when the
highlight areas are much darker than unexposed material. If the highlights
are not correct on any of the test strips, run a new series of tests using
more or less exposure as indicated.
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