The test strips I have done tell me that to get black I will need a high grade and around 35 seconds of exposure. However when creating the print I found that this grade was too intense and almost got rid of all the mid-tones in the image.
Due to this I have decided to turn down the grade to 3 which will fill in the blacks and form the image. This will then require me to use split grade printing to fill in the mid tones of the image. Test strips indicate 30 seconds at grade three and 8 seconds at grade 00. There are hairs and dust in this print so I will have to clean the negative with a fine brush and I will retry.
After the clean, the print still shows that there are hairs on the negative and there are chemical stains on the left of the image so I will have to try again.
I have reviewed the prints I made during the last session and I now think that the prints are too dark so I am going to reduce the high grade exposure to 25 seconds, which looks a lot better, however new hairs have appeared.
I have cleaned the negative again. Another different problem occurred again, it seems that the border template might have been raised slightly and has created a soft edge on the image. I will have to hold it down next time.
I have finally been able to make the print that I intended to. There are only small marks and the paper is slightly wrinkled so I may have to learn and practise how to analog spot with paints to camouflage them; and get it heat pressed flat. Since as it took a lot of mistakes to get to this point I have a lot of material that I can use to develop my spotting skill.
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