418 



HANDBOOK OF PHOTOGRAPHY 



lights produce a just perceptible deposit of silver. The deep shadow will now be full 

 black, but so will many tones which are merely approaching the shadow end of the 

 subject brightness scale. On the other hand suppose the paper is so exposed that the 

 deepest shadows only are black. Now the high lights will be white, but there will be 

 many tones toward the high-light end of the subject scale which will also be white. 

 Thus a portrait may show a totally blank white face — no half tones. 



If, however, a subject with a range of only 40 is printed on a paper with a scale of 

 50, different results will occur. If the paper is exposed so that the high lights produce 

 a just perceptible blackening, the shadows will be gray and muddy because fifty times 

 as much exposure is needed to make this paper black, while the subject produces an 

 effect only forty times as great as that produced by the high-light portion of the nega- 

 tive. If, on the other hand, the exposure is such that the shadows are black, then the 

 brightest high lights will be darker than white, and the over-all effect will be a muddy 

 and an unpleasant print. Of course, it is possible to lose tones at both ends, as by 

 using a hard negative with soft paper and placing it midway between white and black 

 on the curve. All tones will be gray. 



B/ack 



Whife 



\Whi-f-e 



^ 



Maximum 

 opacify 

 -highlignf 



Gray 

 * i Tone range 

 I of print. 



rfrue biacl< 



I never 



■' aifained White, 



Aiegfati\/e opacity range 



Tone range of 

 i, print,true 

 white never 

 attained 



Gray 



Exposure 

 range of 

 paper=50tol 



^Otot 



^Minimum 

 opacity 



\'p1ax. opacity i 



r~->K- "A^-i^in. opacity 



1 Neg.ranqe \ 



= shadow 



Exposure range of 

 paper 50 to T 



Fig. 4. 



-Production of weak, limited-tone-range prints by using paper with too long an 

 exposure range for the negative. 



It is possible to take advantage of the exposure scale of a paper in another way. 

 If a "snappy" or brilliant print is desired from a negative correctly reproducing a 

 fairly flat subject, then a contrast grade of paper may be employed. On the other 

 hand, it is possible to reduce the contrast of a subject, correctly reproduced in a nega- 

 tive, by printing that negative on a paper of less than normal contrast. This has the 

 effect of making more important the intermediate tones existing between the black 

 and white limits of the original subject. It is impossible, however, to put half tones 

 into a silhouette. If the original had no intermediate tones, such tones cannot be 

 found on the negative and cannot be printed into the positive. 



Methods of Matching Paper and Negative. — Photographers who do much work learn 

 by experience how to select paper to fit negative. But the casual printer does not 

 acquire this necessary experience. It is possible that the professional could turn out 

 better prints if he had an accurate means of measuring the scale of his negative and 

 thereby determining which grade of paper he should use. 



By means of an exposure meter, or other form of photometer, the photographer 

 can measure the transmission of light through the densest and the thinnest portions 

 of his negative. This gives an immediate index to the brightness (exposure) ratio that 

 must be accommodated by the printing paper. After measuring this range the deci- 

 sion can be made whether to use a hard or soft or a medium paper. Suitable photo- 

 metric devices are described on page 436. 



Several devices are on the market which are useful in determining the exposure 

 to give a certain negative when printing it on a certain paper. These instruments 



