These relatively simple, economical test will show you that papers and films are not all alike each has a 'personality' that will influence the look of your prints. Again, inspection of the film curves' contours can suggest their affect on print image gradation. A relatively simple test procedure can determine the paper's effective contrast grade, and inspection of the paper's characteristic curve contours and tell you a great deal about how that paper will affect the distribution of tones in the final print image.Ī similar film test, analyzed in this case with a transmission densitometer, can provide reliable exposure and development data that you can use to produce negatives that closely ÒmatchÓ your chosen paper. Sensitometric control begins with analysis of printing paper characteristics, and that requires a reflection densitometer. The information that densitometers can proved can unquestionably make you a better technician, and quite possibly - if you have the soul of an aesthete - a more confident artist as well. 'Knowledge is power,' they say, and that certainly applies here. The connection is clear: image quality depends to a considerable degree on gradation gradation is controlled to a large extent by the characteristics of film, film developer, and paper and densitometers can analyze these characteristics with precision. In other words, densitometers are to photographers what tape measures and levels are to carpenters certainly you can get along without them, but they make your work easier and more efficient.īlack-and-white densitometers are most useful to that relatively small subset of photographers who work in large format black-and-white and who are seriously interested in increasing their ability to predict and control the quality of their photographs. Photographers who comprehend the significance of this information and bother to apply it, can save both time and supplies, and gain better control of the processes than is otherwise likely. The best argument in favor of densitometers is that they provide objective information about materials' characteristics and process behavior. Densitometers have always seemed outrageously expensive. Many photographers who might find densitometers helpful if they were aware of the potential benefits, donÕt understand what sensitometry can do for them, and aren't motivated to investigate.ģ. The vast majority or photographers aren't involved in darkroom work to any significant degree, so they have no use for densitometers.Ģ. Similarly, densitometers are valuable for measuring negative and print densities for the purpose of process control - but very few photographers own them. Most large format photographers will agree that exposure meters are valuable tools for measuring light intensity or subject luminance, and most use them regularly. The Heiland TRD 2 Densitometer - by Phil Davis

Print neat calibration sheet