Jeff White - Print Viewing

Print Viewing

Proper viewing conditions of the wet print is very important in the journey to an expressive print. Improper print viewing can result in photos that are too dark, too light or bad contrast selection. RC paper offers an advantage that Fiber paper users don't get. An RC print can be quickly dried and if the print is less than desirable it can be done over. Fiber paper users may have to wait many hours to see what a dried print will look like and if the print is different than expected, it may not be convenient to return to the darkroom and make the needed corrections. For this reason, I would recommend that you start as soon as possible creating a good work habit of having a print viewing area in your darkroom that will help to approximate the look of a dry print while looking at a wet print.

My print viewing area has a Plexiglas print stand with a light in a reflector at a high angle. I use a 75 watt bulb in the lamp, a reading of a gray card on my print viewing stand reads EV 7. My print viewing stand sets in a tray of water. After exposing a piece of paper and processing thru the first fixer, I rinse the print under running water and then place it on the print viewing stand. I will squeegee the surface water off the print and then stand back and view the print. The light is at a high enough angle to make sure that there are no light glares on the print and the print is evenly lit.

Your print viewing conditions may need to be different. The size of your darkroom, the available height above the print viewing area and your personal preferences may cause you to use a variation in viewing conditions. Through experience you can make adjustments. If your prints are consistently coming out too dark then it might be advisable to reduce the intensity of your viewing light. The reverse is true if your prints consistently too light. The most important word here is CONSISTENT. You should have a consistent viewing area and learn how to use it to help you make prints that turn out the way you envisioned consistently.