Contrast grade

Contrast Grade
Contrast Grade refers to a series of numbers and categories that characterize photographic paper.

Contrast Grade Numbers (usually 1-5) and names (soft, medium, hard, extra-hard, and ultrahard) of the contrast grades of photographic papers, to enable you to get good prints from negatives of different contrasts.

CONTRAST GRADE - A scale using numbers (generally 1 to 5) or terms (soft, medium, hard, extra-hard and ultra-hard) that refer to the contrast level of photographic papers.

contrast grade
a zero to five rating scale for photographic paper. (Zero has the lowest contrast and five the highest contrast level).

(See Contrast grade, Multigrade & Papergrade )
Grain
The sand-like, granular appearance of a negative, print or trannie. Graininess becomes more noticeable with fast films and increased size of enlargement.

Understanding Contrast Grades
To begin with, contrast is very much a function of medium. Even as facile a mechanism as the human eye has its limits.

Variable-contrast - or VC - papers permit the selection of any contrast grade between 00 and 5. These papers are coated with a mixture of three emulsions, all of equal contrast and sensitivity to blue light.

Traditionally, papers came as graded, or in standard contrast grades, from 1, which is flat, to 5, which is very contrasty, with 2 or 3 being standard. So, to make an image more or less contrasty you would need to change papers.

Graded Paper: Black and white photo paper that is manufactured on specific contrast grades. Normally expressed as a scale from 1-5, with 5 being the highest contrast.

let you do things like produce conversions with the 'looks' of real black-and-white films or even create your own 'film' spectral sensitivity, add realistic film grain, simulate the effects of different traditional multigrade paper contrast grades ...

See also: Contrast, Photograph, Light, Camera, Grade