Wet printing a frame from the Barras in June, HP5 in the M6 with the 35. Old fella behind his stall of brass door handles, sun coming through a gap in the awning onto half his face, the other half in deep shadow, and a wall of handles glinting behind him.
On the neg it's all there. On paper I can either have his shadow side open and the handles gone to grey mush, or the handles sparkling and his face disappearing into a black hole. Split grade, grade 1 for 18s and grade 4.5 for 9s, dodging the face during the 4.5 exposure. Better, but the transition across his nose looks like it's been drawn with a ruler.
Anyone got a cleaner way through this? Flashing? Pre-exposure? Three boxes of paper in on this one. Send help.