Photography Research Institute Carson Endowment

What Variable Contrast Photography Paper Proved

You have just shown your images to what you regard as a highly knowledgeable person. That person made an unpleasant remark about your images. It’s a subjective comment. After all how can you make an objective remark about an image? It is a personal judgment as perceived by that viewer. This all leading into a discussion about a study of printing  black and white photographs from a black and white negative.

In the middle of the last century, maybe before or maybe after, a photography paper manufacture decided to run a test on the exposure of a brand of variable contrast photography paper to see what contrast and exposure to use when printing a particular black and white negative. Paper was under expose to over expose and several steps in between these two extreme exposures(including what the print maker considered was the correct exposure). This procedure was repeated using each of the paper’s contrast filters. The paper was then developed, fixed, washed, and dried. The finished prints were then mounted on a wall where a large number of people walking by viewed them. These people were asked which photograph they liked best. The hypothesis was that there was one correct contrast exposure combination, which equaled the best photograph.

The point of all this is that no one photograph was picked as best!

With the photograph, print, picture, or artistic expression, the best pick is that the client bought or if the client did not buy, then it is the one that the creator of the expression chose. Nevertheless, if after all is said and done, it is the the one that was paid for by the buyer. All else is irrelevant discussion.