Working in the darkroom yesterday made me again appreciate how useful the PaperFlasher II is when trying to print scenes with excessive contrast. The PaperFlasher II is made by RH Designs in the UK.
The PaperFlasher II is handy when printing a dense, contrasty negative. Here’s an example of a print I made this past weekend, an image of the cenotaph at LaFleche, Saskatchewan. As a straight print this image is unsatisfactory because the direct sunlight on the south face of the cenotaph is too bright. Consequently if the paper is exposed so that the background is correct, the cenotaph’s highlights are missing – much of the area surrounding the plaque on the cenotaph remains “paper white”. Preflashing the paper, however, solves the problem – providing enough base exposure in the paper to make the highlights visible in the final image.
My only complaint with the PaperFlasher II unit is that it reverts to “power-save” mode fairly quickly, and all of the unit’s LEDs are extinguished. Hence it’s difficult to determine whether or not the unit is still switched on, and even in “power-save” mode the unit exhausts the 9-volt battery fairly quickly – I’m already on my 3rd battery. Nonetheless it’s a great unit that really works, and is essential if, as in my case, one has only one enlarger.