*Photo of filters by Klaas De Buysser

Unless you’ve purchased a color enlarger that has a color head and adjustable magenta, yellow, and cyan filters, you will need a set of contrast filters for your black and white film enlarger. The most well-known contrast filters out there are Ilford Multigrade Filters. They come in a small white box or in a rack, and can be purchased new on Amazon or other websites for around 40 dollars. Again, take a look at craigslist and see if anyone in your area is selling them.

Contrast filters are necessary for increasing or decreasing the amount of contrast in your print. If your test prints are coming out much too gray, then increasing the number of your filter will increase the contrast, making the whites whiter and the blacks blacker. Everyone has a different preference when it comes to deciding which contrast filter to start with, but I have always found for my purposes that a contrast filter of 3 suits me well when I’m working on a black and white enlarger.

Changing your contrast filter as you do test prints will also affect your exposure times, so don’t expect the same results in exposure when changing from a 3 to a 3 1/2 or a 4.

The first photograph here mimics the effect of a lower contrast filter. The second illustrates the effect of using a contrast filter higher in number.

Read my other article about Choosing a Contrast Filter.