This process appears to be long and complex, but I think that after you
have done a couple of prints, you will find it relatively easy.
Please read the whole process and think about what you are doing before proceeding.

I am assuming that you are starting with a fairly normal negative
(one with a good density range).

Prepare Solutions

Mix up chemicals - developer, stop bath and fixer and pour into development trays - See Chemicals - Print for dilution rates and capacities.

Under no circumstances backward contaminate your processing solutions. Each tray should have its own set of rubber tongs, and they must stay in the proper trays. If you accidentally contaminate your developing solution with stop bath or fixer, pour the developer down the drain and mix up a new batch. I always label my tongs, so that I always begin my processing with them in the correct solution.

Compose Image And Focus

Place your negative (emulsion side down - dull side) into the enlargers negative carrier, turn off the room lights and turn on the enlarger. This will project your negative onto the enlargers baseboard, or onto an easel, if you have one. If you have an easel, adjust it to accommodate the paper size you will be using - 8x10 for example.......some easels will allow you to set the borders 1/8th inch less than the paper size.......this gives you a nice white 1/8th inch border on your finished print.

Crank the enlargers body up or down to roughly format the image onto the easel (the part of the image that you want to be your final composition - Note: you cannot print all of a 35mm negative onto the 8x10 inch format
See - Image Composition

Turn off all lights except the safelight, otherwise you will have too much light with which to accurately focus the negative. Set the enlarger's lens aperture to either full open (brightest light) or a few stops from full open. All you need here is sufficiently bright light with which to focus without squinting. Now adjust the focus knob on the enlargers head to bring the image into sharp focus.......this can be done with the naked eye, or you can use a grain focusing aid if you have one (adjust the grain focuser until the grain "snaps" into focus). You may now have to readjust your image to fit the easel, and then refocus again, since changing the focus may have made the image too small to fill the easel.

Lights

Turn off the enlarger - room lights may be on at this point.

Set The Enlargers Lens Aperture

Set the enlarger lens in the range of f-5.6 to f-8 (or the middle of your lens f-stop range).

The f-stop of the lens controls the amount of light that is projected onto the easel.

The timer, controls how long that same amount of light is projected to the easel.

Set The Timer

As a starting point for an 8x10 exposure, set the timer that the enlarger is plugged into, for a 3 second exposure. If an 11x14 exposure, try 4 or 5 seconds as a starting point.

Set The Filter Pack

If you are using variable contrast paper, then as a starting point, set the neutral density acetate filter pack (thin acetate filters that slide into a drawer in the enlargers head, between the light source and the negative) with a single 2.0 filter or a combination of filters that add up to 2.0

Note: I am suggesting a starting filter pack of 2.0 because I am assuming the reader is new to darkroom work and may not have produced an ideal negative. Normally a perfect negative should make a nice print with a filter pack in the range of 0 to 2.

If this is your first time using the acetate filters, you may find that they are too big to fit into your enlargers filter drawer - simply trim them with a pair of scissors, being careful not to cut off the imprinted filter density rating.

If you are not using variable contrast paper then choose a grade 2 paper or possibly grade 3 if you don't have grade 2.

Lights

Turn off the enlarger and all room lights and make sure that the door is closed and locked. Your safelight can be on.

Cut Test Strips

Under safelight illumination, cut a sheet of undeveloped 8x10 paper into approximately, 8 - 1 inch strips.

Place A Test Strip Onto The Easel

Place shiny side up (emulsion side) and position diagonally across the easel, to ensure a broad sampling of the final image.

Make Test Exposures

Press the timers start button and expose the test strip, or a whole sheet of paper for 3 seconds. Now take a piece of cardboard, or something similar and cover approximately 1/5th of the paper or strip. Expose the paper again for another 3 seconds. Move the cardboard to now cover 2/5ths of the paper. Expose for another 3 seconds. Continue until you have done the last 5th of the paper. What you have just made is a test print with a range of exposure of 3 seconds to 15 seconds.
Note: - You could use a full sheet of paper for this step, but it is rather wasteful and expensive to do so.

Process The Test

Now take the exposed paper out of the easel and carry it over to where you have the 3 trays of chemicals lined up.

• Developer

  Set the timer for 2 minutes -

I use 2 minutes for developing, but you may use anything from 1.5 min to 3 minutes. Once you decide on a length of development that you like, for consistency reasons adopt it as your default development time and use it almost exclusively.

• Start the timer and place the exposed paper face down in the developer. Rock the tray gently back and forth, continually and slowly (lift and lower one corner of the tray every second) - this will ensure complete surface coverage with the developer, and uniform development of the print. Theoretically you will achieve a more uniform development if you develop 8x10 prints in 11x14 trays and 11x14 prints in 16x20 trays. The reason for this is that the solution will flow and mix during development better in the larger tray and there will not be as great a risk of the developer becoming depleted in any one spot. However you can generally achieve very good results with using 8x10 trays with 8x10 paper, etc.

• After a few seconds you may carefully grab the edge of the paper with a pair of rubber tongs and turn it right side up in the tray (this will allow you to see the "magic" of the image appearing).

• 10 seconds before the 2 minutes has expired, grab the paper with the tongs and lift it above the developer and allow excess solution to drain off of the print.

Stop Bath

• Place the paper face down into the Stop Bath solution and agitate slowly for 10 seconds.

Fixer

Place the paper face down into the Fixer solution and agitate slowly.

• Resin Coated Paper - 1 Minute

• Fiber based Paper - 2 Minutes

For a test strip, you don't have to wash the paper, just evaluate it while it is still in the fixer tray.

• "PermaWash" or "Hypo Clearing Agent"

  OPTIONAL - and for final print only! Don't waste the time on this step if you are only doing a test strip.

Note: Clearing agents are used to reduce washing times of prints - not generally needed if you are using resin coated papers, as the chemicals cannot soak into the paper as they would with fiber based papers. If you are short on fresh water, then this is worth looking into as the clearing agent will cut your washing times dramatically. Generally follow the manufacturers directions, or the times below. Wash water should be approximately 68 degrees Fahrenheit.
Note: If you plan to tone the final print, then you must use PermaWash or Hypo Clearing Agent, even if you are using resin coated paper. If you attempt to tone without using a clearing agent, then your finished prints will probably be stained or mottled.
See - Toners

• Resin Coated Paper

  • 1 minute in running water pre wash

  • 1 minute in PermaWash or Hypo Clearing Agent

  • 3 minutes in running water

• Fiber Based Paper

  • 3 minutes in running water pre wash

  • 5 minutes in PermaWash or Hypo Clearing Agent

  • 15 minutes in running water

Wash time if NOT using PermaWash or Hypo Clearing Agent

• Resin Coated Paper

  • 5 minutes in running water.

Wash water should be approximately 68 degrees Fahrenheit.

• Single Weight Fiber Based Paper

  • 1 Hour in running water.

• Double Weight Fiber Based Paper

  • 2 Hours in running water.

Dry The Print

Remove and allow to air dry (in the case of a test print you don't really have to let it dry, as all you are trying to determine is a reasonable length of time with which to set the exposure for your final print). You may also squeegee the print in order to remove excess water from the surface and speed drying.

Evaluate The Print, and Correct the Exposure

Now that you have a test strip or print with exposure strips of 3, 6, 9, 12, and 15 seconds, choose the time that is closest to correct exposure, or if the test strips are all too light or too dark, select a new range of time, or adjust the lens aperture and do a second test print.
Note: Leave the filter pack set 2.0 for now. It can be changed later to correct the contrast (see below).

Evaluate The Print Again, and Correct the Contrast

Now that your print looks overall correct as to the relationship of whites to blacks (exposure), it may still need an adjustment to the contrast. If it is overly contrasty then you need to reduce the value of the filter pack. Conversely, if the print lacks contrast, then you will need to add a higher value of filter pack.

Note: I suggested a starting filter pack of 2.0 above, because I am assuming the reader is new to darkroom work and may not have produced an ideal negative. Normally a perfect negative should be printed with a pack of 0 to 2.

If you were using a filter pack in the range of 0 to 3.5 then all the filters will do is change the contrast, not the exposure. Because the filters have neutral density, the exposure should stay the same, even though you increase or decrease the filter pack. In other words if you have a properly exposed print (darkness or lightness), (but poor contrast), then changing the filter pack anywhere in the range of 0 to 3.5 should not require an adjustment in either the exposure time or the lens f-stop.

On the other hand, if you were to add filtration in the range of 0 to 3.5 to a print that had not had any filtration used for the original printing, then you would have to increase the exposure by 1 f-stop - Example: f11 to f8 (larger lens opening = lower f-stop number = more light to print = more exposure = darker print).

If you were to increase the filter pack from the 0-3.5 range, to the 4 to 5 range, then you would need to increase the exposure by an additional f-stop, or going from the 4 to 5 range down to the 0-3.5 range you would have to decrease the exposure by 1 f-stop.

The Final Print

Expose a new sheet of paper for the time you have chosen and then process and dry as before. Again evaluate your print and add or subtract a small amount of exposure or filtration as necessary until you are satisfied with the final result. Fiber based prints are best dried in a print roll or on a print drier - this will minimize curling of the paper. Dry resin coated papers by placing them on a rack and they will air dry, curl free.

This all takes practice and experience, which unfortunately takes time - be patient. You will eventually be able to look at a negative and estimate the exposure time and filter pack and be fairly close - after all, most of the negatives will be of similar density.

Note: I would always start with the same lens aperture for the enlarger, that way all you will need to establish is the exposure time (via test strips), - I suggest that the starting filter pack should always be about 2.0 and the lens aperture f-5.6 or f-8 - this is the easiest way to build consistency. Once the print looks proper as to the relationship of whites to blacks, then you can proceed to adjust the contrast if necessary(see above).

Also, make notes - for each negative that you successfully print, record the exposure time; aperture; filter pack; print size; and distance from the easel to the lens (inches or centimeters). With these figures, you can easily duplicate a print that you have previously printed - test strips won't be required a second time.

Remember, paper is expensive, so don't be in a hurry to make a good print. Darkroom work is all about patience and a feel for the medium that you are working with, and lastly good darkroom work is all about experience.

My friends and I will sometimes labor over one print for hours, just to get it exactly right. If you want to run off 24 different prints in an afternoon, then you may as well close the darkroom and take the roll of film to the local photo lab for processing the prints.