Printing session, inside the darkroom... as you should

OK!
Over here in Ålesund, Norway there's still no cruise ships as for yet. Strange actually, as this fjord is one of the most sought after fjords in Norway to cruise into. But there will soon enough be enough of them big lumps of steel, I would think.
And as always I will probably feel the the urge to bath naked when those big things appear in the fjord with myriads of tourists on board, and flashes flashing my way. I'm quite calm about it though, because they all only got some bad digital zooms anyway.

I've been in the darkroom, as you might know.
I did a few prints, and this series would be one of them. Michael, the chap over in northern Ireland knows how to do this, and I might have learned a few bits from him. Andrea in the darkroom out there on the Outer Hebrides also knows how to do it. Explain how things are done and to make a great looking print, that is. Right now I don't have the time, as usual, to do this properly. Or that could also be some kind of excusion because lack of knowledge and all. I'll try anyway.

First attempt on this one of my wife being snapped with her fists full of stones standing at the entrance of this cave made of the sea was a rather bad one, I have to say.
I printed the thing in one go, and it became very soon quite clear that the contrast in the print was way out on the rough side of things.

Lots of things to not be too pleased with here. The contrasty things going on in the face of my wife would certainly be one of them. It will get better, though! And uh... it was snapped with that old Rolleiflex, by the way. 6x6 thing... you know. This was printed in one go, but I don't remember now to which degree I adjusted the contrasty bits of stuff. 

So I printed the next one, using some variation of split grade printing that I don't know to much about, to be honest.
Anyway, I looked at highlights and shadows and did a kind of mix between them, and it all came out in a quite decent way. The upper right corner would definitely need some attention though, as you might see. The highlights up there are very much whiteish, as it happens.

Oh yes, it's a bit better. Most of it is quite OK, but there's this upper right corner that disturbs be a bit. It lacks about one aperture of light I would say. So I tried to do something about that in that third and last attempt.

So I printed the last one, using the more or less same, or similar settings, but added EV or aperture step to the corner I was just talking about.
It's better, though not exactly perfect. Maybe some day if I really want to do it right, or I feel the urge, it will happen, though.

Final version in this session inside that darkroom. It's not bad at all... but might lack a wee bit anyway. I could have burned in another half step of aperture level I would think. Still I did not. I might try some other time. 

See? These are the things I've been doing the last few days, or so.