Stouffer step wedge – where to buy it – AlternativePhotography.com

The Stouffer step wedge is widely used to check and control exposure and processing when working with light-sensitive materials. Placed in contact with the material during exposure, it shows whether your exposure time and development are correct and how much you need to adjust them to get the result you want. For us, it is an excellent tool to determine the correct exposure time for negatives.

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Fig. 1: Stouffer T3110 and T2115 Step wedges

The Stouffer step wedge (in 21 or 31 steps) can be used with litho plates, photographic papers, contact positives, screen printing, printed circuit boards, and other coated surfaces to evaluate image quality, measure contrast and speed, and check the strength of emulsions and coatings.

The Stouffer Step Wedges are a little hard to find, especially the 31-step, so we have put together a suppliers list here – let us know if you know of more suppliers!

Read more about them on Stouffer Industries. The website is old, but apparently, you can email them and order that way, note that they will only take card details over the phone or via email, which is not secure.

Note that the step wedge comes in different shapes, and prices! The calibrated ones are overkill for our purposes and much more expensive. The ones that are useful and work with this calculator are:

T2115 (21 is the number of steps, 15 means it’s 0.15 density increments), the $9.25 one
T3110, the $23 one

Both of these are long and thin, so use very little sensitised paper for testing.

If you prefer wide ones, 4×5″, these two do the job:

TP4x5-21
TP4x5-31

All shapes work; it is just personal preference. They are more expensive, though!

Suppliers for the Stouffer 21-step wedge:

Stouffer Industries. USA (ships internationally)
Photographer’s Formulary, USA, and B&H, USA stock theirs too.
Fortex, UK
Intaglio Printmaker, UK
Bostick & Sulivan, USA
Freestyle, USA

These supply the Stouffer 31-step wedge:

Stouffer Industries. USA (ships internationally)

The Precision Digital Negative step wedge

A similar product to Stouffer’s is the 31-step on Precision Digital Negatives , USA, from Mark Nelson. (ships internationally)

“I always tell my students that the standard step tablet is the cheapest piece of equipment in their dark room AND the most important.”

– Mark Nelson, Precision Digital Negatives.

PDN step wedge — The Precision Digital Negative step wedge

This step wedge is a little different. It is also made by Stouffer, but if you are measuring the results with a densitometer, you need to have steps that are large enough to accommodate the densitometer so it won’t lap two steps and give a false reading. The Precision Digital Negative (PDN) step wedge is wider, so you can lap the step tablet with the clear film you are using for your negatives. The dimensions of the Precision Digital Negatives step tablet are 1” x 7”

Lux Darkrooms have also put together a calculator for determining the exposure time with a Stouffer Step Wedge. Read the article and try the calculator.