I have a photogram I made last week, a net and two lengths of eelgrass on 40x50 Bergger Cot 320, and I cannot tell if it is finished or just underdone.

It sat in the sun fourteen minutes. The net is fine, the knots held, that pale bone-colour against the blue. But the eelgrass came out as a soft grey smear, no edge, no bite, and I keep looking at it thinking there is a decision in there I did not make. Everything I have read says go longer, push the exposure until the blue goes almost black and you lose the paper's warmth. The last time I pushed it that far the print went cold and dead and I ended up using it to test for something else.

So I am stuck between two failures. The one where nothing is decided, and the one where everything is decided and none of it is mine.

I did a small version on scraps, 10x15, same plants, eighteen minutes, and the water marks along the edge came out like something I would actually hang. So maybe it is the size. Big sheets hide from you, they take the light differently and I am never sure the coating is even across the whole thing.

If you work with these long exposures, how do you know when to stop? Not the technical version, I know the technical version. The other one.