Contact Printing

[Natha Congdon]

Anybody know of a book that gives good coverage of contact printing from 8 X 10 negs (advantages of Azo versus other papers, different contact frame arrangement s, light sources, etc.)?

Thanks, Nathan

[Michael A.Smith]

No books available, but see my article on Azo in View Camera Magazine or on our web site at WWW.michaelandpaula.com

[pat j. krentz]

Azo has a much better tonal scale than other b/w papers, you don't have to have a contact printing frame, you can use 3/16 or even 1/4 plate glass, no bubbles or scratches, and if you are going to use Azo, use Peckham Amidol and a 3" natural brush for constant agitation, I also use shorter exposure times and longer developement time (3-5) minutes. Beautiful prints. Pat

[pat j. krentz]

Forgot, for a light source, if you dont have an enlarger, you can so what Edward Weston did, use a 60 watt light bulb wrapped in toilet tissue at about 2-3 ft. above the neg. connected to a timer. I use a black light. I have one six tube box that I use for Palladium printing and then I use a 65 watt house plant light for contact printing on Azo, at 3 ft. above and in a 10 reflector. The Azo prints very fast with that combination. Pat

[Tony Brent]

I used to use a NuArc contact printing lamp that was designed for paper speed lithographic materials. It had a high output halide bulb inside a housing that looked like a Kodak bullet safelite, and a transformer box with six taps and a built in timer. Just had an area marked on the counter top to show where to put my contact frame. The lamp also has a filter drawer that will accept 3" poly filters. I think it would dial down enough to use slower enlarging papers.