Contact prints from LF

[kleinbatavia]

Good day all,

I've spent a while surfing the forum looking for comprehensive guidelines on how to contact print a LF negative. I've got two MF enlargers, neither of which will carry or enlarge a 4x5 or 5x7 negative. That said, I am also quite keen to try some contact printing as I was very impressed with a recent portfolio of contact prints someone showed me. Granted, they were super well printed, matted and presented and I am sure that they person who did them had a lot of experience. Still, we all need to start somewhere, so I am looking for any "hands-on" information on how to make a good contact print. Any information or suggestion is welcome, ranging from the best paper to use, how to mask, wether to use glass or not, etc. My primary interest is in contact printing some of my 5x7 work, but depending on results, I may also do 4x5.

Thank you for your input!

[Robert Langham]

I use a little printfile folding contact printer. Cheap and effective, (though the glass on some of them has defects even new!) Any good glass will do. I've been tempted to buy a replacement glass for a scanner off ebay. Very good glass I expect. You can just use a loose piece of window glass on the enlarger base, (Weston did), but the printfile is very handy and the rubber feet built into the base keep it in the same place. Window glass usually slightly green but doesn't seem to matter.

If you use a loose piece of window glass, tape the edges with black tape for handling and mark your contact printing area on the enlarger base with a couple of pieces of masking tape so you can see it in the safelights. Loose glass needs to be slightly bigger than the paper. 8X10 paper under a piece about 12X10. Give yourself a little rattle space.

My advice is to use a print file proofer. Skip the loose glass.

The enlarger, with the biggest negative carrier inserted, ought to be checked for an even illumination field. Put in a piece of paper and expose it at about Zone VI. Look for even-ness of exposure.

You want the light field to generously cover the contact printer glass, but not spill all over the enlarging table.

I stop down a few stops to get the exposure time in the 15-30 second range so that there will be plenty of time to dodge and burn. You'll need a tape dot on a piece of coathanger wire (about 3 inches in diameter with a 1 inch on the other end) for a dodging tool and a BLACK card about 11X7 for contacting on 8X10 paper. For the dodging tool, just twist a coathanger apart and cut out a couple sections with the wirecutter built into most pliers. Curl both ends with pliers and use some kind of dark tape to make a dot. Dress it up with scissors. I like a big oval on one end and a little circle on the other. Don't make the handle too long. (They look cheap but last for about 30 years.) There will be dodging and burning just like an enlargement.

I'm using Ilford Multigrade Warmtone, though I hear talk about other papers and you ought to pay attention to it. I like the response and color of multigrade. I'm using a modern enlarger lamp LED head that Cemil worked up and filters under the lens. Ilford MGWT very responsive to that enlarger head.

I've got another enlarger with a 4X5 aristo head. Useless for MG. I can't contact or enlarge with that cool light head. Too contrasty. I do have ANOTHER enlarger within reach that has a tungsten bulb. It would work. I use it for pre-fogging when I need to bring highlights down and keep it set to do just that.

I'd like to leave one enlarger set up to contact all the time in these enlarger-rich days. Might move off the Modern Enlarger Lamp set-up to the tungsten and try it. I have to use the MEL head to enlarge so that means moving the contact set-up out of the way.

Got a Zone VI with Aristo variable contrast head but it is for the most part, a disaster. I keep poking at it but it's over-complicated and just not very good. Next incarnation is with the original head back on, but with the tubes out and LEDs in. We'll see.

Canned air and photowipes on hand, of course.

Now you know everything I know, plus more, I'm sure!

[Jim Noel]

Weston used a piece of glass, but he never owned an enlarger. Later he moved to a hinged back contact printing frame. His light source was a bare bulb. The socket was mounted on a rod which went through a hole in a piece of wood mounted on the wall, with a set screw to hold it in place. The bulb could be moved up and down as needed based on the density of the negative. Additionally, he attenuated and softened the light with one or more layers of toilet tissue.

[sanking]

There are many ways to make a contact print, depending on process.

Contact printing silver bromide papers is very simple. You can use the light from the enlarger and print on the baseboard, either placing the negative/paper sandwich in a contact printing frame, or by placing a sheet of plate glass over the negative/paper sandwich. You could use either graded or VC papers. If you don't have an enlarger you could print with a small night light of 3-5 watts placed about 4-8 feet from the negative/paper sandwich.

For printing slow silver chloride papers (AZO/Lodima) you would use a 15-40 watt flood lamp placed 3-4 feet from the negative/paper sandwich. These papers are graded so no need for filters. Again, either a sheet of plate glass over the negative/paper sandwich, or a contact printing frame can be used.

For printing UV sensitive processes (albumen, carbon, kallitype, pt/pd, vandyke, etc.) you will need a powerful UV light source, either the sun, a platemaker like the NuArc, or a bank of BL tubes or LEDs intended for screen printing. These type of units often come with vacuum frames and integrated light sources and The use of a hinged contact printing frame with the sun is a very convenient and inexpensive way to begin work with processes like albumen, salted paper, and kallitype. For contact printing frames check suppliers like Bostick & Sullivan, Photographers Formulary, B&H, etc. For POP processes I recommend the hinged frame type as they allow you to monitor exposure. BTW, printing in the sun usually means printing outside in the shade, though in some cases direct sun on the contact printing frame is possible.


Sandy

[mike rosenlof]

Mr Langham's description is a good one. I only have a little bit to add.

You want good "contact" between your neg and paper. If you use a loose piece of glass, window glass is fairly light and its weight might not be enough to press FB paper and the neg firmly together. The PrintFile proofer has heavier glass, that I believe is tempered. I use a contact printing frame.

I have multiple glass panes for my contact frame, each for a different neg size. Each pane has a mask of rubylith tape for the neg so I can, for example, print a 5x7 neg on 8x10 paper and have large white borders. I print 8x10 on 8x10, but the rubylith helps with positioning. Negs sometime want to skate around when I clamp down the frame.

[Jac@stafford.net]

Old spring-back contact printing frames are great. I bought them decades ago when they were almost given away. My best for 8x10 frames came from Darkroom Aids in Chicago. Gads, that was a long time ago!

Check out the big auction site. They are so obscure that I'm sure they are being thrown away.
Sometimes they are listed as 'picture frames'.

Best of luck!

[Oren Grad]

I don't use a spring-back printing frame, because every one I've tried generates Newton's rings in my prints. Instead, I use a glass sandwich, with heavy glass on top, edges chamfered for safety in handling.

I use my enlarger with dichroic color head as a variable contrast light source, and standard variable contrast enlarging paper. Once in a very great while I'll do some modest dodging on a negative; that's as far as I ever go with manipulation in printing.

Contact printing doesn't need exotic technique and doesn't need to be fancy. Start simple and see how it goes; add refinements if and as needed.

[Tin Can]

I use a little printfile folding contact printer. Cheap and effective, (though the glass on some of them has defects even new!) Any good glass will do. I've been tempted to buy a replacement glass for a scanner off ebay. Very good glass I expect. You can just use a loose piece of window glass on the enlarger base, (Weston did), but the printfile is very handy and the rubber feet built into the base keep it in the same place. Window glass usually slightly green but doesn't seem to matter.

If you use a loose piece of window glass, tape the edges with black tape for handling and mark your contact printing area on the enlarger base with a couple of pieces of masking tape so you can see it in the safelights. Loose glass needs to be slightly bigger than the paper. 8X10 paper under a piece about 12X10. Give yourself a little rattle space.

My advice is to use a print file proofer. Skip the loose glass.

The enlarger, with the biggest negative carrier inserted, ought to be checked for an even illumination field. Put in a piece of paper and expose it at about Zone VI. Look for even-ness of exposure.

You want the light field to generously cover the contact printer glass, but not spill all over the enlarging table.

I stop down a few stops to get the exposure time in the 15-30 second range so that there will be plenty of time to dodge and burn. You'll need a tape dot on a piece of coathanger wire (about 3 inches in diameter with a 1 inch on the other end) for a dodging tool and a BLACK card about 11X7 for contacting on 8X10 paper. For the dodging tool, just twist a coathanger apart and cut out a couple sections with the wirecutter built into most pliers. Curl both ends with pliers and use some kind of dark tape to make a dot. Dress it up with scissors. I like a big oval on one end and a little circle on the other. Don't make the handle too long. (They look cheap but last for about 30 years.) There will be dodging and burning just like an enlargement.

I'm using Ilford Multigrade Warmtone, though I hear talk about other papers and you ought to pay attention to it. I like the response and color of multigrade. I'm using a modern enlarger lamp LED head that Cemil worked up and filters under the lens. Ilford MGWT very responsive to that enlarger head.

I've got another enlarger with a 4X5 aristo head. Useless for MG. I can't contact or enlarge with that cool light head. Too contrasty. I do have ANOTHER enlarger within reach that has a tungsten bulb. It would work. I use it for pre-fogging when I need to bring highlights down and keep it set to do just that.

I'd like to leave one enlarger set up to contact all the time in these enlarger-rich days. Might move off the Modern Enlarger Lamp set-up to the tungsten and try it. I have to use the MEL head to enlarge so that means moving the contact set-up out of the way.

Got a Zone VI with Aristo variable contrast head but it is for the most part, a disaster. I keep poking at it but it's over-complicated and just not very good. Next incarnation is with the original head back on, but with the tubes out and LEDs in. We'll see.

Canned air and photowipes on hand, of course.

Now you know everything I know, plus more, I'm sure!

This should be a sticky!

A lot of good info there.

[Jac@stafford.net]

I don't use a spring-back printing frame, because every one I've tried generates Newton's rings in my prints. Instead, I use a glass sandwich, with heavy glass on top, edges chamfered for safety in handling.

That's interesting. I don't know how I lucked into one that works. Silly me, I should check to see if it's AN glass.

For others because you know: glass edges can be sanded smooth. I always do that not only for handling, but to minimize the chance of micro-chips. The last time done was when replacing a Saltzman carrier's glasses.

[Oren Grad]

That's interesting. I don't know how I lucked into one that works. Silly me, I should check to see if it's AN glass.

It's voodoo. Plain glass in a spring-back frame may be just fine, depending on the temperature and humidity in your darkroom, the exact design of the frame, the thickness and smoothness of your negatives and papers, and who knows what else. It's very hard to predict. Just hasn't worked for me, alas.