How to print large - 6 foot possible

[giorgiospugnesi]

What about this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Picture It's not an enlargment but it's big enough.

[goamules]

Thanks everyone.

[Bruce Watson]

But say I have a beautiful 8x10 B&W negative, what is the procedure today (or back in the day), to make it 3 or 4 times larger? Thanks.

8x10 enlargers were more or less common in the past. Saint Ansel used a horizontal one.

That said, the question you and your Rangefinder forum guy should be asking, but are not asking, is: how are you going to display that print once you've made it? And how will you transport it? Best have answers to those questions before you go though the trouble of actually making a print that size.

[Drew Wiley]

This is what billboard companies routinely did. Now they mostly do huge digital display boards which revolving ad content. And all the full-service custom labs had their own horizontal enlarger setups with big magnetic wall easels, typically Durst or Devere 8x10 units. For lesser budgets, there was a chain of "Giant Print" franchises, which had 3-story silo-like enlargers which only did huge prints from small negs, but of predictably mediocre quality. Staging color miniatures to big sizes is tremendously facilitated by making a precision sheet film interpositive or interneg. None of the labs really took this to the ideal level of quality, though they did offer nominal internegs. From a commercial standpoint, digital biggies just make more sense. From an aesthetic standpoint, there are still options.

[Drew Wiley]

... and 8x10 enlargers are more or less still common today. I have to run the gauntlet around several of them just to get into my film room.

[barnacle]

I recall making a composite enlargement from 35mm onto 16 off 16x20 papers as part of a photographic club 'how to print' discussion.

All the sheets stuck to the wall with blu-tack, exposed (several minutes at a guess though I no longer remember - this was nearly thirty years ago) in one shot, then peeled off in order; as soon as the first was out of the dev and into the stop, the second was in the dev and so on; all eventually ending up in the final wash in large trays.

It worked a treat - the shot was of a friend playing guitar in a pub, available light, pushed to something like 6400ASA. Grain like golf balls, but a stunning result.

Neil

[stawastawa]

wow! cool examples everyone. I want to work on such a project. I Wish U-Develope was still here in Portland they had some nice facilities I hear.

[Michael Wesik]

OK, i'll show my ignorance here. There is a thread on the Rangefinder forum where a guy is asked by a client to make a 6 foot print. Yes, from 35mm. Besides the obvious grain problem of enlarging a postage stamp that big, what is the largest size silver gelatin photo paper you can easily get? Come to think of it, how did LF photographers in 1940 make a giant print, say, Ansel Adams? I've seen 5x7 enlargers, but that's all. And I only contact print. But say I have a beautiful 8x10 B&W negative, what is the procedure today (or back in the day), to make it 3 or 4 times larger? Thanks.

Beyond using a horizontal enlarger, there are several ways to process silver gelatin roll paper, the largest of which - to my knowledge - is 56" wide. It also comes in 50" and 42" wide as well. All made by Ilford. Personally, I prefer to process my large prints using a single tray but I've heard of others who use different scrolling techniques or dragging prints from tray to tray. I found that those two methods were problematic because they use large volumes of chemistry, risk damaging the paper from over handling and are limited in printing and toning capabilities, particularly using 56" wide paper which is an animal unto itself.

I've made a lot of prints with an image size of about 52"x70" enlarged from 8x10 and 11x14 negatives. I'm only really limited by the paper width available and size of my tray which is about 88"x60" I think. The tray itself sits on a platform so that it can either lay flat for be raised to an incline for draining and pouring. It has holes drilled into the draining end where plugs can be inserted. A system of a gutter and ABS pipe can be placed under the draining holes which allows chemistry to be returned back to me. I pre-soak the exposed paper, drain, raise the tray to a slight incline, affix a weight at the top of the paper, and then pour my developer (8L), Stop (8L), and Fix (8L) after which the print is hypocleared, washed and toned with everything from gold, to selenium to bleach redevelopment applications. I have sepia, gold and selenium toned several of these prints. Most of the chemicals are used only once. Essentially, I can make a 52"x70" print (image size) in the manner of an 8x10.

[Tin Can]

You have shown this room and technique before.

NOW it is sinking in, tilt and drain into a normal size sink. I can do that and one tray will be better for one guy.

Big rolls are not crazy expensive either.

Maybe next year...

[Ron McElroy]

Beyond using a horizontal enlarger, there are several ways to process silver gelatin roll paper, the largest of which - to my knowledge - is 56" wide. It also comes in 50" and 42" wide as well. All made by Ilford. .........

How do you dry prints this large?