5x7 Printing Options (Contact Print? Scan and electronically print?)

[Pere Casals]

Does anyone have any experience in perhaps contact printing 5x7?

For the moment you can scan the 5x7 negative in two halves and then use Photoshop for automatic stitching to get a composed full image, it will work nice. This is the straight solution.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imWsQqtcJPg Old versions of Photoshop also does it, at least CS4 I've been using.

https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/us...hotomerge.html


For the future IMHO you have 3 choices, I've been having a similar situation with 8x10:

1) Contact printing, this is ok, but you know, your prints will be 5x7

2) Invest in a new or used scanner, here my choice it would range from used Epson 4990 to new V850, all good enough for BW.

3) Use your 5x7 camera as an enlarger, like in the past times. Once upon a time there was a kit (for example) named Graflarger for Graflex cameras: https://www.graflex.org/speed-graphic/graflarger.html
This would be a DIY project that can be fun or nasty depending on your own resources to build a negative holder and a backlight to be attached to the rear of your 5x7 camera.

This is very far from a pro solution, really, but it can do the trick. If you use RGB led illumination for the backlight you can switch to red for red image while you frame the image in the paper, and then using different exposure times with green and blue (or yellow and magenta, as included red is safety light) to control contrast with VC papers. This is the solution I'm pefectioning as I guess I won't have a true 8x10 enlarger, but I also feel that the "graflarger" like solution is not to limit me at all, limitations are more inside us, IMHO.

[aclark]

If you think 5x7 too small a print size check out the print size Michael Kenna sells. He shoots 2 1/4 square film and does not make large prints. Not contact prints, but not large prints.

A 5x7 contact print is just fine for many images.

It may be a bit pedantic to point this out, but "7 x 5" contact prints don't actually measure 7 inch by 5 inch. They are only 6.7 inch by 4.7 inch. Michael Kenna's prints, at 7.75 inches square,are actually quite a bit bigger. One inch wider, and a full three inches higher.

Alan

[neil poulsen]

I have an Epson 4870 scanner which scans 4x5. I used matte board and a Logan matte board cutter to make a holder for 5x7, and it worked fine.

The 4870 can scan two 4x5s at once, one above the other in landscape orientation. So, I figured that it could scan 5x7. All I needed was a holder.

[Ben Calwell]

I've contact printed 5x7 using the light from my old Bogen 35mm enlarger. I bought a piece of heavy glass and simply place it over the neg and paper. I would like to start scanning, though, if I could find a reasonably priced Epson scanner.

[Willie]

It may be a bit pedantic to point this out, but "7 x 5" contact prints don't actually measure 7 inch by 5 inch. They are only 6.7 inch by 4.7 inch. Michael Kenna's prints, at 7.75 inches square,are actually quite a bit bigger. One inch wider, and a full three inches higher.

Alan

From looking at copies, books, calendars and such and never having seen the originals would you have guessed how small he prints?

It is not the size, it is the image.

5x7 contact prints work just fine if you have a good image.

[aclark]

From looking at copies, books, calendars and such and never having seen the originals would you have guessed how small he prints?

It is not the size, it is the image.

5x7 contact prints work just fine if you have a good image.

Hello Willie,
You are right about it being the image not the size, with Kenna's prints. I think this is because his compositions are spare and minimal. You can "read" them from a distance. But for photographs with more detail in them, I find that 7 x 5, or actually 6.7" x 4.7" is too small for me, for a finished print. I stick my finished, selected prints in photobooks so actually like small photos. But even so, 6" x 9" is the smallest I like to print. I print 35mm negatives this size. And to get the potential out of a 7 x 5 negative, I find I need to print it bigger. This is a personal choice of course, and I can see how others might have different ideas.

Alan

[mdarnton]

I scan all of my LF with an HP G4050. Yes, it doesn't measure up to better scanners, which in turn don't measure up to their own specs, but it does easily deliver the 1000dpi I need to make prints up to 13x19 on my Canon Pro100 printer from 4x5 through 8x10 negs, which is realistically all I need to do. I don't need to make 40x60s, never intend to, and don't want to pay for that capability. A used G4050 costs about $60 on Ebay, but I do recommend Vuescan over the HP software. If anyone ever wants something big, which isn't going to happen, sending one neg off for a good scanning job is still going to cost less than any other option.

[Willie]

Hello Willie,
You are right about it being the image not the size, with Kenna's prints. I think this is because his compositions are spare and minimal. You can "read" them from a distance. But for photographs with more detail in them, I find that 7 x 5, or actually 6.7" x 4.7" is too small for me, for a finished print. I stick my finished, selected prints in photobooks so actually like small photos. But even so, 6" x 9" is the smallest I like to print. I print 35mm negatives this size. And to get the potential out of a 7 x 5 negative, I find I need to print it bigger. This is a personal choice of course, and I can see how others might have different ideas.

Alan

I use 5x7 a bit but most of my exposure with it comes from my Uncle who does Pt/Pd, Carbon and silver contact prints in that size. He does enlarge as he has a 5x7 enlarger and they sure look nice. I have not enlarged any 5x7, just contact printed with the negatives. Then mat and frame using at least 11x14, weighted and they look very good this way.

[Leszek Vogt]

5x7 contact prints look good, you can scan the negs on reasonably priced scanner like Epson 4990 or some such....and if you really want to enlarge that special negative and get the most out of it....the drum scan may be a necessary option. It might be worth to have that done vs obtaining your own drum scanner.

Les

[djdister]

I made a simple 5x7 film holder and scan the film on an Epson V750 - and get great scans. The only limitation is the max paper size of the digital printer...