Contact Printing 5x7 on 8x10 paper

[timbo10ca]

I like the look of a 5x7 print on a larger sheet of paper. I've been trying to think of a way to contact print a neg in the center of the paper, and keeping the rest of the paper masked off so it remains white. So far my idea is to use an 8x10 matt with a 5x7 hole that I place on top of the glass, and line up the paper and negative underneath it. If I had a dedicated printer for LF, I could tape the matt in place, and mark off boundaries on the foam as to where to place the paper, to keep everything from sliding around while I set up. I only have one contact printer though, and I want to still use it for 35mm and MF contact sheets.
My original thought was to put a piece of paper down, then the matt, then the neg inside the matt, all lined up, and then a 5x7 piece of glass over the neg. Would the glass be heavy enough though to keep the neg firm against the paper for maximum sharpness though?
I am starting to get the impression from reading other posts that my $40 PrintFile contact printer is not going to be sufficient for good contact prints anyway (not sure why- maybe this could be explained? Is it the weight of the glass or something), so I may be having to dish out for another frame. I sure would like to avoid that though.....

Thanks,
Tim

[Aaron van de Sande]

The usual way to do this is to dry mount the print onto matte board.

[timbo10ca]

The usual way to do this is to dry mount the print onto matte board.

Simple, and oh so obvious

I don't have the equipment for mounting, or the time to start even more photographic endeavors quite yet. I guess if I was going to actually frame a print though, I could get this done for me. Never really though of it that way

[Scott Davis]

Tim- if you want to center the neg on a larger sheet of paper, take a spare sheet, and trim a piece of overhead transparency material or other rigid plastic sheeting to the size of your paper. Ideally, get a single sheet of film that is the same emulsion, in the larger size. Expose it to full room light to turn it totally opaque. Process and fix as normal. Then measure and cut a window the size of your preferred negative. You can use this for centering your negative on your paper and masking.

You want a better contact printing frame than your PrintFile because the PrintFile will not apply even pressure across the entire negative/paper area. This will result in out-of-focus areas, and/or variations in exposure density. Splurge and get a nice Bostick&Sullivan contact printing frame. They're head and shoulders above most of the less expensive options. You can get better, but then you're spending a lot more as well, and an 11x14 frame is not all that expensive.

[Oren Grad]

So far my idea is to use an 8x10 matt with a 5x7 hole that I place on top of the glass, and line up the paper and negative underneath it.

Even apart from the challenges of aligning the negative, you're unlikely to get a sharp edge that way - the light will disperse within the glass.

Some years back, I did many experiments with contact printing masks, most of them made with mylar tape on glass. The problem was that no matter what I tried, it exacerbated my problems with Newton's rings. In the end I gave up.

Do a search on "rubylith" and "contact print" and you'll find other ideas for masking. You'll have to try them yourself to see whether the results are acceptable to you.

The main challenge in contact printing is getting substantial (for maximum sharpness and image clarity) and absolutely even (to avoid Newton's rings) pressure across the entire surface of the negative. It's actually quite difficult to accomplish; many contact print frames supposedly designed for the task don't do it well. The PrintFile gadget doesn't even come close, though occasionally when I'm doing quick-and-dirty contact printing I'll use the glass from one of those as the top half of a sandwich with another piece of glass underneath the negative and paper.

[Aaron van de Sande]

I have had no problems mounting 8x10 with a clothes iron...
For contact printing I use a plain piece of 1/4 inch glass, it is pretty heavy and holds everything together for 15$.

[al olson]

Another approach ...

I am printing 8x10 negatives on 11x14 paper. I want to print the whole negative including the rebate (Yeah, I know, Photoshop will do this for you!), but have a white border around the image.

I cut an 11x14 matte with an 8x10 hole in the middle. I put the printing paper in the easel. Place the matte down over it with the beveled edges facing up.

Then I place the negative into the matte opening. The beveled edges help guide it into position.

Next I put an 8x10 piece of plexiglass on top of the negative to keep it flat.

Once in a while I get a misalignment, but most often I am getting successful prints.

Hope you might find this useful.

[Jim Noel]

A very good and thin mask can be cut out of a black paper envelope for 8x10 paper. The plastic ones are not good because of their dust attracting propensity.

Place this on the glass, the negative on it properly aligned and your printing paper on that. You should have no problem with Newton rings or lack of sharpness if this is done in a good printing frame.

Rubylith used in the same manner is the old standby and works extremely.

As others have said, you really must get a good printing frame. It will last your lifetime. One of mine was originally given to me in 1939, and I still use it.

[Michael Alpert]

Rubilith is the traditional material used to make masks. It can still be purchased in larger art supply stores. You can cut strips and then tape together a rectangular mask, or you can overcut a rectangular opening and then use black tape or pieces of Rubilith taped over the overcuts to make the corners correct (I hope this makes sense).

A contact frame with a mask often results in uneven pressure holding the mask, negative, and paper to the glass. This uneven pressure often creates Newton Rings. A 9"x11" (or slightly smaller) piece of optical-grade plate glass (look on the Internet for a source; I've forgotten where I bought mine) placed on top of the paper/negative/mask will hold everything down without too much pressure. Another piece of plate glass (or your PrintFile printer) placed under the paper will ensure that everything is flat underneath. This should solve the Newton Ring problem.

I would not worry too much if the image is not exactly centered. You can either trim the paper to make even borders or wait until matting to have an even border showing. If you are absolutely determined to have an exactly placed 5x7 on 8x10 paper, you could start with 11x14 paper and then trim the paper after the print is dry.

I hope my suggestions help.

[Leon Jester]

Consider getting a dedicated contact printer, such as an old Morse or Arkay. They are usually larger than 8x10, have multiple light sources so one can dodge if one wishes and have a platen that provides even pressure across the entire frame.

This shows a photo of the Arkay printer: http://www.pgsys.com/enlargin.htm

At Capitol Photo (in the sixties) we also had a couple of shop-built printers with a foam platen covered with a plastic material for printing Cirkut and 12x20 negatives. The light sources for these were tungsten med. base lamps mounted on flexible conduit so they could be moved if needed. One advantage of these was that we could change the bulb to provide brighter or dimmer wattage as needed, with a master rheostat.

Our standard bulbs were 25 watt, with changes as needed, IIRC, if using enlarging paper we set the rheostat to about 30% and used about 0.80 seconds exposure with a Lektra timer. Processing was Dektol 1:3 for 2 minutes at 68°F. Azo or Velox paper used about 1.5 seconds at 90%.

The Morse printer was primarily used to make gang contact sheets with Velox at about a 2 second time, processing was Dektol 1:3 by inspection.