Take one of those LCD photoframes with a negative image in it, stick it in the negative stage of an enlarger, focus and print as usual. Right? Would it work?
Take one of those LCD photoframes with a negative image in it, stick it in the negative stage of an enlarger, focus and print as usual. Right? Would it work?
The image would be very coarse - a typical resolution for a 7" diagonal (say for your 4x5 enlarger) is 480x234 pixels - HD format. I'd imagine you'd want to diffuse the image somehow to mix the RGB pixels because b&w wouldn't respond well to spots where red pixels are focused on the paper.
Another idea which I've been toying in my mind with - mount one above the negative and use it as a digital dodge/burn/contrast control mask.
Here's an interesting article about the Devere digital enlarger.
Digital dodge/burn mask - that's interesting!
Kirk - www.keyesphoto.com
... and you could control the contrast on VC paper by the color of the RGB mask... it could potentially be quite powerful, not to mention easily retrofittable to many enlargers. To get a high enough resolution lcd might mean cannibalizing a small LCD monitor, which would have the advantage of having all the electronics necessary to connect to a computer.Originally Posted by Kirk Keyes
A similar idea that I've tried is using inkjet transparencies (Pictorico) as a mask - there was an article about this in Photo Techniques a while ago. The main problem was trying to dodge fine detail, in which case the mask had to be close to the negative and the texture of the inkjet would show through, even with some diffusion material between it and the negative. That was a several years ago, though, so I should try it with one of the newer printers. I suppose the forerunner of this technique was the use of pencil shading, either on the negative directly or on some translucent material above the neg.
Hmmm back to the drawing board ...
For a simple dodge.burn mask, I use a sheet of frosted glass which place over the negative (frosted side up, away from the neg) after using a soft pencil, I shade the parts on the glass that I want dodged
DeVere make an enlarger which does this.
http://www.odyssey-sales.com/product...e.asp?range=71
The lcd is shifted during the exposure to blur the pixels into each other. That is required because the lcd pixels have space between them and the image looks pixelated otherwise. They claim high quality results but from the specs obtainable, the pixel dimensions of the lcd don't seem to be anywhere near big enough to give a 20x16 at 300dpi.
Enlargers for photo-reconnaissance, electron microscopy and radiology used CRTs or flying spots to modulate the light for automatic dodging.
Obsolete now as recon film is now scanned.
LogEtronics used to make the things, but they seem to have gone under.
Contact printing automatic dodgers are still made.
http://www.spek-electronics.com/products.htm
http://www.ephotocontrols.com/
The low tech versions are the old Arkay and Morse printers.
And Ansel Adams had a horizontal enlarger with an array of lamps that could be individually controlled for gross dodging.
If I recall correctly, the LCD has a superfine grating attached to it, so only a small part of a pixel is visible at one time. Precision steppers then move the LCD to get full coverage of the paper at the rated DPI. So they don't actually blur things, they just expose one pixel for each LCD pixel at a time, move a bit, and repeat until the entire piece of enlarging paper has been exposed. Pretty smart, and I assume patented...
I'd love to see one of these in operation!
Later,
Clyde Rogers
Any updates on this ? How about an Ipad for negative carrier ? Greater resolution now and way better than a photo frame .
hmmmmm,
Ipad....
When you are walking on thin ice, you might as well dance.
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