Paper negatives

[chrism]

Yes, that's right, then recock the shutter and take the paper away for the final exposure. I also did one with the same exposure and no preflash, but the contrast is such that it would be hard to make it look good.

[JoeV]

P1000162a by Joe Van Cleave, on Flickr

Arista grade 2 RC semi-matte paper, pre-flashed, exposure 1/60 @ f/5.6. Intrepid 4x5, Fujinon 135.

~Joe

[JoeV]

Plant003 (1) by Joe Van Cleave, on Flickr

Arista grade 2 RC glossy, pre-flashed, exposure 3 seconds at f/8. Intrepid 4x5, Fujinon 135.

~Joe

[ALVANDI Camera]

Iran, Tehran, Darabad, Panoral 57 camera, Schneider Super Angulon 90/5.6, Forte No.2 5x7in paper negative

[chrism]

When two people have to sit through a few iterations of a 10x8 photo they don't look so good. Chamonix 10x8, Schneider-Kreuznach Symmar-S 360mm/f6.8, Galaxy Hyperspeed @ EI 50, preflashed though plain paper at same exposure as taking exposure, one Impact strobe and one Impact continuous CFT light, Ilford MG Developer, Epson V850 scan:


Canadian Gothic by chrism229, on Flickr

Stick a pitchfork in it and it would be done.

[Yansfotos1]

Hi everyone,
I’ve been reading this thread (not completely though, I’m on Page 35 at the moment ) and I’m so grateful for all of you sharing your experiences and tips on paper negatives, thank you!
Some time ago I started working with wet plates and got some very nice results. Lately, I’ve been neglecting this branch of my photography because of the very tedious process which I still like, but time being a valuable commodity what with my young family and so on, I rarely find two hours to dabble in the cellar. But I have this wonderful old German 18x24 camera I acquired for the wet plates which doesn’t get the use it deserves so I thought paper negatives were a great way to get to use the camera (along with LF benefits of course) without spending either much time preparing the darkroom for wet plate use or spending large amounts of money to buy 18x24 film. So, I found this thread and thought I’d give it a go. I have a big stock of old paper (Ilford MG IV, RC) in 13x18 and 18x24 so this is what I used.



This is my first ever paper negative, Ilford MG IV RC 13x18 cm not pre-flashed, shot on a Hoh & Hahne camera, Zeiss Tessar 300mm f4.5 wide open, two YN560 flashes at full power in a softbox, developed in N113, scanned and inverted in PS. I didn’t meter anything, just thought I needed tons of light, so the light was right in his face =)
I think it turned out quite alright though the position of the light could have been better and it’s a little dark. So, after this initial test I would like to get some consistency into the workflow. I needed to know what speed the paper would be when using strobe light what the dynamic range of the paper was, so I did an exposure test. The setup: Ilford MG IV RC 13x18 cm not pre-flashed, no filters, camera about 3 m away from a white wall, flash aimed at the wall from about camera axis. I assumed an ISO of 6, metered exposure with a spot meter and took bellows extension into account (0.5 stops). I exposed from -3 to +3 stops in small stripes, moving the darkslide for each flash pop, developed and scanned the negative.



First of all, I think ISO 6 might have been bang on for this paper. The -3 exposure is just about paper white on the negative and the +3 is almost blocked up, it’s hard to see on the image but when I adjust the levels in PS I can still see the pattern of the wallpaper in both exposures, albeit very faintly. So, I think the paper is able to produce some good results from -2.5 to 2.5, giving me a usable dynamic range of 4 stops. But I was surprised I got 7 stops of exposure to show up.
I think for the next negatives I can rate the paper at ISO 6, put the skin tones in +1 and see if it all works out. Also, I learnt that I need more light. So a 1200 Ws strobe it is.

Do you think my conclusions are correct? If you have any thoughts about my test please let me know, also if I have made any mistakes, always eager to learn!

Please excuse my rambling and the long post, I just wanted to give something back to this thread and share my experiences just in case this is interesting or useful for anyone and I apologise if this is old hat to you

Yannick

[cuypers1807]

8x10 paper negative from a 20x20 cardboard box camera built to test out a Besseler 18" Series III projector lens.

Focusing without a ground glass was a challenge:

[banana_legs]

Hi Yannick,
Very interesting! In tests of Ilford VC with longer exposures (i.e. not short flash exposures) without preflashing the paper or using filters I found I could get about 4.5 stops as quite close to a straight-line exposure behaviour (when plotted on the usual log axes), and then another 3 stops in a very non-linear compressed top end (i.e. the dark regions of the negative, highlights when printed). The range seems to match quite well with what you have seen with the flash. The printed shadows (i.e. white on the negative) was a sharp cut-off behaviour. With a yellow filter so that the blue layer was not active, but still no pre-flashing, the dynamic range in the 'linear' region was about 4 stops, but there was about 4 stops or so in the non-linear printed highlights. There was still a very sharp cut-off to paper-white on the negative. Some of the early graphs are still visible on f295 at http://www.f295.org/main/showthread....ll=1#post88258.

With pre-flashing, the curves are 'pulled up' from the cut-off zone and then there is a much wider dynamic range available, albeit rather non-linear at times.

Best regards, Evan

[cplkao]

Hi Yannick,

Welcome to the wonderful world of paper negative! I also shoot wet plate but spent most of my time shooting paper negative, same reason as you, doesn't take too much time. I shoot Ilford MG IV RC paper 8x10

I rated my paper ISO 3, and rather than pre-flash my paper, I post flashed it before develop them. I use a Packard shutter so its not always consistent but I develop my inspecting under the safe light (the best thing about paper negative is that you can run all your workflow under safelight).

[John Olsen]

Hi Yannick,

Welcome to the wonderful world of paper negative!

Great shot, frightening composition -congratulations.