So I just found this forum 2 hours ago, and I have all these ideas in my head that I haven't shared with anyone, so I just wanted to get a survey of reactions to this experiment I would like to try as well as any foreknowledge any of you may already have on the subject.

Essentially I remember one of my profs saying that enlarging a cyanotype (traditionally using a contact based printing method) was not possible. ('Not possible', not 'impossible', mind you) So that to me sounds like a challenge. This is the knowledge that I've gathered up so far but I haven't made anything yet since I'm still researching.

I know that there exists UV light bulbs that are used in scientific labs to sterilize cabinets. I also know that these lights will give you cataraks (as well as blindness) and skin cancer if you are exposed to them for too long, or even at all. A no-no for photographers especially.

There are also radiometers that you can use to monitor if your area is affected by the ligth bulbs so if the experiement continues I plan to buy one of those to be extra cautious.

So I'm thinking it would be possible to use a digital negative 4 x 5 to enlarge using an enlarger with this bulb. However given that I don't want cancer I wouldn't be anywhere near the darkroom when that light is off. I would use a remote timer and trigger far away from the source. This leads to: How do you focus if you can't use your eyes to focus it? (You can always just try and adjust repeatedly until you get it right I suppose.)

The next issue is if you are enlarging a digital negative, how will a 300dpi output look like enlarged. Is it going to show little dot grains? I think that is the most interesting part of the experiment.

Anyways I just wanted to get some reactions about this, good or bad, thoughts ideas.

I haven't decided if I wanted to do this yet,
  1. Assuming I do everything correctly I am sure I can do this experiement safely but there always the unknown unknown.

  1. I can hear my professor in my head saying, "Well if you're going to do a digital negative then why not just print it at the size you want?" Which is a good question, but I would be doing it for fun.

  1. Finally if it doesn't pan out I would have to sell the lightbulb and the radiometer but that's not a big deal is it?


There feels nice to share something I've been mulling on, Now I can go think about something else haha