enlarge for contact printing

[Kevin J. Kolosky]

What is the benefit, if any, of enlarging a negative to another negative, I suppose it would have to be two negatives or a negative to a positive, over just enlarging the negative onto paper, for a print.

[MaximumFu]

What is the benefit, if any, of enlarging a negative to another negative, I suppose it would have to be two negatives or a negative to a positive, over just enlarging the negative onto paper, for a print.

Certainly not an expert in this area so take this with a grain of salt, but I have heard of people doing this for alternative processes. You have a MF or smaller LF negative that you want to palladium/platinum print. By scanning, fixing up in PS or whatever else, and then printing onto a larger negative, you can contact print using your alternative process of choice.

Again, no personal experience with this, so not an authority. Just trying to help out.

-M

[Vaughn]

There are different ways to go about getting an enlarged negative for contact printing (for silver gelatin or alt processes). This is especially useful in alt processes where the material can not be enlarged upon. One can often throw in a few modifications somewhere along the way (contrast, burning/dodging, cropping) to allow the enlarged negative to be easily printed.

But there are two steps...original negative to pos, and pos to neg. One step will be enlarged, the other will be contact-printed. One could enlarge a negative onto film to create the enlarged positive transparency -- then contact this onto more film to get the final enlarged negative. Personally, I have elected to go with a bigger camera.

Another way to get an enlarged negative is to create a file from the original and have it digitally printed with light onto film. Service Bureaus use to do this. Bob Carnie works this way, I believe.

Another way is inkjet negatives on paper or clear material...this has become the popular way to go about it these days.

[koraks]

And yet another way is to enlarge onto film and reversal process it to get a negative in one step. I know Dr. Moersch does it this way for alt process prints. I've tried it myself a few times with moderate success, onto xray film.

[Vaughn]

Or enlarge directly onto film using a color transparency to get the enlarged negative.

[bob carnie]

I am using a Durst Lambda to expose onto Ilford Ortho 24. Basically invert and flip horizontal in PS and send to Lambda... expose to size ( Maximum size for me is 29 inches by 40 inches- size of my trays) and process in these trays using HC110

These are very nice negs IMHO - I make inkjet negs also but they do not have the same quality as the silver negs again IMHO>