Negative Prints

[Ed Richards]

When you move from directly printing B&W to scanning, esp. if scan to an image and then invert in your editor, you get a really good look at the negative. I have several negatives that are very interesting images, but very uninteresting positive prints. For example, dark trees with detailed bark against a burned out sky can look much more interesting as a negative. Another is birch trees against a dark forest - the negative looks like a forest of darker trees against light folage.

Anyone printing negative images?

[Phil_4235]

Back inthe early 70's when I was in college, I did a couple semesters of Independant Study with an Art Professor. One semester I did photography. No one was interested in photography (except to make color slides of their painting and other work), so the darkroom had virtually become a storage closet. I found a 35mm bellows and slide copier in the library - and it fit my camera - so I made a couple rolls of positives. The negative prints were interesting - even more interesting once they were sepia toned. When I presented my work to the professor, he reviewed the prints and would comment every now and then on a image, but when he came to the negative prints, I still remember his response to the first of those images. He just sat there, for what seemed like forever, silently studying it. (This really sucked since the last time he did that to me he rejected my portfolio - I was now on round two...) Finally, he looked up and said he said he had never seen anything like it and asked me what it was and how I had done it. I got an A for that class, and I did give him that print.

[Herb Cunningham]

I got my darkroom stuff from a guy in Marion, NC, who did some really good 8x10 work. He had some negative prints that were really good.

Is there a link on howto make negative prints?

Thanks

[Brian Ellis]

A few years ago somebody published a book called "The Glory of the Negative" or "The Beautry of the Negative," something like that. As you might guess from the title, all the images in it were negatives. A very interesting and well done book.

Making negative prints is pretty easy in the darkroom, even easier in Photoshop. In the darkroom just put the positive print in contact with a sheet of paper preferably using a good contract printing frame with clamps on the back, test to determine the exposure time. High contrast positive prints work best since you'll lose some detail in the midtones. You also want to make sure the paper manufacturer's name isn't on the back of the positive print. The only problem I remember was making sure the positive print and the negative paper were kept in good contact from edge to edge. Areas of not-so-good contact will be blurred in the negative print. In Photoshop it's even easier. One simple way is to open the curve dialog box and reverse the ends of the curve.

[Brian Ellis]

A few years ago somebody published a book called "The Glory of the Negative" or "The Beautry of the Negative," something like that. As you might guess from the title, all the images in it were negatives. A very interesting and well done book.

Making negative prints is pretty easy in the darkroom, even easier in Photoshop. In the darkroom just put the positive print in contact with a sheet of paper preferably using a good contract printing frame with clamps on the back, test to determine the exposure time. High contrast positive prints work best since you'll lose some detail in the midtones. You also want to make sure the paper manufacturer's name isn't on the back of the positive print. The only problem I remember was making sure the positive print and the negative paper were kept in good contact from edge to edge, which is why a good contact printing frame is helpful. Areas of not-so-good contact will be blurred in the negative print.

In Photoshop it's even easier. One simple way is to open the curve dialog box and reverse the ends of the curve. I'm sure there are several other ways as well. Rather than simply making a complete negative print in Photoshop I think it can be more interesting and effective to select only certain areas of the print to be converted to negative so that you end up with a partial positive and partial negative print.

[Brian Ellis]

Sorry about the double post, I'm not sure how that happened, I certainly didn't think that what I had to say was so valuable that it needed to be said twice.

[Mark Woods]

When I was in college years ago, a friend gave me an 8x10 camera. Since I couldn't afford film stock, I simple put in print paper. Once I determined the EI, I shot many paper negatives. Somewhat contrasty, but interesting.

[Richard Littlewood]

I do a few. Have a look on www.richard-littlewood.com In the gallery section 'others'. Some are not too obvious! It is a good thing to do, and I know exactly what you mean by some images looking good as negatives.

[jnantz]

if you get both the fresh paper and the "positive print" wet + squeegeed, you will get a better bond ( if you don't have a contact printing frame). i do this sort of thing pretty often when i make paper negatives instead of using film - in-camera.

-john

[Ed Richards]

Found Celebrating the Negative:

http://www.arcadepub.com/Book/index.cfm?GCOI=55970100244070

[Chuck_1686]

I've made a few. I contact printed the film on to Kodak Commercial film. I think this was type 6127 and is probably no longer available. I think any film will do but this type was OK with red safelight. Wynn Bullock has a couple great negative images. Interesting how sometimes it just clicks looking at the negative.

[Richard Littlewood]

A good film to contact onto is Ilford Ortho. It behaves like an ortho FP4 and comes in 5x4 sheets - I dont know about other sizes. Contrast can be altered with different developers, and I've had great results using dilute D163.

[Warren Weckesser]

Howard Bond's "Begonia" is a negative print, and he has some other abstracts (well, at least one) that are negative prints. Scroll to the bottom of this link (http://www.phototechmag.com/shop/shopdisplayproducts.asp?id=53) to see "Begonia".

[Robert A. Zeichner]

page (http://www.portfolios.com/zoom.html?User_number=robertzeichner&imagecount=9)

The above link will take you to a negative print I made of a Hosta plant. I used traditional darkroom techniques as described in an article by Howard Bond several years ago.