Digital file to B&W negative

[Eric Woodbury]

I'd like to be able to use a digital camera to make a conventional negative. I know this is possible, but a few questions:

Can a digital negative be enlarged? I expect not, at least not by much. That's fine.

Can this be done withOUT great expense for printer and inks? Something simple. I don't wish to manipulate the image file in a computer. Maybe global contrast or simple adjustments only.

Thanks for the pointers.

E

[Oren Grad]

What do you mean by "conventional negative"? Do you mean for printing in silver rather than alt processes, or something else?

[Eric Woodbury]

Yes, silver printing. Contact or enlarged. I don't need bigger than 8x10.

[Chester McCheeserton]

a digital negative can be enlarged if you have one made by a lab that uses a film recorder to output continuous tone onto film material....otherwise yes you can't enlarge very much without the dot pattern from your inkjet printer showing up.

[Christopher Barrett]

If you're talking about making injet negatives... no you wouldn't want to put one in an enlarger. They are fine for contact printing, though, and a great way to get into Alt Process. I also linearized my system to produce negs for silver gelatin prints. While the tonal control was excellent, the rendering of the inkjet dither pattern made it a no go for me. My friend Xander has tried this using an Epson inkjet film material that is more opaque than the Pictorico we normally use and he said that it provided enough diffusion to smooth out that pattern.

So, yeah, totally doable, but contact print, don't enlarge. You might want to look into the Facebook Group, https://www.facebook.com/groups/digitalnegatives

-CB

[Oren Grad]

In the hands of someone who knows what he's doing, an inkjet internegative can be used to make a convincing alt process print. Silver... not so much IMO. Others may feel differently.

Another option for making silver prints from digital captures is to use one of the labs that is equipped to write a digital file directly to silver paper. Here's one:

https://digitalsilverimaging.com/about-dsi/

[Jim Noel]

Use film!

[Alan9940]

Yes, silver printing. Contact or enlarged. I don't need bigger than 8x10.

Though I make digital negatives for pt/pd printing, I've never been successful making one for silver contact printing. Even with the very small size of 1.5 picoliter I can still see the dots. I use Pictorico film so, perhaps, a more opaque material (as suggested above) would work better.

[bob carnie]

I'd like to be able to use a digital camera to make a conventional negative. I know this is possible, but a few questions:

Can a digital negative be enlarged? I expect not, at least not by much. That's fine.

Can this be done withOUT great expense for printer and inks? Something simple. I don't wish to manipulate the image file in a computer. Maybe global contrast or simple adjustments only.

Thanks for the pointers.

E

I use a Lambda 76 and have been making digital negatives on ortho film for years... up to 28 x 40 inch in size...(very expensive). to answer your question my negatives are made for contact exposure and not for enlargement. You can have a Lvt output negative made, there are a few
labs that do this and you can indeed put this negative in the enlarger.

FWIW both ways give excellent results that would be impossible to tell the difference from either outputted print and that of an enlarger print from original negative.

[Tin Can]

Saw this video a couple days ago made by a member here

Darkroom Printing From Your Smartphone (https://youtu.be/MBtngQ4kBvg)

Today I already planned to try contact prints direct from my iPad Mini 5 which has a 1/2 Plate high resolution dim-able screen

I have an inverted image digital neg ready

more later

also on the reversal thread

[Pieter]

I have had LTV negatives made from digital files. You need to experiment, because the film used (in my case, TRI X 320) will most probably add contrast to the image. I made a range of contrasts and had them run 4-up on 4x5 film that I cut down and enlarged. It works out well--I actually prefer the more contrasty silver print to the inkjet of the same image, although I could probably adjust the digital to print the same.

Digital file:

207588

Scan of silver print from LVT negative:

207589

[Andrew O'Neill]

Inkjet digital negatives cannot be enlarged... well actually they can, but look like crap. They are meant to be contact printed. I've been making them for over 10 years and quite like working with them. I use a refurbished Epson P400, which only cost me $400 Cdn. It can handle up to 13 inch wide. It works nicely for alt processes that I use such as carbon transfer, kallitype, gum... I've never tried it for silver printing, but I bet it would suffice. You must calibrate your negatives, though to get the most out of them. Download Chartthrob. It's free. Use it to make a curve in photoshop. Buy OHP from your local silkscreen supplier. I don't bother with Pictorico. The stuff they have at silkscreen supplier is exactly the same, for much less. I get third party ink from a place here in Vancouver. Recently, I've replaced the cartridges to refillable. All seven cartridges are black, except one which is yellow (good UV blocker which is essential for alt processes). You'll be working with silver gelatin so it's not worth it to go to all that trouble. And yes, I have made digital negs from a dslr, when I want to make a tri-colour gum print.

[grat]

Inkjet digital negatives cannot be enlarged... well actually they can, but look like crap.

Do you mean you can't run a digital negative through an enlarger, or you can't upsize the digital file before printing? If the latter, I would think some of the newer "AI" driven resizing algorithms might work OK, although you'd need a very clean original to avoid anti-aliasing artifacts.

I admit an almost total ignorance on the topic of digital negatives, but it's something I'm interested in.

[Michael Rosenberg]

Take a look at my monograph for making digital negatives for silver gelatin prints. I have been doing this for >10 years.
http://www.mprosenberg.com/digital-negatives
Mike

[Andrew O'Neill]

Do you mean you can't run a digital negative through an enlarger, or you can't upsize the digital file before printing? If the latter, I would think some of the newer "AI" driven resizing algorithms might work OK, although you'd need a very clean original to avoid anti-aliasing artifacts.

I admit an almost total ignorance on the topic of digital negatives, but it's something I'm interested in.

I can only speak for inkjet negatives. They are meant for contact printing. I think I'll make a digital inkjet negative and enlarge it just for fun...

[Andrew O'Neill]

I just printed this inkjet negative. Stuck it in an enlarger at school darkroom. Printed on Ilford MG RC. 5x7. Scanned in the print. No adjustments made other than black and white points to match the actual print.



207659

[Sam L]

Andrew, I think you answered my question here, but I want to clarify. My application is large digital negatives for albumen prints.

Epson offers rolls of inkjet transparency film for about 3x the cost of the generic silkscreen transparency film:
https://www.amazon.com/Epson-CrystalClear-Glossy-Inkjet-S045151/dp/B002EBKW7Y
https://www.amazon.com/Waterproof-Inkjet-Transparency-Screen-Printing/dp/B01HSMRO7O

Your experience is there's no reason to shell out for the name brand?

Thanks,
Sam