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bwaysteve
12-Mar-2008, 14:51
What would be the process to make an englarged neg (16x20) for contact(platinum or silver) Can you retain decent tonality in the final print.Also ,has anyone ever scanned an 8x10 neg and made a digital print from the scan?

allen mckinney
12-Mar-2008, 16:19
bwaysteve, the process is to scan the original neg, and then make an inkjet negative.
Works great for platinum/palladium and POP. As for scanning 8x10's and making
digital prints, it's done quite often. I scan and print for several 8x10 shooters.

David A. Goldfarb
12-Mar-2008, 16:36
There are various ways of doing this.

Another method is to enlarge the negative onto ortho film to make an interpositive, and contact print it to another sheet of ortho film to make the enlarged negative.

If you have a large camera and want to enlarge a neg made with a smaller camera, you can also make a small print and dupe it to a larger format with the larger camera.

Gem Singer
12-Mar-2008, 20:15
Steve,

Check your private messages.

rls
12-Mar-2008, 20:22
To add to what David mentioned above, don't forget about using a positive (chrome, or DR 5) which gives you the ability to skip the interpositive step.

-Rob

neil poulsen
13-Mar-2008, 07:14
I don't know that I've heard from anyone who's had success contact printing digital inkjet negatives on silver. If they're out there, I'd be interested in what they have to say.

Digital Image-Setter negatives have been successfully used to contact images on silver. Some service bureaus for these negatives can do this better than others.

As for platinum-palladium, one can obtain stunning results from a negative enlarged digitally enlarged as an inkjet. Results much depend on the printer. It's my understanding that an Epson 3800 or an R1800 (discontinued) can do an excellent job. (No vertical banding.)

A 2200 or 2400 and their larger cousins can do a good job, depending on the negative. These printers produce a vertical banding (at right angles to the direction of travel of the print head) that can be seen in continuous tone prints. If a negative has a certain amount of complexity, it won't be seen. But, it will definitely be seen on a negative like a nude photographed against a smooth background.

I'm not sure about whether the current crop of Epson printers, the 4880's etc., exhibit this vertical banding.

PViapiano
15-Mar-2008, 00:11
Yes, I'd like to hear about digitally enlarged inkjet negs for silver printing as well, if anyone has any info or experience.

I've been experimenting with wax paper negatives for silver printing...

Dave Aharonian
15-Mar-2008, 09:41
I don't know either about making digital negs for silver printing. I've been making diginegs for Platinum printing on my Epson 3800 with excellent results. Its a steep learning curve at first but well worth the effort.

D. Bryant
15-Mar-2008, 11:39
Yes, I'd like to hear about digitally enlarged inkjet negs for silver printing as well, if anyone has any info or experience.

I've been experimenting with wax paper negatives for silver printing...
What would you like to know about making digital negatives?

Don Bryant

Dan Regan
4-Apr-2008, 07:05
Yes, I'd like to hear about digitally enlarged inkjet negs for silver printing as well, if anyone has any info or experience.

I've been experimenting with wax paper negatives for silver printing...

digital negs are very fun.
hard to get right at first, but once you get it, its VERY rewarding.

If you are really interested, I would look at Dan Burkholder's website, and maybe buy his book. Very good stuff to get you started.

blevblev
4-Apr-2008, 09:17
What material do you use to print the negative on?

Dan Regan
4-Apr-2008, 11:53
What material do you use to print the negative on?

I had very good luck with Pictorico OHP
once i got the profile right it was spot on.

Jorge Gasteazoro
4-Apr-2008, 12:22
What would be the process to make an englarged neg (16x20) for contact(platinum or silver) Can you retain decent tonality in the final print.Also ,has anyone ever scanned an 8x10 neg and made a digital print from the scan?

You would want to use lith film and a reversal process. Unblinkingeye.com has a very good article on the reversal process and the book by Richard sullivan and Carl Weese "The New Platinum Print" has a very good section on enlarging negatives for pt/pd printing. Yes you can obtain full tonal range, in fact using lith film with a developer like pyrocat and the reversal process can improve on the negative if you messed up.

Don't know about the digital thing, but it seems to me not to be a very economical solution for negatives this size, I beleive printers capable of this size negatives with the required quality are very expensive, unless you farm it out. Bob Carnie sent to me a proof negative that seemed to be the solution, but then you would have to make sure it really is a print you want to enlarge since it was not cheap either.

Bottom line, if you have an enlarger with about $100 you can buy 10 sheets of 20x24 lith film and all the chemicals necessary to make copy negatives of this size, I imagine a single inkjet neg of this size will cost you just as much.

sanking
4-Apr-2008, 12:43
You would want to use lith film and a reversal process. Unblinkingeye.com has a very good article on the reversal process and the book by Richard sullivan and Carl Weese "The New Platinum Print" has a very good section on enlarging negatives for pt/pd printing. Yes you can obtain full tonal range, in fact using lith film with a developer like pyrocat and the reversal process can improve on the negative if you messed up.



I have personally switched to digital negatives ( as of three or four years ago) for alternative printing, but the method Jorge mentions re: lith film and reversal processing (Liam Lawless method) works very well. I used it myself for several years and and was quite satisfied with the results.

If you are not into digital the lith film and reversal processing method is highly recommended by me.


Sandy King

Dan Regan
4-Apr-2008, 12:49
Another thing to think about is once you figure out your exposure time and solution you have it.
With the digital negs, everything is extremely consistent. All your negs will be the same density, because you have already perfected them during the digitizing process.
But I do love Lith film :D

blevblev
4-Apr-2008, 14:03
What material do you print the negatives on? Paper? Mylar? Saran Wrap?

sanking
4-Apr-2008, 14:53
What material do you print the negatives on? Paper? Mylar? Saran Wrap?

Many people use Pictorico. I personally make digital negatives on an OHP material that I buy from Photo Warehouse. Less expensive then Pictorico, and not as much UV blocking.

Sandy

walter23
4-Apr-2008, 17:11
I've always held off on this because I didn't want to do it in the darkroom with ortho film, and I thought I didn't have an adequate printer. I recently tried some enlarged digital negatives on laser transparency material for cyanotype (printed out at my office), and the results were surprisingly good. The dither-type pattern from the laser printer kind of resembles paper grain, and it's actually pretty nice!

clay harmon
4-Apr-2008, 18:11
I ran into this woman: www.natalieyoung.com (Warning : Flash Site!) at the Fotofest Meeting Place two weeks ago, and she was presenting silver-gelatin prints made from inkjet negatives. They looked pretty good. Her printing style and subject matter may make the process less finicky than would be acceptable to a full-bore Ansel-esque zonemeister, but they did not have any qualities that screamed loudly "I AM DIGITAL". They looked like solidly printed silver prints.


I don't know that I've heard from anyone who's had success contact printing digital inkjet negatives on silver. If they're out there, I'd be interested in what they have to say.

EdWorkman
4-Apr-2008, 22:03
Kodak discontinued its direct dupe film a few years ago. Much slower film is readily available for direct duplication of Xrays, the learning curve is not steep and the material is inexpensive. It is difficult to use, but not impossible, for making enlarged dupes account the slow speed. Photo Warehouse has a few sizes.