Anyone contact printing 4x5?

[steveo]

I've had a "back of my head" idea for years of contact printing some of my 6x7 mf shots and binding them into a tiny little book never had time to actually execute it though. Glad to see its not totally stupid...

[mathieu Bauwens]

I love that, from 4x5 and now 8x10.

[koraks]

Yes, I do a lot of 4x5 contacts. Cyanotypes (new) and Van Dyke Brown. Never silver gelatin though. Yes, these small prints make very nice little artifacts!

[Pete Roody]

I have seen many great 4x5 contacts. Edward Weston did them. Try using a larger mat with them to show them off. Mounting them with an 11x14 mat if you have the space. I have been shooting more 4x5 recently because I like the look of the small contacts so much.

[BrianShaw]

I've had a "back of my head" idea for years of contact printing some of my 6x7 mf shots and binding them into a tiny little book never had time to actually execute it though. Glad to see its not totally stupid...

That's not stupid at all. I've had as small as 6x6 cyanotypes framed and on the wall. I'm looking forward to the day when I can do it all over in another alternative printing type but time does not currently permit. People are fascinated by them.

[Kimberly Anderson]

I'm working on a portrait project right now that is shot all in 5x7. I am contact printing with a frame I made in the mid-90's. I just yesterday in fact scraped off all the original duct tape and replaced it with Tyvek. It's 3/16th tempered plate glass top and botton with a Tyvek hinge, the top has a 1/4 inch lip so I can lift it up easily when changing paper.

All of these prints are contact printed on AZO ranging from grades 1-5. I inherited a huge stash of 8x10 AZO and it's all still good...some of it is over 50 years old. I wasn't a fan of single-weight paper, but after printing over 100 prints so far...maybe pushing 150 on this project I've really come to like it.

5x7 contact prints are rather lovely. 4x5's are also. I have an entire portfolio of 4x10 pt/pd contact prints and I rather like that size too. I like that there are many printers who are enjoying the smaller medium-format contact prints as well. I have taught alt. processes and we used the Holga camera entirely one semester. Those prints had a look and a feel when viewing that was very interesting. One other person here used the word 'intimate'. I would agree completely.

[Corran]

I bought some 5x7 fiber paper some time ago to experiment with and I found that 6x17 negatives contact printed were pretty nice. I can't enlarge them right now so it was the only thing I could do. Tried some 4x5 too and they look good.

That said I am addicted to the bigger prints. 16x20 is my favorite.

[Bruce Barlow]

4x5 PT/Pds are lovely.

I also want to PT/PD some of my Holga negatives. Now THOSE will be little jewels in an 8x10 mat.

[MIke Sherck]

I contact print 4x5 for salt prints and cyanotypes and occasionally in silver. Now that I'm moving to 5x7 everything will be contact printed.

Mike

[RodinalDuchamp]

I have contact printed 5x4" in an improvised setup in the bathroom - towels hung over the window to make it dark, landing light turned off, using a D-cell Maglite with the reflector head removed, about 6ft away from the paper as a light source with normal Ilford RC 5x7" paper - exposures were of the order of 30-60 seconds. Used an old picture frame as a contact frame. Got some quite nice results. Moving house this year (hopefully) so there's every chance of a less heath Robinson setup on the cards.

Depends on your goals for the prints. I think that's a fine method. If you can achieve consistent satisfactory results then it works. Above everything its about having fun I think first and foremost.