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Thread: Printing 8x10

  1. #11

    Printing 8x10

    As one of the lucky guys with an 8x10 enlarger I would recommend getting a 5x7 enlarger. A 5x7 will enlarge to 20x24 quite nicely. Prints larger than that are a real commitment.

    If you come to love the contact print more than any enlargement I would go right to 11x14, count on your love to keep you strong, carrying it around. 8x10 is a compromise size for me. I'd swap my 8x10 camera and enlarger in a heartbeat for a nice 11x14. I may end up just building one.

    Cheers,

  2. #12

    Join Date
    Apr 2004
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    Printing 8x10

    Just for the heck of it, I measured the 810 enlarger and the base is 26" x 31.5" with the vertical railing standing 45". At full extension the head is 57" inches from the bottom of the baseboard so it takes a lot less space than a floor model.

  3. #13

    Join Date
    May 2000
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    Tamworth, Staffordshire. U.K.
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    Printing 8x10

    I contact print my 10x8 and 11x14 negs. The day I walk into the house with an 8x10 enlarger is the day she will kill me. With UK law as it is she knows that she will walk free in about three years, it won't be a big decision.

  4. #14
    おせわに なります! Andrew O'Neill's Avatar
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    Sep 2003
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    Coquitlam, BC, Canada, eh!
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    Printing 8x10

    I contact print on variable contrast paper but would love to be able to enlarge my 8x10 negs! I like the ability to crop...Currently I'm working on designing an LED enlarger. The Tech Ed department at the school that I teach at has lots of neat software that'll make things easier for me....and a very knowledgeable person there to help me! These ultra bright LEDs are pretty bright!

  5. #15
    austin granger's Avatar
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    Printing 8x10

    My dad once told me this story about how supposedly when Michelangelo finally finished his statue of David, he stood back and looked at it for a long, intense moment, then roared; "Now, LIVE!" Anyway, I think contact prints are something like that. They seem as if they might well come to life. At least, the best ones can. In any case, that's why I'm printing mostly 8x10 contacts these days.

    That, and like mark said, I think I've always 'seen' in 8x10. Even when I was enlarging from 4x5, the biggest I usually went was 8x10. For I find that I like the intimacy of that size; a size you could hold in your hand like a little book. Also, I think one sees an 8x10 differently than a larger print. With an 8x10, at a 'norma'l viewing distance, you are seeing the entirety of the print; the form as a whole, whereas with a bigger print, you are sort of 'roaming around' in there.

    Needless to say, in the end, it depends on what you're trying to achieve. Only you know the answer to that.

  6. #16

    Printing 8x10

    Contact printing 8X10 has provided me some really great prints, using Old TriX film. I do not have any experience with the new TriX film yet, so some input regarding that might be neat for the days my current supply of Old TriX runs out. There is no doubt contact printing can offer a look that enlarging cannot. That makes the challenge of 8X10 and larger worth it.

    See the current issue of B&W magazine for the Contact Printers Guild, www.contactprintersguild.com. Come to think of it, technically that is, contact printing even 4X5 offers a better look than enlarging the negative.

  7. #17

    Join Date
    Jan 2000
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    New Jersey
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    128

    Printing 8x10

    I have an 8x10 enlarger, its stored in the closet in the darkroom.
    I only contact print my 8x10 negatives now. I tried a several times to enlarge my 8x10 negatives. Everytime I would step back and look at the prints, they look fine but they don't feel like my work. I always felt like I was looking at someone else's work, not mine.

    Will the 8x10 print look to small after a while? Maybe, but then again you can always move into a different format. After about two years of shooting 8x10 I wanted to try something different, so I picked up an 11x14 and an 8x20. The 11x14 contact print still wasn't big enough compaired to the 8x10 to warrant the extra BS in taking it out of the studio. 12 years later, I still shoot the 8x20 and 8x10 and the 11x14 sits waiting in the studio for a series that has to be shot with it.

    If there are other photographers in your area shooting 8x10, try using theirs. If there aren't maybe renting a camera would be a good idea.

    Some people hate working with an 8x10....... and some of us just love it.
    The only real way to find out for yourself is to just go for it.
    _______________________
    George Losse
    www.georgelosse.com

  8. #18

    Printing 8x10

    Currently I'm only contact printing 8x10 negatives (and getting results that are simply amazing), but I do have an interest in enlarging them.

    Given that I've got three 8x10 cameras (don't ask), I intend to convert one of them into a horizontal enlarger this summer. I'll use my attic for this project, as I should be able to get the paper up to 30' away from the camera. I doubt that this will become anything other than an exercise for me, as I really don't have a tremendous interest in huge prints...but I do want to try out a few negatives I've made in poster-sized prints just to see what I get. This will be a way to add another "weapon to the arsenal", but my main interest is in shooting pictures that make great contact prints so I doubt I'll use the setup much.

    I have scanned and printed 8x10 negatives on the computer, but they're lifeless to me. After six years worth of effort, using every trick in the book and more printer/ink combinations than I care to remember, my average darkroom prints are still better than my best computer prints. I've seen some very nice digital prints, but I just do better with the darkroom. (This, by the way, is a limitation that doesn't make me unhappy as I spend my entire workday in front of a computer.)

  9. #19

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    Dec 1998
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    Printing 8x10

    Why shoot 8x10 if not contact printing?

  10. #20
    tim atherton's Avatar
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    Printing 8x10

    "Why shoot 8x10 if not contact printing?"

    why limit yourself to contact prints?

    and why (presumably) limit yourself to B&W (colour contact prints generally don't look that great imo)

    I can easily see the difference between 4x5 and 8x10 in a 20x24 enlargment and most certainly see it in a 40x50 enlargement.

    contact pints are only one possible option
    You'd be amazed how small the demand is for pictures of trees... - Fred Astaire to Audrey Hepburn

    www.photo-muse.blogspot.com blog

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