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Thread: Please share your darkroom prints from B&W slides

  1. #1

    Please share your darkroom prints from B&W slides

    I am interested in making some black and white slides. However, I enjoy darkroom printing. I am sure some of you have already figured out how to address this problem. Please share your prints! Also, please let me know:

    - if there is a simple way to darkroom print black and white slides or is it as complicated as making them
    - whether you observe an obvious improvement in quality compared to your prints of negatives

    I Googled to find information on this, but I could not find a satisfactory answer.

    Thank you in advance for sharing your work.

  2. #2
    Bertha DeCool Bertha DeCool's Avatar
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    Re: Please share your darkroom prints from B&W slides

    I have 40 yr old B&W 35mm slides from a direct-positive process we used in school that I've thought about enlarging onto Ilford/Harman direct-positive paper but I'm currently only contact printing 5x7 and lacking sufficient darkroom space/enlarger.
    From what I've read about folks shooting this paper in-camera, a pre-flash reduces its inherent contrasty nature. It's pretty slow, ISO 3-6, I'd imagine it'd print b&w slides nicely.
    There're a l few threads on here that have been running for awhile.

  3. #3

    Re: Please share your darkroom prints from B&W slides

    Quote Originally Posted by Bertha DeCool View Post
    I have 40 yr old B&W 35mm slides from a direct-positive process we used in school that I've thought about enlarging onto Ilford/Harman direct-positive paper but I'm currently only contact printing 5x7 and lacking sufficient darkroom space/enlarger.
    From what I've read about folks shooting this paper in-camera, a pre-flash reduces its inherent contrasty nature. It's pretty slow, ISO 3-6, I'd imagine it'd print b&w slides nicely.
    There're a l few threads on here that have been running for awhile.
    Thank you for responding. I just looked up a thread and saw great images. I will link it. It looks like most people are using the paper directly instead of enlarging, but at least this gives you an idea of the results. A comment online lead me to believe there was not a simple way to enlarge slides in the darkroom.

    https://www.largeformatphotography.i...positive+paper

  4. #4

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    Re: Please share your darkroom prints from B&W slides

    Generally, the reason people used to shoot b/w reversal was to make 35mm slides for projection. Now I suppose people scan b/w positives, but I don't know what (if any) the advantages of that might be. Enlarging b/w positives to make prints could be done, but it's certainly going the long way around. If you want b/w slides, it would be easier just to shoot negatives in the camera and then copy them in a slide-duplicating setup. We used to use Kodak's Fine Grain Release Positive 5302 film for that purpose- although that film must be long discontinued, there are likely films available in the cinema world meant to do the same thing. A good b/w transparency can be a lovely thing to see- best of luck!

  5. #5
    Bertha DeCool Bertha DeCool's Avatar
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    Re: Please share your darkroom prints from B&W slides

    Quote Originally Posted by Mark Sampson View Post
    Generally, the reason people used to shoot b/w reversal was to make 35mm slides for projection. Now I suppose people scan b/w positives, but I don't know what (if any) the advantages of that might be. Enlarging b/w positives to make prints could be done, but it's certainly going the long way around. If you want b/w slides, it would be easier just to shoot negatives in the camera and then copy them in a slide-duplicating setup. We used to use Kodak's Fine Grain Release Positive 5302 film for that purpose- although that film must be long discontinued, there are likely films available in the cinema world meant to do the same thing. A good b/w transparency can be a lovely thing to see- best of luck!
    We used Pan-X and a process that included re-exposing the film and then redeveloping in a paper developer. I have the formulas somewhere...
    I can highly recommend dr5, a lab now located in Iowa that does a proprietary direct-positive process for b&w chromes for any size film. I agree that most would be for scanning and then inkjet printing. There's a company in VT that sells inks for Epson printers that replace CMY with shades of gray from black to white.

    I'm shooting 5x7 now so I can contact print without an enlarger, so my interest in printing direct to Harmon DPP has waned for now. For me the advantafe to b&w slides was in preserving the tonal range that gets lost when printing to paper.

    I still have a 100' can of Pan-X in the freezer, maybe I'll dig up that formula someday.

  6. #6

    Re: Please share your darkroom prints from B&W slides

    Quote Originally Posted by Mark Sampson View Post
    Generally, the reason people used to shoot b/w reversal was to make 35mm slides for projection. Now I suppose people scan b/w positives, but I don't know what (if any) the advantages of that might be. Enlarging b/w positives to make prints could be done, but it's certainly going the long way around. If you want b/w slides, it would be easier just to shoot negatives in the camera and then copy them in a slide-duplicating setup. We used to use Kodak's Fine Grain Release Positive 5302 film for that purpose- although that film must be long discontinued, there are likely films available in the cinema world meant to do the same thing. A good b/w transparency can be a lovely thing to see- best of luck!
    Thanks, Mark. I am 3 years late - sorry. I must have been distracted by another thread at the time. I am revisiting this idea once again!

  7. #7

    Re: Please share your darkroom prints from B&W slides

    Quote Originally Posted by Bertha DeCool View Post
    We used Pan-X and a process that included re-exposing the film and then redeveloping in a paper developer. I have the formulas somewhere...
    I can highly recommend dr5, a lab now located in Iowa that does a proprietary direct-positive process for b&w chromes for any size film. I agree that most would be for scanning and then inkjet printing. There's a company in VT that sells inks for Epson printers that replace CMY with shades of gray from black to white.

    I'm shooting 5x7 now so I can contact print without an enlarger, so my interest in printing direct to Harmon DPP has waned for now. For me the advantafe to b&w slides was in preserving the tonal range that gets lost when printing to paper.

    I still have a 100' can of Pan-X in the freezer, maybe I'll dig up that formula someday.
    Hi Bertha. I am curious if you still have this Pan-X? Have you tried any lately? I have a35mm film projector now so I am revisiting this idea.

  8. #8
    ic-racer's Avatar
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    Re: Please share your darkroom prints from B&W slides

    This is the setup I'm planning on using. I have not used it yet however.

    Basically I will enlarge the 35mm slides onto 6x6cm rollfilm. There is not shutter in this camera, so I'll have to use the enlarger timer.

    Click image for larger version. 

Name:	Slide copy rolleiflex.jpg 
Views:	35 
Size:	59.0 KB 
ID:	244145

  9. #9

    Re: Please share your darkroom prints from B&W slides

    Quote Originally Posted by ic-racer View Post
    This is the setup I'm planning on using. I have not used it yet however.

    Basically I will enlarge the 35mm slides onto 6x6cm rollfilm. There is not shutter in this camera, so I'll have to use the enlarger timer.

    Click image for larger version. 

Name:	Slide copy rolleiflex.jpg 
Views:	35 
Size:	59.0 KB 
ID:	244145
    This looks interesting! Let us know how it goes.

  10. #10

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    Re: Please share your darkroom prints from B&W slides

    You could try enlarging onto Harman Direct Positive paper. Not sure that the contract will look like, but it can be flashed.

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