Displaying Large Format Chromes

**Michael Roberts** · 13-Apr-2023, 18:14

I have not backlit the actual film, but I did scan two transparency films to create digital files and then have those printed on transparency material that I mounted in a transom above the door to the master bedroom. The bedroom is off the kitchen, and the transom is visible from the great room. I taped the transparency prints to sheets of acrylic. There’s one on each side of the doorway, and two LED lightbulbs suspended in between.

Moto phone is a bit challenged here, but this may give you the idea.

**Drew Wiley** · 13-Apr-2023, 19:50

The way it's usually done is to enlarge (or now laser print onto) a transparent display material deliberately made for this purpose, once via dye transfer, then Duratrans, then Cibachrome display film, now Fujitrans. This is then firmly attached to a stiff translucent white acrylic sheet using a high-tack permanent transparent two-faced acrylic foil using a high-pressure mechanized roller press (a specialized skill and expensive machine). It's still done commercially on a wide scale. But these things fade prematurely due to the UV torture. None of them are E6; current Fujitrans is RA4. Advertising media is not meant to last a long time anyway. Now the really big outdoor advertising ones are giant pixelated screens where the image content can be changed at the push of a button.

But yeah, there's no one stopping you from taking a basic thin 8X10 lightbox with an E6 chrome taped to it, or stuck between its white diffuser and glass top, and suspending that on a wall. Easy enough.

Nobody does serious dupes anymore, not even me. A suitable 8X10 dupe film no longer exists unless whoever I sold mine to still has some, and it's still hypothetically usable without serious crossover issues, or they have a frozen stash of their own. I sometimes make ra4 printing internegs from old chrome originals or their master printing dupes. Better to have a specialty lab scan your slide or chrome, and then laser output it onto Fujitrans.

**Alan Klein** · 14-Apr-2023, 08:42

Originally Posted by Drew Wiley

The way it's usually done is to enlarge (or now laser print onto) a transparent display material deliberately made for this purpose, once via dye transfer, then Duratrans, then Cibachrome display film, now Fujitrans. This is then firmly attached to a stiff translucent white acrylic sheet using a high-tack permanent transparent two-faced acrylic foil using a high-pressure mechanized roller press (a specialized skill and expensive machine). It's still done commercially on a wide scale. But these things fade prematurely due to the UV torture. None of them are E6; current Fujitrans is RA4. Advertising media is not meant to last a long time anyway. Now the really big outdoor advertising ones are giant pixelated screens where the image content can be changed at the push of a button.

But yeah, there's no one stopping you from taking a basic thin 8X10 lightbox with an E6 chrome taped to it, or stuck between its white diffuser and glass top, and suspending that on a wall. Easy enough.

Nobody does serious dupes anymore, not even me. A suitable 8X10 dupe film no longer exists unless whoever I sold mine to still has some, and it's still hypothetically usable without serious crossover issues, or they have a frozen stash of their own. I sometimes make ra4 printing internegs from old chrome originals or their master printing dupes. Better to have a specialty lab scan your slide or chrome, and then laser output it onto Fujitrans.

I was thinking of that. The light would stay off and when a guest was wondering what the black box on the wall is, you switch it on. An interesting conversation piece. How long would a let's say an Ektachrome 100 be OK before fading if kept inside the home out of direct natural light except ambient with the LED light off most of the time?

**Drew Wiley** · 14-Apr-2023, 09:28

With just intermittent illumination, twenty years or more, perhaps. Depends on how much UV arrives from ordinary room light in the meantime. You could place an opaque removable cover over it. The secondary problem would be the risk of condensation and mold getting into any tightly compressed sandwich like that.

**smigol** · 8-May-2023, 08:50

I've been thinking about this for a while as well. Sometimes I see small light boxes for tracing at a store and think it would be a nice gift or desk accessory.

I did not think about the humidity/mold aspect.

I do like the idea of printing color transparency instead of using the actual sheet.