35mm enlarging - who is passionate about it?

[BetterSense]

I don't have glass negative carriers for my enlargers, but is it possible to just sandwich the negative between two sheets of glass and mask off the rest with construction paper or something?

 

[Thomas Bertilsson]

It's possible, but you may get Newton's Rings unless you use anti-newton-ring glass.

The glass carriers sure help in keeping the negative flat, and with the V35 enlarger, the holder only holds the negative 'by the corners' so while printing the last frame of a film strip, there is very little to hold the negative in place. A glass carrier definitely eliminates any negative flatness issues. Be prepared to polish and clean glass surfaces a lot, though...

If you use a piece of milk glass on top of it all, you can get diffused light from a condenser enlarger too, if you wanted to.

 

[PVia]

I can never find that mylar without a texture...where do you get yours?

 

[patrickjames]

This thread just keeps on going with the good ideas! Although I wish someone would proclaim that there isn't any difference with the V35, at least until after I buy one some day.

The best thing to do in my experience is to put anti-newton glass on top, and for the bottom glass use this ( Dead Link Removed ). It is AR coated glass. That is if you really want to be fanatical about it. As Michael said, the top glass will get you almost all the way there.

On one of my first enlargers I put a piece of opal plexiglass under the condensers (between the condensers and the negative). I don't remember specifically how much help it was since it was such a long time ago, but I remember I left it there, so it must have helped some.

I look forward to seeing your results thaung.

 

[patrickjames]

Michael reminded me of another technique I use to dodge very small areas or complicated shapes so I thought I would give it its own post.

I take frosted mylar, or the stuff I actually use is the frosted side of a 4x5 neg sleeve which is basically frosted mylar, and tape it to the top of my neg carrier grainy side up. You have to tape the neg in the carrier as well so it doesn't move. Take the whole thing to your lightbox and with a pencil gradually fill in areas that you want dodged. It usually doesn't take much. You are in essence making a mask but only for a specific part of the neg. It really works wonders sometimes for how simple and quick it is to make. You do have to have a glass carrier to do this though.

 

[patrickjames]

Wow, that is interesting Michael, I didn't know anyone else did this! I started doing it probably at least decade ago through a confluence of circumstances. When I do it I put the mylar right on top of the anti-newton glass with nothing in between. This is of course with a diffusion enlarger like you. I have never found it to be a problem on 35mm. If I get a little heavy handed with the pencil it can lower contrast in an area which can be an issue. It is really best for small areas and not general contrast control.

I do have a couple of questions for you if you are still reading this. The "diffusion" mylar that I use doesn't really diffuse anything. It is more like a faintly frosted surface. I can almost still see through it, but one side is smooth and the other side, the one that I pencil on, has just a little "tooth". How opaque is the mylar you use? Could you provide a link to it, if available?

My comment about the V35 was a little tongue in cheek hence the whistling man . I, like you, actually use a Saunders 4550XL, set up in a painstaking manner, with a laser alignment tool and an anti-newton glass carrier. It really leaves nothing to be desired. Printing with it seems almost too easy at times. It feels like I am cheating!

 

[patrickjames]

Hey Michael, I took a look at Alan Ross' website, although Google gives a malware warning so I looked at the cached version. He states he had written an article in 1999 in View Camera magazine. It is more than possible that I read that and that is how I got started doing this. At any rate, there are other ways to achieve this as well. I have made masks in the computer and output them on transparency film. I have done it with Litho film too. Both of those are usually more trouble than it is worth though. It only takes a minute to make a mask with a pencil.

I am glad this came up though. For the longest time I have been wanting to find a very thin opaque material that I could sandwich next to the negative to be able to do extremely fine work. It looks like there is one similar to Dura-Lar. I might give that stuff a try. The kits Alan Ross has are really cheap for what they are. I wish he sold entire holders with the glass already in them. I am looking for a second one to dedicate to 35mm! I don't know why Saunders doesn't make a smaller glass carrier for the 4550XL. I have a 670VCCE and they have one for that.

I don't think you derailed the thread at all. I bring up these techniques because people don't know how to do them or perhaps never heard of them before. I doubt anyone that read our posts wished they had skipped them! In fact, there will probably be a run on frosted mylar at all of the art stores around the country! I don't know if anyone has noticed, but the price of a 50mm APO lens on ebay has doubled since this thread started! I only know this because I need to get a new lens. My Orthoplanar has a de-centered element. Me and my big mouth!

 

[herb]

Man, I wish I could afford a Leica rangefinder sometimes. They are so nice, especially at slow shutter speeds...

However, I tried out a Leica M4-P a year ago; I had it for about five months with a 50mm Summicron, a 50mm Summitar, and a 90mm Summicron. While it was amazing, I am still a bit disappointed that I can't really see a difference in picture quality compared to my Pentax SLR and lenses. No difference at all, basically. I print negatives made with either, side by side, and I have to look up which comes from which camera to be able to tell.

That doesn't mean I wouldn't still want a Leica. They are such lovely works of art in themselves, handle with such precision, and are just pure joy to use. I also like the prospect of using the older uncoated lenses for portraiture, opening up the shadows a bit, gaining some film speed.
I salivate at the prospect of owning and using one of those little beauties.

Thomas, I had an M6 and got rid of it in favor of a Zeiss Ikon
ZI. Still use some Leica lenses, but the film loading is MUCH
easier, and you can tell for sure what film is in the camera.

 

[Bob Carnie]

Contour printing is a very old method of printing dating back at least to the early 60's using frosted mylar on top of the negative to dodge out areas within a scene and then allow the printer to expose for the upper tones and let the diffusion due the rest.
Red Coccine was used in the forty's to do the very same and was where the idea came from for diffusion dodging and I do not believe the method was invented by any contemporary printer.

 

[Sirius Glass]

...
The question that keeps popping into my mind is why I even bother with medium format at the sizes I print, which is up to 16x20 with cropped negatives.
Don't get me wrong, I'll keep the Hasselblad around, of course. I love it, and my landscapes are square, not rectangular.

More the other way.

I enjoy printing 35mm. I have gotten some superb 24"x36" color and black & white prints. However my use of 35mm, 120, and 4"x5" cameras has morphed. I have changed from taking 50 to 60 rolls of 35mm film a year to using 35mm for casual photograph, when I do not have a lot of time to spend on a composition, and scouting a location just prior to using the Hasselblad or 4"x5" cameras. My serious work [actually Sirius Work] is done with the Hasselblad. I am still working on the 4"x5"s and refining my skills. I have not worked on the movements of the 4"x5"s yet.

To expand on "scouting a location just prior to using the Hasselblad or 4"x5" cameras", I use the 35mm camera to look at compositions and figure out the focal length len(ses) that I will use for the Hasselblad or 4"x5" cameras. And I will take both black & white photographs of these compositions for future reference and darkroom work. The Hasselblad photographs provide so much more in optical quality, tonality and grain that the 35mm negatives rarely get much attention.

Steve

 

[Bob Carnie]

Don't need to get your shorts in a knot , only pointing out some info that puts a historical note.

Alan Ross doesn't claim to have invented it. His particular technique is just his version of the various methods that have been used before. Most of them date way back.

 

[PVia]

I use the mylar Alan Ross suggested. It is made by Grafix and is called Dura-Lar matte .005". ....I have been experimenting with using one or two extra layers of mylar as a thinner diffusing spacer, instead of the plexi (picture a bottom to top sandwich of negative, one or two layers of unshaded mylar, shaded mylar, top glass. I've been experimenting with this versus the plexi only because you need less and less diffusion as the negative size decreases, or else it becomes very difficult.

And you don't see any texture or interference in smooth areas of tonalities? This would be great...

I've experimented with the Dura-Lar Clear that takes wet media without feathering, pooling or shrinking but a pencil mask on the Matte would really be superb.