A3 size contact prints

[abudhabiandy]

Hello from Abu Dhabi! When I make a straight contact print it´s A4 size but when Downtown Darkroom in London do it it´s A3 - which is clearly twice the size - how do they do this & can I replicate this on my Durst M305?

 

[Stephen Frizza]

A3 Proof sheets.

Hello

I own and operate a lab in Bondi Australia. to make A3 proof sheets
I don't contact them. I have a 10x10" enlarger and I mount the film onto the 10x10" glass plate then print it as though i was printing a large format sheet of film. using this technique you can make a proof sheet larger or smaller than the original.

~Steve Frizza
The Lighthouse lab

 

[abudhabiandy]

Hello

I own and operate a lab in Bondi Australia. to make A3 proof sheets
I don't contact them. I have a 10x10" enlarger and I mount the film onto the 10x10" glass plate then print it as though i was printing a large format sheet of film. using this technique you can make a proof sheet larger or smaller than the original.

~Steve Frizza
The Lighthouse lab

Thanks. so I can´t do this from my durst then??

 

[Bob F.]

Thanks. so I can´t do this from my durst then??

No, sorry. You need a much larger enlarger - one that can fit a whole roll of negatives in the negative carrier at the same time. The enlarger referred to by Stephen can take large format 10 inch (25 - 26cm) size negatives.

I guess you could print each negative one at a time on to a single large sheet of paper but making a mask and aligning it on the paper for each exposure would be quite a complex and time consuming operation.

I suspect (but do not know) that Downtown Darkroom print the "contacts" digitally from a scan of the negative strips.

Bob.

 

[Steve Smith]

Another option would be to expose them individually, one at a time, onto the same piece of paper using masks but it's not really worth the effort.


Steve.

 

[Steve Smith]

You just said that didn't you?!!!


Steve.

 

[Bob F.]

You just said that didn't you?!!!


Steve.

Yup, but to be fair, it was an edit added a few minutes after the original post so you may have missed it at the first reading!

Bob.

P.S. Thinking about it, Downtown Darkroom are B&W specialists so they may well do the same as Stephen does...

 

[Mick Fagan]

There could be a terminology problem here!

If the original poster mentions that contact prints that he/she makes are A4 and then asks can I make them to A3 like the overseas lab, I get the impression that we are talking enlargements from both operators.

I don't know of any A4 film that is readily available these days, much less an A4 camera, unless it's a reprographic camera.

So perhaps the originator could explain the format being used for the original, then we may be able to give more precise information to get A3 prints.

If the M305 enlarger is being used to make prints, are they the A4 prints being talked about?

Perhaps, perhaps not.

Mick.

 

[abudhabiandy]

thanks everone, Mick, I use a standard Jessops contact printer which gives me 36 tiny (ish)pics on an A4 sheet of paper. The contact prints I get back from Downtown are literally twice the size which frankly helps when choosing which pic to print. Downtowns are actual B&W pints not scanned in. So what type of enlarger do i need to do these larger A3 size contact prints? Cheers Andy:

 

[richard ide]

As said, you need an enlarger with a large size film carrier. A process camera would work if it is the type which can backlight the subject. I used to enlarge my 35mm negative roll proofs on to 42" paper which gave me almost a 5 x 7 proof of each frame.

 

[Mick Fagan]

Andy, it makes sense to me now.

You need an 8x10" enlarger with a glass negative carrier.

Most 8x10" commercial enlargers come with a glass carrier as standard and quite a few of them are actually 10x10" so you can swing the negative in portrait or landscape mode.

As mentioned you can use a process camera to do the job but a bit of dexterity and fiddling may be required.

Unless you have a burning desire to build a large darkroom to accommodate the normally huge enlarger, I would suggest you purchase a powerful hand held magnifying glass. I have one and it's a large piece of glass, around 200mm diameter. By having one this size the sweet spot is quite large and your contact sheets are suddenly far easier to interpret.

The hand held magnifying glass is a far, far cheaper solution. I know it's not the same, but it really makes a difference.

Mick.

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

An 8x10" enlarger is a pretty large piece of equipment in general, with a long enlarging column, but there are Beseler 4x5" enlargers that have been converted to 8x10" that aren't too enormous, if you can find one. Of course if you get an 8x10" enlarger, you'll want to shoot 8x10" in no time, so you'll be looking for an 8x10" camera, lenses, filmholders, a bigger tripod, and then you'll really be stuck!