Any way to make analog prints from slides?

[trondsi]

does anyone here have a way of making analog prints from pictures on E6 film, without using discontinued materials from the freezer? I am normally happy to scan my film, and I just make sure that the final print looks as close to the transparency picture as I can get it, but I'm just curious if there are other ways.

 

[Wayne]

You can make inter-negatives on Portra film and print those on RA-4

 

[mike c]

Back in high school we used a slide copier, just a Pentax 35mm camera mounted above a strobe pointed up with the slide positioned in between, very simple and easy to replicate. In the camera use either color neg film or B&W film.

 

[DREW WILEY]

If you're determined, maybe. No easy way. Interneg is a nice easy answer in theory, pretty difficult in practice if you expect quality results.

 

[mike c]

If you're determined, maybe. No easy way. Interneg is a nice easy answer in theory, pretty difficult in practice if you expect quality results.

It was there, we were photo 1 students in High School so expert quality was not needed.

 

[wiltw]

Oh I wish Cibachrome/Ilfochrome paper and chemistry was still sold!

 

[Photo Engineer]

Or, cross process RA4 paper as described elsewhere.

PE

 

[trondsi]

Or, cross process RA4 paper as described elsewhere.

PE

How does that look? Any examples?

 

[bvy]

How does that look? Any examples?

Insane contrast, yet no real whites (they're more like a muddy gray). Others complain of mottling. Here's a test image (4x5) I made from a Kodachrome slide.

 

[Photo Engineer]

How does that look? Any examples?

I would never advise using Kodachrome for this!

There are some examples here and there, but here are some of mine.

I have a 16x20 of the rock in pond photo in our living room.

PE

 

[Photo Engineer]

Sorry, the flowers photo was cross processed Ektachrome in C41 with normal RA4 printing. But that too is possible as you can see.

PE

 

[trondsi]

Wow! So my best guess would be that using an inter-negative would give a print with lower resolution but higher color fidelity than cross processing? That doll looks nice though, but I don't know the original colors. The landscape looks good too.

Do we have any examples made with inter-negatives?

 

[Old_Dick]

Just curious, what if I wanted to make a B&W print? Anything easy? I've made some interesting negative prints from slides and used Kodalith to make high contrast prints. That was 40+ years ago.

I hate thinking in decades

 

[BetterSense]

Making B&W prints from color slides via internegative is very easy and works well. I prefer enlarging to 4x5 pan film. You can even use colored filters to manipulate tones. Its also my favorite method of salvaging underexposed slides.

 

[bvy]

I would never advise using Kodachrome for this!

Just curious, why not? One positive transparency is as good as another, right?

 

[JoJo]

I did RA-4 reversal process some years ago. It works but it is not easy.
The main problem is the very high contrast of the result.
I solved this by pre-flashing the paper, but controlling all variables is a pain.
This example was on Fuji CA. As first develper, I used Tetenal Centrabrom.
The first is the scan of the original slide, second is the normal reversed RA-print and third is the preflashed version of the print.

Another way with good results I used later, was using ECN2 motion picture film as internegative film.

Joachim

 

[Photo Engineer]

Just curious, why not? One positive transparency is as good as another, right?

Kodachrome is very high in contrast, color saturation and has an odd cyan dye.

PE

 

[Photo Engineer]

Wow! So my best guess would be that using an inter-negative would give a print with lower resolution but higher color fidelity than cross processing? That doll looks nice though, but I don't know the original colors. The landscape looks good too.

Do we have any examples made with inter-negatives?

Yes, of course!

Tower rock is from Ektachrome Professional (EPP) onto Portra 160, Birds of a Feather is Kodachrome 64 on to Portra 160 and Merry Christmas is old E4 Ektachrome on to real internegative film.

The real interneg was shot by my uncle (also a photographer) and printed onto interneg film by EK.

PE

 

[DREW WILEY]

Of course, there is always the possibility of tri-color printing. Not complicated in theory, and works best using large format originals, but does require
quite a bit of time to learn how to match black and white separation negatives. A film like TMX100 works quite well. You make three contact separations from your chrome original using deep separation filters, such as 29 red, 58 green, and 47B blue, and make three successive exposures
using these with an appropriate hard filter over your enlarger onto RA4 paper, essentially replicating what an RGB laser exposure system does in the
big labs. I won't go into the details, but might do a few of these myself in the near future and compare them with interneg equivalents.

 

[Photo Engineer]

BTDT as well Drew. What a pain it is!

But the results are spectacular. In fact, we coated a color paper with sharp filters in it so that it imitated using separations but with only cc filters. It too was spectacular but very expensive and so it was never sold.

You would be surprised at how many experiments like this were done.

PE

 

[DREW WILEY]

Well, I've already got all the registration gear, so why not? Of course, any separations i've already made for dye transfer printing are likely to be too
contrasty for RA4 paper, but they're close enough to get me to first base in terms of color balance per se. What I'm really eager to try, however, is
a stack of 8x10 Portra internegs from very meticulously masked chromes. Those were expensive to make, and represent only my second round of
interneg serious experimentation. The first round had mixed results. Velvia of course is the hardest chrome film to tame on an interneg. But I never
shot much of that to begin with. Mostly E100G while it was still around.

 

[Ryan Oliveira]

I know this thread is old, but I want to ask something anyways.
Does the fine grain/resolution of slide film get transfered to the internegative, or is limited to the resolution of the negative (Portra 160) ?

In other words, will I get the colors/saturation of Velvia 50, for example, in a darkroom print when printing from an internegative ?

 

[MattKing]

I know this thread is old, but I want to ask something anyways.
Does the fine grain/resolution of slide film get transfered to the internegative, or is limited to the resolution of the negative (Portra 160) ?

In other words, will I get the colors/saturation of Velvia 50, for example, in a darkroom print when printing from an internegative ?

A lot of internegatives were made on larger format film, so for those the answer is yes.

 

[Ryan Oliveira]

A lot of internegatives were made on larger format film, so for those the answer is yes.

Seems right.
So, how different would the internegative print look from a projected slide ?

If I use the same size negative for copying (35mm to 35mm), will it still retain the details of the slide, since slides usually can be printed at larger sizes, will that be the case ?

 

[MattKing]

Seems right.
So, how different would the internegative print look from a projected slide ?

If I use the same size negative for copying (35mm to 35mm), will it still retain the details of the slide, since slides usually can be printed at larger sizes, will that be the case ?

The purpose made internegative films that used to be available were slow speed, low contrast films designed specifically for the purpose. They were finer grained than any general purpose slide film, and their contrast and colour response was designed to take into account the effects of the copying process.
Now you need to use a general purpose colour negative film to do this. The biggest challenge comes from the inevitable increase in contrast - that is why enlarging on to a larger piece of film is advantageous - more control of the light source.
I'd suggest Portra 160 or Ektar for this - the colour palette and contrast and saturation of the Portra being advantageous, while the fine grain of the Ektar provides that advantage for slides that can handle a boost in contrast and saturation.
No print is going to look the same as a projected slide, due to the differences between projection and reflected light media, but over the years I've seen lots of really stunning prints made using internegatives.