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Blurry Prints with Paper Negs

mkg11

Member
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Joined
Sep 22, 2019
Messages
6
Location
nyc
Format
Pinhole
Hey all -
I have some paper negatives that look pretty sharp but in doing my positive prints, they come out pretty blurry.
I've tried a few methods of making sure the neg is not buckling in any way. I tried wetting the negative and paper then using the squeegee, and then also printing with a piece of glass on top and without. I know direct contact between the printing paper and neg is super important. Anyone have other thoughts on what could be going on? I attached some photos to illustrate whats going on. thanks all!
 

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Welcome to Photrio.
I can see but one image from you. Can you attach a scan of the paper negative as well, so we can compare them?
 
Sure thing! Attached is the paper negative.
 

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When you performed a test strip of the negative, how did the lighter steps look? I'm wondering if the unsharpness is due to excessive exposure... I dropped your negative in photoshop, grayscaled it and it looks fine.
 
In my haste, I didn’t look too closely at the lighter exposures. I went with an exposure where I got a decent black but it certainly could be overexposed. I tossed the test strips so will have to redo them later and see .
 
tezzasmall said:
Same with me, so it's got to be a problem somewhere in making the final print.

I presume that you are doing emulsion to emulsion when doing the final print?

Terry S
Click to expand...

Yeah, I’m doing emulsion to emulsion. Putting glass on top in order to make direct contact shouldn’t cause them to look blurry right?
 
hi mkg11

have you tried dry-contact prints to see if it is the wet emulsion that is giving you the problem ?
sometimes wet to wet does weird stuffs...
 
Glass alone won't give you sharp contacts, you also need pressure to make sure that there's even 'contact' between the papers. Have also done wet to wet and those were sharp, so no idea why you're not getting sharper prints.
 
jnantz said:
hi mkg11

have you tried dry-contact prints to see if it is the wet emulsion that is giving you the problem ?
sometimes wet to wet does weird stuffs...
Click to expand...

Yeah, I’ve tried both with the emulsion being wet and dry. Both were giving me similar results. But to be fair I was kind of rushing through the process . I think going back and being a bit more methodical about the process will help find the issue .
 
blacksquare said:
I use 8mm thick glass without any problems. What light source do you have?
Click to expand...

I'm using a beseler enlarger as the light source. Not sure what the wattage is on the lamp (or if that matters) but I'm pretty sure is a new-ish bulb.
 
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