Enlarged negatives

pwitkop · Oct 23, 2019

I was wondering who else is still making enlarged negatives in the darkroom. I've working on enlarging negatives for platinum lately and since I've been doing everything else in the darkroom recently I've been doing that analog as well.

I've had some good results with making them by reversal with Arista ortho litho 3.0. Making them with an enlarged inter-positive and dental x-ray copy film haven't yielded much for encouraging results. I'll be doing some prints this weekend, so we'll see just how well the reversal negatives print.

So what's working for everyone else, what materials are you using? Most articles I find now are a few years old lots of things have been discontinued

Stats · Oct 23, 2019

I have been making optically enlarged negatives for the pt/pd printing for many years, and I think the most important key for success is the use of pyro developers (I use PMK and WD2D). It is the proportional stain that creates the proper UV light resist for the platinum process.

thefizz · Oct 23, 2019

pwitkop said:
I was wondering who else is still making enlarged negatives in the darkroom. I've working on enlarging negatives for platinum lately and since I've been doing everything else in the darkroom recently I've been doing that analog as well.

I've had some good results with making them by reversal with Arista ortho litho 3.0. Making them with an enlarged inter-positive and dental x-ray copy film haven't yielded much for encouraging results. I'll be doing some prints this weekend, so we'll see just how well the reversal negatives print.

So what's working for everyone else, what materials are you using? Most articles I find now are a few years old lots of things have been discontinued

I have also been using Arista Ortho Litho 3.0 film and reverse processing. The key is to flash the film to reduce contrast.

jeffreyg · Oct 24, 2019

I've been using dental x-ray duplicating film for many years with excellent results. No need for an inter-positive, The duplicating film is a reversal film and works best with x-ray film chemistry. The film is slow and you can use a red safelight.. Remember that "burning" will yield a "lighter" area and the opposite for "dodging" because it is a reversal film.

http://www.jeffreyglasser.com/

http://www.sculptureandphotography.com/

pwitkop · Oct 27, 2019

jeffreyg said:
I've been using dental x-ray duplicating film for many years with excellent results. No need for an inter-positive, The duplicating film is a reversal film and works best with x-ray film chemistry. The film is slow and you can use a red safelight.. Remember that "burning" will yield a "lighter" area and the opposite for "dodging" because it is a reversal film.

http://www.jeffreyglasser.com/

http://www.sculptureandphotography.com/

I might have to look into some x-ray chemistry. I bought an unopened package of carestream film fairly cheap on eBay, but I think I got an emulsion that's mostly blue/uv sensitive because the exposure times I had were very long with a condenser enlarger, at least using dektol, and my highlight separation didn't look very good.

So far it looks like the reversal negatives are going to be my go to given the contrast control available but I'll like to have more than one truck up my sleeve, so to speak.

Peter Schrager · Oct 27, 2019

Bergger is coming out with film specially made for making enlarged negatives
If its anything like the BPF18 that was discontinued it will be great

wyofilm · Oct 28, 2019

I made my first enlarged negative today for Pt/Pd. I started with a 6x7 bw chrome (Dr5) and enlarged onto 4x5 ortho+ (Ilford). Contrasty, but some mid-tone gray. Will try a Pt/Pd print this week if I find the time.

kevs · Oct 28, 2019

A few years ago, I made enlarged negs by making a 'normal contrast' print on glossy RC paper then contact-printing onto Ilford Ortho Plus sheet film. I used a clean sheet of glass to press the surfaces together. My method mostly worked well but sometimes the contact between the surfaces wasn't perfect, leaving an unsharp negative. I developed the Ortho film in Ilford PQ print developer, which gives pictorial contrast and low speed.

kevs

jeffreyg · Oct 28, 2019

The film I suggested is not x-ray film. It is x-ray duplicating film.

Renato Tonelli · Oct 28, 2019

Peter Schrager said:
Bergger is coming out with film specially made for making enlarged negatives
If its anything like the BPF18 that was discontinued it will be great

I am looking forward to using that film; it should become available in the USA soon.

pwitkop · Oct 29, 2019

Peter Schrager said:
Bergger is coming out with film specially made for making enlarged negatives
If its anything like the BPF18 that was discontinued it will be great

I've been waiting to get ahold of some of this, I would think it would be much easier to do an inter-positive and enlarged negative with

pwitkop · Oct 29, 2019

wyofilm said:
I made my first enlarged negative today for Pt/Pd. I started with a 6x7 bw chrome (Dr5) and enlarged onto 4x5 ortho+ (Ilford). Contrasty, but some mid-tone gray. Will try a Pt/Pd print this week if I find the time.

That's a really interesting idea, I'll be interested to see how those work

pwitkop · Oct 29, 2019

jeffreyg said:
The film I suggested is not x-ray film. It is x-ray duplicating film.

I did use the duplicating film (produces a copy of the negative), I could have been more clear.

Enlarged negatives

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