Film or Paper?

wahiba · Mar 9, 2017

While film is obviously faster large sheets sizes are much more expensive than paper. Similarly the Ilford positive paper is not cheap. RC paper however is cheaper and so more suited to experimentation.

So how good a negative does one get on paper? Obviously it is a straight forward process to scan a negative and reverse electronically.

Gerald C Koch · Mar 9, 2017

Besides the problem with speed then tonal range of paper is much less than that for film.

removed account4 · Mar 9, 2017

paper is my preferred medium
you can get negatives every bit as good as film negatives
but as gerald said the tonality is a bit different ..

narsuitus · Mar 9, 2017

Film is my preferred pinhole medium. I have never tried paper.

Plus, since I no longer do wet printing, I have no access to photo paper. However, since I still shoot large format, I routinely keep a supply of 4x5 sheet film.

Pinhole Gallery by Narsuitus, on Flickr

bvy · Mar 9, 2017

Paper will give LOTS of contrast. Joe VanCleave experimented with preflashing to enhance (or just simply produce) shadow detail, and it's a good approach. His posts on the subject shouldn't be hard to find.

Ortho litho film is another option. It's about the same speed as paper (maybe a little faster), and it's also very contrasty. But unlike paper, the contrast can be tamed with the right developer. Plus you get a transparency which is more conducive to contact printing or enlargement. And... it's cheap.

ciniframe · Mar 9, 2017

When you scan paper negatives they are mirror reversed, so you also have to flip the image to make it correct left to right.
Paper is all I use because of cost and ease of use. You can also load and process under safelight and developing setups are simple with minimal equipment.

tezzasmall · Mar 10, 2017

wahiba said:
So how good a negative does one get on paper? Obviously it is a straight forward process to scan a negative and reverse electronically.

There is a little more to just reversing a neg to get a picture.

Also in the UK, can I suggest you look over the following website, as Andrew is well known for his paper neg work. I purchased one of his books on it and found it most helpful.

http://www.andrewsanderson.com/index.php

Terry S

removed account4 · Mar 10, 2017

tezzasmall said:
There is a little more to just reversing a neg to get a picture.

hi terry

what do you mean ?
to adjust the contrast of a paper negative
you can use a yellow filter at the taking stage
i don't usually use a yellow filter, but instead i use
caffenol C and a 2nd bath of dektol ... i start it in the dektol
until the image barely appears and then finish it in caffenol c. i have
also done this with spent dektol ( or ansco 130 ) and fresh .. and
go between the 2 baths until the image has come out. using expired paper can be good too.
and if one wants to get "fancy" one can reverse/flip
and then burn/dodge and adjust levels using PS,
as one would do with any other imported image ...
there really isn't much more to it than reversing a negative ...
but like anything one can be as simple or as fancy as one wants...

Film or Paper?

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