How large are your enlargements? (Survey)

11x14 is the largest I usually do. If it's for this brainstorm product shown -- I'd purchase it in a heartbeat since I'm confined to such a small space -- if it was in 11x14.

We're past the brainstorming phase and have moved into the pre-prototype "can we make a business case" phase.
More details on our blog: https://shop.stearmanpress.com/blogs/news/details-on-shrinking-the-darkroom

My darkroom is set up for B&W only, my color work is shot for internet use only or sold/given away to clients/family and friends. 99% of my printing is 5x7. Occasionally I do an 8x10. I'm set up with 16x20 trays and a very large print washer which I nowadays never use as I print almost entirely with RC.

I have never operated on the premise of "bigger is better" (which often as not really means "mine is bigger than yours" anyway). Size is NOT everything in darkroom printing!

I've planned to make use of 8x10 paper which I trim down to size, ie two 5x7s or four 4x5s. My 35mm prints are almost entirely 5x7 on RC. 120 work (Rolleis and a Voigtlander Perkeo) gets printed square on 5x7. Smaller prints for tests or to be handed round are on 4x5. Given the price of photo paper in Australia, I long ago worked out this is, for me, the most sensible way to use my not endless supply of hobby money.

Very few people want prints now, at least in Australia. Now and then I get an order for a larger print, 11x16 or 16x20 (In almost sixty years of darkroom work I've never had to print larger than the latter). A local photo printer with a superb darkroom setup makes the larger prints on FB for me, as at my age I refuse to spend any valuable time, what remains of it, spotting or otherwise finishing FB prints. The images on our walls at home are almost all B&W and 8x10 printed by me, with some 11x14s

Another 'trick' I now employ when shooting B&W of architectural work is to carefully plan my shoots and then take two of everything. One negative goes into my archive, the other will then go to a client (usually a publisher) to prepare for publication, with the agreement that once used it will be returned to me. I have only one time had a client not return a negative, and I raised such a fuss that they eventually paid me off to shut up and go away. Apparently it was 'lost' (I suspect an in-house art director who was 'terminated' made off with it and other materiel) but lost, stolen or whatever, it's the client's responsibility. All this saves me precious time and effort in the darkroom.

To quote guangong (#2), most older photographers tended to print small. Think contact prints! I am the proud owner of three original Henri Cartier-Bresson prints, dating to the 1940s. They were printed on the old QP (quarter plate) paper, 6.5x8.5, still available from Ilford. I also have two 1930s prints by Max Dupain (a renowned Sydney photographer with legendary status in this country) which are 8x10s and, sadly, fading a little. Until a few years ago I used a lot of QP paper as many home darkroom owners were clearing out and many boxes of Multigrade III (a much maligned but very fine paper in its own right, if properly used) and IV came my way at good prices. The supply has now largely dried out and new stock is hideously expensive in Melbourne, so I largely work on the 8x10 principle as I wrote above.

One (of many) of my lesser quirks is I quite dislike matte paper and I run hot/cold on glossy, preferring to print on Ilford 'velvet stipple' as it was once called. This hides many small imperfections in the final prints and has saved me many, many hours of finishing work.

All these are a few of the tricks I've learned over a lifetime of darkroom haunting. Many of us have other tips and helpful advice. Maybe a new thread? I won't start it, but if someone does, I will surely be into it like a flash.

I am not a potential customer. I think a lot of folks are like me who have a mountain of equipment. I don't think space is as much of a constraint as will to do it. I have young friends, I show them how much is involved to make really nice fiber prints, most lose interest. What you show looks like a solution in search of a problem.

Look at a used Kodak rapid color processor model 11. Takes up less space, I have seen dozens on ebay over the years. With a after market heater you can hold temperature within 1/2 degree.

Kodak made postcard contact printers, most of the people that buy your sp-445 tank are using 4x5, a 4x5 enlarger and compact are an oxymoron. Variable contrast led contact printer. That's what I would think is cool. RGB LEDs are pennies a piece. Green and blue is all you need.

if i didn't have a darkroom
i would be buying ALL my stuff form you !
film processor and now this ...

My entire darkroom infrastructure is set for 30x40cm (around 12x16" I guess), more by chance than by deliberate choice. My enlarger could go bigger, but my trays, easel, etc. can only take up to 30x40cm. I am lucky to have a nice rectangular bathroom sink which makes a great print washer but will only accommodate up to this size.

My most used paper sizes are 24x30cm for contacts, and 30x30cm for prints (hello Sirius, guess what my main camera is ) or 30x40 with larger top/bottom borders.

I am always amazed how awesone beautiful and big those prints look in my hands. Then I pin them (unframed) to my apartment's wall and they look riduculously small, so I often wish i could print bigger.

I've come to love small prints more and more, so no surprise I print 5x7 or smaller most of the time.

Gerald C Koch said:

I am surprised at the number of people who checked 11x14 or larger. Where do they display them all and if not then why print such a large size? I have a fairly large house but there is only enough wall space for a couple of dozen prints of that size. In fact any of my prints larger than 8x10 were made for exhibitions.

Edward Weston and many other photographers seldom printed larger than 8x10. For example the pepper prints. Large does not necessarily denote good or effective.

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I sell my prints - I have a gallery space in a multi-vendor craftsman shop, and my typical digital print size is 16x24" to 24x36" with 'small' prints being 9x12". I ended up selling to a lot to businesses (Real Estate offices etc). Sales of these have led to contracts to do massive indoor building murals in the 30 foot (gigapixel) range, suitable for up-close viewing (e.g.you can see the individual hairs in Bambi's eyelashes from a distance of one foot on 30 foot wall mural). So the notion of large prints is far from new to me. I get called on to do it more and more often - especially for visitor centers or corporate work, which I cut my teeth on over 35 years ago in NYC. Now for pure wet prints I am in the process of rebuilding my wet darkroom again. Very large prints will be vended out - they just don't make economic sense to do in-house, the same as I vend out all of my digital prints (from DSLRs and scanned 6x7 film) over 24x36" (I print those in house on an Epson 7880 24" wide printer). For my new wet darkroom, I'll print up to 11x14" most of the time because I have a near-new Fujimoto CP32 dry-to-dry processor that can handle up to 14" wide, and Imight on occasion, print in-house to 16x20" or 20x24" using my Jobo CPP2, but those would be the exception and rare; I reserve the CPP2 mostly for film processing. For tray B&W processing on occasion, I'll go up to 1x14, and use the Jobo CPP2 for up to 20x24".

In my own home I do hang a few select prints, but not many. I generally prefer to hang 24x36 for the large prints and 16x24 for a series.

Regards,
Mike

Most of my prints (B&W) are 8X10 or 11X14, and are matted and framed to sell at art shows. Occasionally, I make larger prints, depending on the photo and the potential market. Minox is the exception. These are generally 3 1/2 X 5 and put in albums or given away in a "You've been Minoxed" envelope. I can make a decent 8X10 from Minox negatives if it is on fine grain film and taken at a good shutter speed.

I voted 11x14 but that is the smallest I usually make. 16x20 quite often and 20x24 occasionally.

I print a lot in 11x14 but also in 16x20 enough to be considered in that size also

More often 4x5 or 5x7.
When I go larger it is 8x10, and less frequently 11x14.

Frankly, a lot more people are shooting smaller formats that are shooting 4x5. We'd hope that such a solution would encourage them to get back into printing.

mshchem said:

I am not a potential customer. I think a lot of folks are like me who have a mountain of equipment. I don't think space is as much of a constraint as will to do it. I have young friends, I show them how much is involved to make really nice fiber prints, most lose interest. What you show looks like a solution in search of a problem.

Look at a used Kodak rapid color processor model 11. Takes up less space, I have seen dozens on ebay over the years. With a after market heater you can hold temperature within 1/2 degree.

Kodak made postcard contact printers, most of the people that buy your sp-445 tank are using 4x5, a 4x5 enlarger and compact are an oxymoron. Variable contrast led contact printer. That's what I would think is cool. RGB LEDs are pennies a piece. Green and blue is all you need.

Click to expand...

tim48v said:

Frankly, a lot more people are shooting smaller formats that are shooting 4x5. We'd hope that such a solution would encourage them to get back into printing.

Click to expand...

If that's the market you are after, I would definitely vote for 8x10. If you are cramped for space and had a small enlarger. It might find a sweet spot in the market. I suspect that temperature control would be vary difficult without a thermostatic mixing valve. Plastic makes a very poor heat exchanger as well. A tray works better for washing RC prints than any archival type print washer
My opinion. Best Regards Mike

Valid points regarding 8x10. Truth be told, most people starting out aren't going to layout the cash to experiment with anything larger than 8x10.

Here's another question: do the trays have to be horizontal?

We could build it with three vertical "trays": dev, stop and fix. The rendering shows a clear panel so you could monitor the development. We'd also have to have a carrier/basket to help lift the print (or negative) out of the solution. An 8x10 version would only have a 12" x 7" footprint.

mshchem said:

If that's the market you are after, I would definitely vote for 8x10. If you are cramped for space and had a small enlarger. It might find a sweet spot in the market. I suspect that temperature control would be vary difficult without a thermostatic mixing valve. Plastic makes a very poor heat exchanger as well. A tray works better for washing RC prints than any archival type print washer
My opinion. Best Regards Mike

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This looks like a Nova slot processor. Very desirable and quite difficult to source in North America.
Put some caps on the top and make it easy to clean - I'd be interested!

Matt,
Thanks for the heads up; we had actually not seen these before. Validates our design!
Our goal would be a slightly smaller version, one piece construction and a much lower cost.
Tim

MattKing said:

This looks like a Nova slot processor. Very desirable and quite difficult to source in North America.
Put some caps on the top and make it easy to clean - I'd be interested!

Click to expand...

Personally i would prefer atleast the developer tray to be horizontal so i can develop by inspection. (and not mis out on the fun of seeing prints appear out of nowhere )

95% off all my prints are contact prints from middle format and sometimes large format.

Having owned a Nova Slot unit, I can suggest that you eliminate the high points that have the words, Dev, Stop and Fix. If you retain those, the paper is going to swing as people slide it over them; solution will almost certainly spray where it shouldn't.

With the Nova unit, and, in in complete darkness, you can pull the paper up slowly and draw it over the lip, thereby reducing cross contamination, then as the paper or film slips over the lip, you drop it down into the next bath.

Nova had clips which worked a treat, leaving two tiny holes, like a snake bite on the edge of the material.

Definitely the best unit for a small place. The Nova, in some instances, was built in to the bench, with, in one case I saw myself, a small router rebate that allowed a custom made top that made the benchtop flat again.

Mick.

I use 8x10 through 20x24 paper, making prints anywhere from 4x8 up to full 20x24 (all inches and with borders, of course). For me, the subject determines the size somewhat. 11x14 is my standard size for portfolios and most of my first prints, although still-lifes and close ups usually get printed smaller. Prints that "want" to go bigger then get scaled up. My print stock is mostly on 11x14 paper (cropped individually for composition) and mounted on 16x20 board.

Best,

Doremus

I print mostly in 11x14 and not as often in 16x20