Hello from the Rocky Mountain Front! I am hoping that I'll be able to find some guidance in the future related to conventional photo printing of a large collection of large-format old negatives (larger than 4X5).
Thank you!
Thank you!
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Welcome to APUG Photrio
Oh Boy, you're in the right place. Do you want to contact print or enlarge??
Greetings to our new member from the land where some artist giants have worked. Have you been around photography and photographers much? In other words do you know what the "words" mean? Words like contact prints where the negative is placed in contact with the printing paper (done in the dark). When subjected to light for the correct amount of time and the paper developed in print developer, then into another called stop then into a fixing bath for a prescribed length of time then washed. There, you know everything I know about contact printing, almost. Enlarging is taking a usually smaller, negative and putting it into an optical apparatus to make the print. If these are familiar words to you, you already speak our language. If not, stay with us and you will get there. One caution. As you progress with this group, your skin will thicken. It helps if your skin is a little thick already.....Welcome again...Regards!
OP
OP
The negs are about 5X7. There are a couple of thousand of them. These photos date back to at least 1910. They were shot by photographers hired by the government to document a project. I'm in the process of scanning for a museum archive, but some of the photos are so spectacular that I would like to make enlargements.
I have a 4X5 enlarger, and we have a contact printer that I found in the "back shop" of the newspaper I own. It's quite an old unit, but the contact printer works. I haven't put it to use yet.
OP
OP
Thanks for the reply. I'm certainly no "pro." I grew up in a large daily newspaper, and learned to shoot from the staff photographers in the early days of the Nikon F (no light meter!). I've worked in a commercial darkroom, with enlargers, but that was decades ago. I've shot with medium format (Mamiya) and large format (Speed Graphic), but as a hobbyist.
When I began uncovering old photos in the region, I acquired an enlarger, and am working with an old timer to get me back up to speed in the darkroom. But the enlarger only handles up to 4X5.
Previously, I digitized 855 original films, going back to 1901. Those films were some whoppers, too!
I am attaching a screen-grab of one of the scans from that first batch.
Cheers!
Attachments
Welcome to Photo.You came to the right place!
Hello and welcome to Photrio..........
Welcome to Photrio! As you can tell already, this is a great place to get help with any size negative. There are enlargers for 5x7 out there - it just might take more searching than for 4x5 (I actually have a 5x7 enlarger, but I'm a thousand + miles away form you).
5x7 Elwood enlargers are still hanging around. So much has been scrapped unfortunately. Scanning and sending to Ilford for real silver prints is a possibility . Sounds like a great opportunity. Make prints, maybe a book?
Like AgX mentioned there might be someone on the forum that could help. Either in the printing or finding an enlarger.
Like AgX mentioned there might be someone on the forum that could help. Either in the printing or finding an enlarger.
OP
OP
Thanks to all for the welcome!
I considered sending digital scans off to be printed, but with the nature of the project, I'm hoping that I can come across an enlarger and make the printing part of the museum project. That would be quite a "local" touch.
The "old-timer" helping with the project is a local artist, and I can see the museum making a darkroom part of a learning experience, even working with other area projects.
As I go through the negatives, I see evidence that the museum building, where this project was managed starting in 1916, may have included a darkroom. There is a small room that looks like it may have been used to develop the films.
The films are well documented, as to photographer, date, location, subject - even the settings on the cameras. With the negatives are quite a few contact prints, mounted by corner slits onto a heavy cardstock paper. Those prints offer even more details. The negs were stored in specially made file cabinets made to fit the manila envelopes, sized to fit the negs.
In the earlier project, the negs were shot by an early resident in a town along the Rocky Mountain Front. Many of those were shot on 5X7, too. Was that a popular film format in the early 1900s?
I did notice an Elwood 5X7 on Ebay, but it was more or less a collection of parts. At least having a brand name gives me more options to search.
I considered sending digital scans off to be printed, but with the nature of the project, I'm hoping that I can come across an enlarger and make the printing part of the museum project. That would be quite a "local" touch.
The "old-timer" helping with the project is a local artist, and I can see the museum making a darkroom part of a learning experience, even working with other area projects.
As I go through the negatives, I see evidence that the museum building, where this project was managed starting in 1916, may have included a darkroom. There is a small room that looks like it may have been used to develop the films.
The films are well documented, as to photographer, date, location, subject - even the settings on the cameras. With the negatives are quite a few contact prints, mounted by corner slits onto a heavy cardstock paper. Those prints offer even more details. The negs were stored in specially made file cabinets made to fit the manila envelopes, sized to fit the negs.
In the earlier project, the negs were shot by an early resident in a town along the Rocky Mountain Front. Many of those were shot on 5X7, too. Was that a popular film format in the early 1900s?
I did notice an Elwood 5X7 on Ebay, but it was more or less a collection of parts. At least having a brand name gives me more options to search.
OP
OP
One thought crosses my mind. Bear in mind I work in newspapers, back to the days of letterpress. When we moved from hot type to cold, newspapers like the one I was raised in used large, horizontal cameras, but in later years, companies like Agfa and Dainippon Screen manufactured more compact, vertical cameras. Those cameras had copyboards with backlighting. The film board held the film via a vacuum. Long shot here, but might that setup be adapted for photo prints?
MattKing
Moderator
Yes.
There are also Omega and Durst 5x7 enlargers out there - I have friends with at least one 5x7 Durst in use. I don't know if they still have there second one.
Basically yes, but I have not heard of anyone here at Apug using one.
Here a link to a detailed german posting on this use:
https://grossformatfotografie.de/thread/4163-reprokamera/?postID=38148#post38148
OP
OP
I keep track of used newspaper equipment, and over the years I scrapped a lot of the large horizontal cameras. But a few years back I noticed these cameras were going for thousands of $. I noticed one on Ebay for $7,500 currently. Wondering why the high price about a year ago, I found out that some photographers were picking them up for ultra-large format photography. The larger cameras I used in newspapers were 20X24, and one "double-truck" sized newspaper camera was 24X36. The first process camera I used still had arc lamps!
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