I'm ready for the next step...

[Steve Mack]

I've gotten pretty good at developing B/W, and I'd like to make some contact prints so I can see what I've done. I don't own an enlarger, so I need some tips on making the contact prints by using a hand-help light. I've got a piece of plate glass to mash the negatives onto the paper, and I have the rest of the stuff ready to go...except for the means to expose the whole shebang.

What's a good way to proceed?

Thanks to all who reply.

With best regards,

Stephen

 

[Rick A]

A 15 watt bulb suspended above the contact printer will do a fine job of exposure. Experiment with distance and time to get the desired results.

 

[nworth]

The problem will be that there are no contact printing papers commonly available today. You can, however, use enlarging paper with reduced illumination. A 4 or 7 watt night light a couple of feet above the paper would probably be a good starting point. If printing times are too long, you can go to 15 watts. Try to keep the bulb at a constant distance from the paper, and far enough away so that all parts of the paper are evenly exposed.

 

[keithwms]

You don't need special contact printing papers. I contact print to graded papers all the time. You can also contact print cyano or coat your own platinum/palladium papers. It's fun and not difficult, and you certainly don't need a darkroom with those- they need quite long exposures with black lights or similar UV sources (or the sun).

Silver paper is quite sensitive and the result depends a lot on well-controlled exposure, but it's still pretty easy. To do silver contacts, all you need is a light source mounted high over the table in a fixture that cuts down on light leakage, and some sort of aperture to cut down the intensity. You can make something out of a simple can and light bulb. You probably want to aim for ~10-20 sec exposures so that you have time to dodge and burn, and so that minor variations in time won't affect your result too much. If you want, you can get a timer and work more precisely. But by varying the distance from your paper to your light source, you will be able to vary the exposure over a very wide range and you can use a simple switch.

Look up Edward Weston's setup. It really doesn't get more simple! Remember, it is meant to be fun.

 

[tkamiya]

When I was in your position decades ago, I used a simple table table lamp with goose neck to expose it. I *think* it had the common 60 or 45 watts bulb in it. You'll have to experiment with timing but I recall it was just few seconds. I've even used the room light to expose by flicking the switch for few seconds. Good luck and have fun.

 

[Mainecoonmaniac]

How about doing cyanotypes? It's cheap and done in the sun.

 

[Gerald C Koch]

There is a problem with using just a sheet of plate glass. No matter how careful you are air currents will move the film strips just before the glass reaches the paper. A proofing frame contains clips to prevent the film from moving and is a much better choice. In my experience the images for 35mm are quite small and not very useful.

You really need a slow contact paper for maximum detail. I don't know what is available at the current time. Cyanotype paper will produce too coarse an image to use and there is a problem with its limited contrast range.

 

[bblhed]

I tried a 35mm Cyanotype in the corner of a 4X6 sheet I was doing medium format prints on so that I wouldn't be "Wasting Paper", the only real value I got out of it was that I learned that you don't really want to do 35mm Cyanotypes so i guess it wasn't a total waste of paper.

 

[rjbuzzclick]

This is exactly how I contact print my 4x5 negatives: I use a 4w nightlight bulb held over my head, the negative and paper (Ilford MGIV) go between two 5x7 pieces of glass, with a gaff-tape "hinge" and one end, and a smaller gaff-tape "latch" at the other. With the negatives and glass holder laying on the floor, my exposure times seem to be in the :30-1:00 range. I do not have too much of an issue with air currents moving things around as I close the glass cover on my holder. I made a cardboard frame just slightly larger than 5x7 with a slightly larger than 4x5 cutout to give myself a nice black edge around the image, leaving the rest of the paper white. Here's the result:

 

[tkamiya]

Why don't we keep this simple for the sake of the original poster? He is very new at this and has never done this before (or very little experience at best). While some of what he is about to do might not be the very best method available, it will suffice for the purpose intended. He wants to see his negative printed on a paper. That's all he wants to do....

 

[MattKing]

If your light is too bright to give you a conveniently long enough time, you can try bouncing it off your ceiling.

This works best if the light is in a reflector, and the ceiling is light coloured.

 

[rjbuzzclick]

FWIW, I've also tried doing this with a flash, but didn't get great results. At a 7' distance, my Vivitar 285 was too bright, even at 1/16 power.