Its C-Prints, good if it's Optical, not from digital file.LTI Lightside in New York still does optically printed enlargements up to 50" x 84" but the mural size ones can get fairly expensive (at least to me).
Its C-Prints, good if it's Optical, not from digital file.
Very valuable info.I called them about the mural-sized prints, and was told over-the-phone, they are optically printed, not made from scans. Oops...looks like the original question about B&W...somehow I managed to miss that.
DeVille Bobinor - superb bit of kit & a great deal cheaper than any of the automated machines that can handle paper that wide - & it can deal with FB easily which the machines can't.
I do not even remember that thing having a motor drive, maybe it is a customized version.
Even murals should be possible in long trays without a cranked-spindle mechanism.
You seemingly got a more modern version than I know. Interesting.
I search for the DeVille Bobinor setup but found nothing useful. Can someone post a link?
There is not much out there, I get the feeling it is a bit of a unicorn in the grand scheme of things. I am certainly moving toward it but to be quite honest, the evidence of increasing water scarcity across the globe has me wondering about the viability of silver printing at any size in the not so distant future.
Compared to the paper industry, I suspect the totality of the photography world's water usage pales into insignificance.
Count on insignificance changing to significance as water becomes a lot more scarce.
Lachlan: I am thinking of making a huge archival washer and any ideas from people here would be helpful... I would start with a 6 slot 2inch wide unit that I could put 6 murals in at a time, grey plastic (like my sinks) welded. the trick is the rest on how the water comes in , how the drain works from the bottom for fixer to get out.Indeed & it's really one of the strongest cases for the Bobinoir - 20 litres a trough or a little less to set up the 50" one & with pretty decent chemical lifespan once mixed. I'd suggest forgoing the washer setup which seems rather wasteful to me in terms of water usage & instead getting a fourth trough for hypo clear & either getting a custom XXXXL archival washer made (prismatic diffusion material from fluorescent fixtures seems extremely close to the stuff used as dividers in some well known ones from over here) or a sink that lets you do fill, agitate, dump cycles - though that is obviously highly demanding of space. Main other headaches are that it really is a two person job to operate it in certain configurations, the trough plugs need to be very carefully checked for good fit & marks from the roller clips can appear on the print if you roll the paper too tightly during processing. You need to be meticulous in cleaning between runs too. I also recall that some people have successfully done RA4 in them too, though I know very little in the way of the specific setup used.
Lachlan: I am thinking of making a huge archival washer and any ideas from people here would be helpful... I would start with a 6 slot 2inch wide unit that I could put 6 murals in at a time, grey plastic (like my sinks) welded. the trick is the rest on how the water comes in , how the drain works from the bottom for fixer to get out.
Bob:as fix is heavier than water and is the secret of vertical washers, so the design needs to incorporate flow through but as well drainage at bottom and top.
News to me , do you have sources on that as I have always thought that.Bob:
I think that "fixer is heavier than water and therefore flows out the bottom" has generally been debunked as a myth.
Vertical washers work because they aid in keeping prints separated without using more water than necessary
I would love to hear more about this and a picture of a Nova type washer.. this is a whole new can of opened worms for me, but really appreciated you both providing more informationWhat Matt said - and the Nova type of washer design (close to an industry standard over here) apparently had significant input in its design from Ilford & does not drain from the bottom. I'd tend to take the fluid dynamics knowledge of Ilford over Fred Picker (or whomever popularised the whole thiosulfate thing).
I'd suggest potentially using 1/2"/ 1cm walls for strength & the big advantage of the right sort of textured dividers is that they'll hold prints in place by surface tension - very handy!
I would love to hear more about this and a picture of a Nova type washer.. this is a whole new can of opened worms for me, but really appreciated you both providing more information
The problem with spending as much time as I have over the years with as many information sources as I do is that sometimes it can be really difficult to identify where you learn stuff. But sometimes I get lucky when I look.News to me , do you have sources on that as I have always thought that.
MODERNAGE Labs in NYC lists 48 x 96 inch fiber based prints at $990 each. They also claim a mural service unlimited in size. Dead Link Removed at the foot of the homepage is the link to the catalog.
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