Looking for advice on making digital negatives

[AlbertAdderley]

Hi I have been very sick for over 2 years now with sever depression so my wife got me back I to photography to help me out.
I have a canon 7D as well as a sinar norma and an maymia RZ pro ll
What I want to try is some alternate printing types.
As most of these are done by contact printing I will need to make negatives of a decent size. So here is my question what scanner is best to use and what printer.
I want to make negatives up to at least A3 size in time any advice is greatly appreciated. Cash is not to good due to not being able to work so I am looking at second hand stuff.
Any links to making digital negatives also a great help
Al

 

[wfe]

I use an Epson 3800 printer and the PDN (Precision Digital Negatives) system to print negatives for lith printing. You do need a fairly good photo printer but some can be had refurbished or on Craigslist.

 

[Ben Altman]

Hi Al,

Sorry about the depression - bummer. Hope things are improving - from my observation it's an up-and-down, one day at a time process. Glad your wife is helping too - that's big.

For the size you are planning you would probably find a used Epson R1800 works well. They are very fine-grain printers and the standard ink set works for digital negs. A 3800 would decrease your ink costs if you use a lot, but the upfront cost of both printer and inks is higher. Just be sure you see the printer do a perfect nozzle check and print a smooth tone without banding before you buy.

I'd suggest working with images from your digital camera until you get the hang of things. That way you can put off the scanner purchase for a while. If you search the forum you'll find threads on flatbed scanners, mostly Epson, which is what you'll need for the large format film.

There are free and cheap alternatives to PDN, too. Check the archives.

Best, Ben

 

[JBrunner]

Hi Al,

Welcome to DPUG. I have made some very nice (I think) prints from digital negs out of my Canon DSLR. I have printed both cyanotype (that I bleach and tone) and Platinum. If you wish to follow the PDN or any other orthodox method, that is fine. Personally, to arrive at my densities and curves for a particular process I simply printed a small grey scale negative, printed it on piece of cut up paper, and adjusted my curves until when printing the greyscale it was represented to my satisfaction. By incorporating the grey scale into an image I can then make the initial curve adjustment easily. After I have done that I remve the grayscale. With minor tweaking I have been happy with that approach. I make my print my negs in the "red" spectrum for better density. Of course your and everybody else's mileage will vary. I use an Epson 2400. Hope you get to feeling better soon

 

[salan]

Hi all,
Not wanting to hijack the thread but can some one point me to a thread on all about digital negs? I know nothing about them and would like to know.
Thanks
Alan

 

[R Shaffer]

Hi all,
Not wanting to hijack the thread but can some one point me to a thread on all about digital negs? I know nothing about them and would like to know.
Thanks
Alan

We have a whole forum devoted to nothing but digi negs

Digital Negatives

Enjoy. It's a great resource full of information.

 

[R Shaffer]

Ciao Albert,

As far as a scanner goes, I use an Epson 4990 works fine for 4x5 and medium format negs. Just make sure it has the negative holders. All the printers mentioned so far are fine. If you stick with Epson then you'll be able to get more low cost options for creating digi negs, like QTR or Chart Throb & HSL. Plus lots of people here with experience using them.

Then just pick-up a Van Dyke Brown or Cyantotype kit, some pictorico or inkpress transparency film, and your off to the Alternative races.

Have fun & hope you feel better soon.