Possible to merge 2 digital negatives for a larger contact print?

[Photopathe]

Hi! Probably a silly question and I assume the answer will be no it's not possible. Let's say one has an Epson P800 printer but would like to make a larger contact print than the maximum size of that printer's prints. Is there a way to print a larger digital negative in two parts and merge them seemlessly to produce a larger contact print?
Thanks!

 

[nmp]

"Seamlessly" might be a too much of an ask. Otherwise you can print overlapping partials of the the image from the two sides, resister/align/tape them and make a cut through both in the middle and finally put them back together. There will be an artifact where the merge is made.

 

[MattKing]

A dyptich might be a better alternative - and a quite compelling one at that.

 

[Photopathe]

I absolutely agree about the dyptichs. Always loved dyptichs and tryptichs. I was just wondering if there was another way that people more knowledgeable than me would know about.

 

[jeffreyg]

How large a print do you want to make? What medium ie silver gelatin, pt/pd? You can get Pictorico transparency film that will fit your printer up to 17x22 inches.

http://www.jeffreyglasser.com/

http://www.sculptureandphotography.com/

 

[nmp]

I absolutely agree about the dyptichs. Always loved dyptichs and tryptichs. I was just wondering if there was another way that people more knowledgeable than me would know about.

I am guessing you want to increase the smaller dimension from the printer maximum of 17" to a greater number. Let's say 24"x40" - in which case, the diptych can only be vertical, not horizontal. As far as I know there is a limit of 10 ft to the long dimension in P800 if using a roll feed.

:Niranjan.

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

The traditional way of joining prints or negs to make a larger one is to print or shoot the neg with a little overlap, line them up side by side on a light table, tape them together at the edges, and use a straightedge and an X-acto knife to make one cut where the two images will butt together. With prints you might blacken the edges of the paper, if it’s a dark image, to keep the white edge of the paper from showing through, and then do some retouching to blend the edges as needed.

So with two digital negs, I think you could join them the same way, but you might have to retouch the print to blend the seam.

Why not try it with a small print to see how it works?

 

[Photopathe]

Thanks! Will try it.
Obviously there is also the option of just sending out to a printer the occasionnal larger to be digital negative.