[alt-photo] Re: Creating Film Negative by Enlarging a Film/ Slide Positive

[Francesco Fragomeni]

Dave,
Most of the instructions I've found list TMAX 100 and 400 as good films for
reversal. What about Tri-X? Does it work as well? I've always loved Tri-X
for 35mm and have quite a lot of it so if it works with this film that
saves me some money and waste. Let me know your thoughts. Also, I've always
been a B&W shooter so I'm not working with slide film at the moment, i was
just considering the switch for this particular purpose although reversal
seems like it might just be easier (and less expensive). When you refer to
negative-positive-negative approach do you mean making regular negs in
camera and then contact printing them to positive and then finally
enlarging the interpositives to larger film negatives? I've entertained
this idea as well and would be interested in hearing more on the topic. I
figure I would cut up a developed roll and lay the strips out on an 8x10
sheet of film like making a contact sheet and expose the whole roll at once
and then develop the 8x10 sheet after which I'll have my positives that can
be cut and enlarged onto bigger film. Is this how you'd go about it?

Also, is there a best way to approach exposure in the enlarger/ light
source when contact printing the negs to produce positives and then the
subsequent enlargement to big film negatives? I was told it was as simple
as laying a grey card in the film plane (on top of contact printing frame
for neg to pos phase and under the enlarger lens for the enlargement phase)
and taking a meter reading at the iso of the film and then stop down and
expose. Is this correct? Seems quite simple if this is the case.


Geoff,
I too have used 8x10 primarily. I actually just stepped up to 11x14 and
8x20. I love big cameras and big film but I also love my 35mm Leica lenses
and very much still enjoy shooting 35mm. However, I am a contact printer
and prefer to work with the contact printing workflow far more then
enlarging and on top of that the materials I use require contact printing
in almost every case. So, I've set out to figure out how to enlarge these
35mm negs of mine :)

Would you mind sharing your reversal process as well? I'd be interested to
hear it.

I'm familiar with the copy-print process but in this case it not the method
I'd like to use. Also, the waxed paper techniques are something I'm very
familiar with. I spent a long time working exclusively with paper negative
processes. Great stuff but not ideal for my purposes here.


Thanks for the insight everyone, I look forward to reading your responses
and further comments!


Anyone else listening,
bellow are a few links to reversal process explanations and instructions
that I'm looking at:

http://www.angelfire.com/wi/spqrspqr/photo/bwreversal.html
http://www.bonavolta.ch/hobby/en/photo/slidesbw.htm
http://www.digitaltruth.com/products/formulary_tech/01-0600.pdf
http://www.bonavolta.ch/hobby/files/Kodak%20j-1.pdf

-Francesco



On Sun, Jun 3, 2012 at 3:04 PM, Geoff Chaplin <geoff at geoffgallery.net>wrote:

> Well here's my two pennyworth.
>
> I generally used in camera 8x10 negs but over the last couple of years have
> enlarged 35mm up to 16x24 for gum printing. I've tried the following
> methods:
> A. Reverse process B&W file (easy but lengthy) and print onto (e.g. FP4+)
> film.
> B. Neg -> enlarged print -> contact print onto (film, lith film, paper)
>
> Out of the second set of steps printing onto paper is easiest but has a
> limited tonal range and leads to slow printing times. This can be
> speeded-up
> a bit if you print onto fibre based paper then oil the back (any clearish
> oil will do. Printing onto film is OK but I find difficult to judge - a
> densitometer helps. Generally I print onto lith film partly because it's
> cheap and robust. But the downside is development and resulting contrast
> range. I think I've tried everything that’s suggested on APUG and elsewhere
> and find the best continuous tone developer is dilute paper developer about
> 1/4 strength. It oxidises very quickly so you need a fresh batch every
> half-hour or so. Sometimes its necessary to make two negs - highlights and
> lowlights.
>
> Of course scanning an digi-printing as a million times easier ....
>
> Geoff Chaplin
> チャップリン・ジェフ
>
> geoff at geoffgallery.net
> www.geoffgallery.net
>
> Skype: geoffchaplin1611
> UK mobile (英国の携帯電話): +44(0) 7770 787069
> Japan mobile (日本の携帯電話): +81(0) 90 6440 7037
> Japan land line / fax (日本の電話とファクス): +81(0) 166 92 5855
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: alt-photo-process-list-bounces at lists.altphotolist.org
> [mailto:alt-photo-process-list-bounces at lists.altphotolist.org] On Behalf
> Of
> Francesco Fragomeni
> Sent: Monday, June 04, 2012 1:11 AM
> To: The alternative photographic processes mailing list
> Subject: [alt-photo] Creating Film Negative by Enlarging a Film/ Slide
> Positive
>
> I'm interested in enlarging positive film (any slide/ chrome film or B&W
> reversal processed film) onto a larger piece of traditional B&W negative
> film (not lith) for the purpose of producing enlarged negatives suitable
> for
> alt-process and Azo. I know people do this but I've had a difficult time
> finding a solid explanation and instructions for how to go about it since
> it
> is far more common to scan these days which I am very aware of but not
> interested in with this particular case.
>
> Basically, can I expose/ enlarge slide (positive) film onto regular B&W
> negative film and achieve an enlarged negative? Is the higher contrast of
> slide film helpful in this situation or a hinderance? Would it be better to
> contact print B&W negative film (much lower contrast) onto another piece of
> B&W neg film to produce a positive, develop to the same contrast as the
> original, and then enlarge that lower contrast film-interpositive onto a
> larger sheet of B&W neg film to achieve the enlarged negative?
>
> I'm interested in this specific process of enlarging film positives to
> larger negatives, not the alternatives so lets please try to stay on topic
> and not go astray with conversations of digital negatives, duplicating
> film,
> etc., although if reversal processing your original B&W neg to positive
> plays a role that might be worth explaining.
>
> Thank you!!
>
> -Francesco Fragomeni
> www.francescofragomeni.com
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