>Anyone know someone ... who can make a 16x20 enlarged neg From a 4x5 for
me?
I am guessing that you are doing platinum or palladium, as you had a note on
the list a month ago about hand coating with a glass rod. Assuming Pt/Pd:
I had a couple of messages on the list about a month ago regarding my work
with digital negatives for platinum/palladium. If you didn't see those let
me know, and I will send them to you privately.
The service bureau EverColor (evercolor@aol.com) makes 400 LPI digital
negatives for me on a Scitex imagesetter, with a D/LogE curve optimized for
pt/pd. They can make negatives up to 20"x24". I have had excellent results
with these negatives. The only problem I've had is occasional Moire patterns
in the negatives in areas of high and relatively uniform density; when this
has happened, the EverColor people have somehow tweaked the Imagesetter to
eliminate this problem when I've asked them to redo negatives with Moire.
I have also tried the Burkholder diffusion dither bitmap method and find that
the results are quite inferior to the 400 LPI EverColor negatives. I had the
same trouble you did with "gritty" appearance in the diffusion bitmap
negatives. Also, I found negatives made with the Burkholder platinum curve
to be difficult to print well, at least with my printing methods and
chemicals, etc; again, I have numbers and curves in that regard if you're
interested.
You can also get enlarged digital negatives for pt/pd up to 30"x40" made by
the the New American Platinotype Company, which I believe is run by Rob and
Sura Steinberg of the Palladio Co. These are CMYK Iris prints on clear
acetate, rather than the silver-based image produced by an Imagesetter, and
so are not archival. I have heard that the image is actually water soluble,
which could lead to interesting problems in the darkroom. I have no
experience with these Iris negatives; maybe someone else on the list has used
them. Their address (as of my Dec 1993 catalog) is: NAPC, 200 Boston
Avenue, suite 2450; Medford, Mass 02155; Voice 617-391-3006.
Charlie Palmer
Albuquerque NM