Both Terry and I are using a variation on the Phil Davis article you
mentioned. Davis's point should have been that a modern "strait line" film
developed in paper developer will give appropriate contrast. Tri-X is an
older, less strait line film. Because of it's shoulder, I dought you will
be happy with it for enlarged negs. HP-5, T-max 100, T-max400, or FP-4
will work. One big advantage of the FP-4 is that it is available BIG.
I haven't tried Terry's "Universal" developer, I develop mine for 5 minutes
in HC-110 (30ml per liter, dilution "B"??) then do a second development in
Zone 6 paper developer (Dektol would do fine) for from 45 seconds to 3
minutes depending on the contrast I need.
If you are going to shoot film for enlarged negs (and you are not shooting
in extreme contrast situations) try shooting E-6 color transparencies.
That way you already have a "positive", and the enlarged neg is only a one
step process. A side benefit is that you can do some color filtering in
the enlarging process to shift values.
I believe Calumet sells Kodak professional copy film in 8x10.
tomf2468@pipeline.com (Tom Ferguson)
Ken Carney wrote:
>I would appreciate some direction on making enlarged negs for palladium
>printing. In going through my photo library I find very little on the
>subject. I would like to enlarge regular b&w negs from various formats, as
>well as Polaroid 35mm instant (positive b&w transparency).<SNIP>
>
>My limited experiments to date have been with Kodak professional copy film
>in HC110, which seems OK but I can't locate in sizes larger than 4x5; Kodak
>SO339 which I didn't care for; and regular 8x10 TriX in HC110 which doesn't
>seem to give as much tonal range as I would have thought, given its success
>in the camera.
>
>My one article is by Phil Davis, and involves use of TMax100 in Sprint
>paper developer. I may give that a try also. <SNIP>
>--