Hal Faulkner (faulkner@redshift.com)
Sat, 20 Feb 1999 08:52:38 -0800
Some of this has already been passed on ,but...
Polapan 35mm film can be used to advantage. Tom Millea did a series using
it in which he enlarged the transparency to make an 11x14 neg which he
printed in platinum. The slides tend to be a bit grainy but if that's the
look you want....
The Polacolor slide film uses a diffraction grating which makes it look like
the image from a TV screen (horizontal lines.) Maybe it works for you,
maybe it doesn't. If you don't like the image you can always make cool
sunglasses out of them.
A long, long time ago I used Pan-X in 35mm to make direct positives, then
enlarged onto Kodalith processed for continuous tone and used these to make
T-shirts using Inko Dye (kind of like making a cyanotype on cloth, except
you had the option of different colors.) I don't think there 's any reason
to believe that the modern (or is that post-modern?) equivalent won't work.
TMX processed in either the Kodak or other reversal chemistry can produce an
excellent negative. Several years ago I made quite a few 8x10 enlargements
using both Kodak's chemistry (tried early kits with dichromate bleach and
later ones with the permanganate bleach) and later Sprint's. Set my
enlarger up (horizontally) to project onto the ground glass of an 8x10
camera, focused and composed. Processed in a JOBO 3005 drum. BTW, I had no
problems with Kodak's chemistry but the Sprint gave uneven results. Finally
I quit using their re-exposing developer and re-exposed to light for the
reversal. Had no further problems.
I never did experiment with other films such as Pro Copy (although I have a
box in the freezer,) or Commercial. Don't think there's any reason they
shouldn't work, however.
The major problem I had with Kodak's kits was the cost. At about $30 (then)
per kit which would process 15 (I think) sheets, plus the cost of the
film, it was easy to spend a lot of money quickly. As a grad student the
costs were prohibitive. Another concern is exposure, since you need to fill
the drum for maximum economy, it's not always easy to make test strips and
see what they look like. But if you're doing a lot of work you'll get the
exposure figured out fairly quickly.
Hal Faulkner
mailto:faulkner@redshift.com
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