Re: Continuous Tone Duplicating Film @ Photo Warehouse

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From: Sarah Van Keuren (svk@steuber.com)
Date: 02/08/00-08:44:08 PM Z


> Wondering if anyone has experimented with this film available from Photo
> Warehouse in California. I would like to use it for making enlarged negatives
> direct from the original. Photo Warehouse provided elementary data on this
> film. Any feedback will be of great assistance.
>
> Vasilios Zatse
> vamaza@aol.com
Long ago I used Kodak's Professional B/W Duplicating film #4168 to enlarge
onto. I believe that I managed to get stronger contrast by using paper
developer but I was never really pleased with the results.

Various duplicating films ranging up to 16x20", mostly made by Dupont, were
donated to the University of the Arts by an alumus who has much to do with
X-rays. This same man also donated a machine that emits black light
moderated by a yellow filter but with no clues about its use. I have deduced
that x-rays are contact-printed against sheets of duplicating film in this
machine. It makes very high fidelity dups of translucent materials that are
contact printed against them. This is especially helpful for duplicating
precious large format negatives or glass plate negatives. Some students have
experimented with enlarging onto this film. Using 5 to 10 minute exposures
with lens wide open they have gotten results like what I used to get with
Kodak's film.

My idea is that such film has been pre-exposed so that it is on the shoulder
of its curve. A strong dose of light, preferably slightly actinic, drives it
down the seldom seen far side of the curve, basically going into
solarization.

Often the duplicating film has a blue cast to make it resemble x-rays. Blue
lets the actinic light right through when exposing onto non-silver processes.


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