Re: enlarged negatives

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From: Alan Bucknam (alan@notchcode.com)
Date: 04/06/03-08:53:11 AM Z


Imagesetter negs are halftones, but imagesetting technology has
improved a lot in the last few years. The use of variable-size dots,
variable shape dots, and stochastic screening (where the dots are laid
down in a seemingly random (yet truly unrandom) pattern all help to
achieve a more pleasing result when used in traditional ink-on-paper
printing. At 150lpi, however, you should still be able to see the dots
under a loupe, or with the naked eye, depending on the medium you're
printing onto. If you want to explore this possibility further, try
having your printer image them using a 200 or 250lpi linescreen.

I also suspect if you tried this with a larger-format negative, you
might be able to see the breakup of fine detail more easily when imaged
to film by the imagesetter.

cheers,

Alan

On Sunday, April 6, 2003, at 07:34 AM, Christina Z. Anderson wrote:

> Good morning!
> I just wanted to say that yesterday I contact printed all 68 of
> my
> enlarged 8x10 and larger negs from my Japan trip to Forte Warmtone
> paper, to
> have a sort of "contact sheet book" of them to refer to when doing my
> alt
> processes. These contact negs are on panchromatic continuous tone
> film,
> orthochromatic continuous tone film, Maco Genius film,Kodak direct dupe
> film, and imagesetter film. I did all images at the same exact time
> (20
> secs) at either F/8/11 (a couple at 5.6 and 16) with no filtration,
> condenser enlarger, to see how they translated to a #2 filter. All
> are from
> 35mm and 120mm negs, Acros and Neopan mostly--400 and 1600.
> What shocked me about all this (aside from an immediate
> indication of
> which prints have ANY uneven development whatsoever) are the
> imagesetter
> negs. I took just two of my 35mm negs, not trusting the process, did a
> quickie scan at 300dpi output at full size and brought them to a
> printer in
> town. He printed them at 150lpi. $12 an 8x10 (two step film duping
> costs
> $3, direct dupe $6 for same price). There is no way you can tell, by
> these
> contact prints on BW paper, that they are any different than an
> enlarged
> neg. None. I figured they'd be fine for gum printing or cyano, never
> thought they would also work for BW paper. Makes me wonder why I have
> spent
> so much time enlarging negs in the darkroom.
> I had done Connelly negs like this several years back and they
> were
> horrible printed up in BW--showed dots and yukky tonality. Aren't
> imagesetter negs halftones? Or has digital come a long way baby in 3
> or 4
> years?
> Chris
>
>
>
>
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3300 ingalls st
wheat ridge, colorado 80033
303.915.5459 tel.
303.238.8368 fax.
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