Materials for Enlarging Negatives

Hi Everyone -

 

It's been many years since I have made enlarged negatives, but I want to get

back into it. Does anyone have any suggestions concerning materials?

 

I'm planning on enlarging 35mm negatives for contact printing.

 

Many thanks in advance.

 

Steve

Just an idea: Maco GPF. I use it successful. Interpositive on normal paper, contact on GPF. Its rather half-tone grad then repro film.

Martin

This question has been addressed before. There used to be a direct positive sheet film (by Kodak) that processed in Dektol, of all things. I don't know if it's still around. You might consider going positive, then back to negative, but there will be contrast and sharpness issues. Also, couldn't you project on to sheet Ektachrome?

Dan Burckholder's book and site are the best sources. The new inkjet printers do an excellent job of making digitally enlaged negs. Dan's book shows how.

 

The esiest traditional way I have found was to use slides as a source- colour or Scala, then enlarge onto 8x 10 film, experimenting to find the correct exposure time with your enlarger.

 

Then the REAL way is to shoot in camera negs full size. Even 4x5 contact prints on Platinum make exquisite miniature gems. I have several Pt/Pd prints contact printed from 6x6 negs. Framed properly they make very intimate bedside portraits.

 

Cheers

I've had pretty good luck using Arista APHS lith film developed in diluted (1:12) Dektol. It's not a direct one-step, you'll need to make a interpositive, but the low price of the Arista film compared to the other alternatives I've investigated makes the process less painful to my wallet.

 

With 35mm, I've had better success making a full size enlargement in the interpositive step and contact printing that to another sheet of lith than trying to contact print directly from 35mm.

 

The Arista APHS lith film is available from Freestyle.<div></div>