Light box set-up?

I have a large number of B&W films to develop. I don't yet have the

facilities to do this myself, so I send them to the lab here where I

live in Belgium.

 

I know I will want to print only a couple of dozen out of over 400

exposures, but of course I need to view them all first to decide

which ones.

 

Since even small 9x13 cm "preview" prints are expensive here, I

thought I'd save the money I would pay for this batch and invest it

instead in some kit that I can reuse.

 

I'm thinking of a lightbox and loupe enabling me to look through

negatives before scanning them or sending for bigger prints.

 

Am I on the right track here? Is it a sensible thing to do? Or are

lightboxes only of use for positive film slides and transparencies?

Can you suggest an alternative solution?

 

Many thanks in advance,

 

Paul Kaye

Brussels, Belgium

I was thinking of the exact same thing. I also shoot slides now so it be be even better for that. I wihs they would make a lens that would turn my negatives into a positive...now that would be cool.

Paul, a lightbox maybe a good idea... a fluorescent bulb, a piece of frosted glass (or white glass) and some wood and off you go.

 

On the other hand, developing film is easy, and all you need is a dark bathroom/closet to load the film in the tank... no special facilities really.

Or just a changing bag to load the film, and a sink down which to pour chemicals.

 

allan

Thanks to the answers so far, but the problem is not developing my photos - it's how to view so much film quickly without having all the exposures printed (whether I develop at home or not!). Do you experience B&W shooters use lightboxes to view your negatives? If not, what do you do? (remembering that I don't have a lab at home)

well, there are a few ways.

-you could use a light box, but then everything is still negative

-you could get a flatbed scanner, put the negatives on top of it, then your lightbox on top of that. then scan, invert, and you got positives.

-I think you could get them scanned at a photo store onto photocd for not _too_ much

 

that's what I can think of off the top of my head.

 

allan

Evaluating negatives on a lightbox is not the easiest thing to do, but with a little practice it's not all that bad. It helps if you can make the prints yourself. After a while you get a pretty good idea of what is going to print well and what won't because you'll have trained your eye to recognize the traits.

You can buy a light box , or if you're handy, make one up with a bit of wood, some white plexiglass, a small flourescent fixture or two, and some appropriate fasteners. OTOH, I think that evaluating a contact sheet is a lot better. Thirty six full frame 35mm prints fit on an 8.5x11 inch (close to A4 in size) sheet. Would the cost of contact sheets be prohibitive for you?

what do contact sheets cost and where would you do them?

can you really see detail on something so small?

If I were you, I want to evaluate the images on contact sheets. Your lab should be able to make them for you, or you can make them yourself; put the negs into protective pages, sandwich a piece of paper uncer the negs and piece of glass to keep them all flat, expose and process (goes fairly quick if you setup an assembly line kind of thing). The contact sheet makes the images easier to evaluate because you're looking at a posative. A loupe or some kind of magnifier will make things easier to see, and if you really want to see what kind of fine detail is on the neg, then you can put the neg onto a light box, and use a good loupe.

 

Peter

Paul,

 

To answer your question the way you want, and the way you asked, I would suggest this.

Ask your lab if they do enlarged proofs. This is generally done on 16x20 or 20x24 size prints (sorry I forgot the metric equivilent size for these). At that size you can better judge the images. You could do as you are thinking to do...use a light table, BUT you should consider several things before doing that.

 

1) Unless you build a large table, viewing a batch of rolls at a time is going to be a pain. Since you are talking about 400+ images, and I'm assuming 35mm here, its going to be a mess. Granted, if you built a large enough one, maybe the process would be easier.

 

2) To really see how a negative is on a light table, and in relation to multiple images, you are going to have to balance that thing..i.e. make the light even from corner to corner. And its not as easy as it sounds.

 

3) with enlarged contacts, the images are bigger than the neg size on a light table, they are in positive, AND cost effective, considering you get 36 images on 1 sheet of RC paper.

 

I hope this helps and good luck on your project.

 

Alexis

 

www.alexisneel.com

I look at my b&w negs on a lightbox with no problems but I always remember what I've

shot. I remember every shot that I've ever taken. So when I see it, I get a mental picture.

 

People find it strange that I remember every shot, I just know what I've done.. that's all.

Thanks to all again. I'm going to get a lightbox and loupe and give that a try, since they'll also be useful for my slides.

 

But Alexis, your suggestion sounds best, and next time I send films for developing I'll ask if they can do enlarged proofs. My guess is that the one I use at the moment doesn't, but there must be someone here who does.

 

Alternatively (thanks Peter), they may be able to do contact sheets, which, while being as small as negatives, could be viewed through the loupe.

 

One day I'll get round to setting up my own home lab...

Im just going to do digital contact sheets since I already have my negatives in a printfile clear plastic page all organized and scan at a decent res. on a flatbed then invert the image in photoshop.

 

That will be a nice way to get a quick view of whats worth it and what isn't.