Preserving the image left on the negative of a polaroid 20x24

Hi all

 

I havd the absolute pleasure in getting a photo of mine made on the awesome Polaroid 20x24 camera using original polaroid B&W, super rare and going to run out very soon.

 

I am getting this framed and as I love the process so much I want to frame both parts of the print so the positive and the negative next to one another. I was wondering if there is anything I should or could put over the negative to protect it further so it doesn't fade completly to black, at the moment you can make out the details of the print and would love to keep that. Any ideas on how to preserve this would be hugely appreciated.

 

Best

 

 

Scott

It sounds amazing!

 

Only speculations, as I have no real experience with the specific setup:

I imagine the negative will hold the chemicals thus I don't think it is advisable to put the two in the same frame.

Even if someone more knowledgable in this forum can devise a way to neutralise the chemicals in the negative part, keeping the positive apart from the negative is probably the safest way to achieve permanence.

 

Perhaps not quite as spectacular, but if darkening is unavoidable, making sure you have photographic documentation of the negative in its current state could be the next best thing.

I don't know what actual film the 20x24 Polaroid was/is.

 

I used a lot of Polaroid Type 52 4x5" film, but never found any way to preserve anything but the print. I do have some dim memory that at the time when.., somebody tried fixing the negative, but I don't think that worked well if at all.

 

Of course, if the film is the P/N type, just follow the instructions. As Ansel Adams points out, there is a real difference in the exposure needed for the negative and the print in this film

Possibly scan the negative. It is large, but I have scanned large pattern pieces, printed, trimmed and matched them perfectly.

Hello everyone. Ages ago when my 4x5 cameras were in constant action, I would follow the Polaroid directions to put the negative part into a Sodium Sulfite solution. At the end of the session these negs would again be give a new SS "wash" and then fixed with a 1:1 solution of Hypo / water for 6 minutes. Several of these negatives live in my various books from that period (70-90). Aloha, Bill

Speaking of dim memories, I seem to recall that you could peel off and process the negative. You might want to keep it in an acid free negative holder of some kind out of the light. You might try scanning it as suggested above, and then just do a reversal. It works in Photoshop, sorry but not sure on other programs, though the scanner program may have a switch for that. Be interested to see what you do with it.

When I was in college, we used Polaroid 107 pack film for some optics experiments,

often with lab groups of two people. For those who don't remember, 107 is the one where

the prints need coating soon after they are peeled off.

 

Our lab instructor had us also use the same coater on the negative so both of us

had something to tape into our lab notebook. Some of the images were made

directly on the film, and not through a lens. (Though technically it only had to

survive until grading.)

 

The way the Polaroid black and white film works is that is it develops, the

undeveloped silver halide diffuses out, and into the positive, where it converts

to metallic silver. The negative has the developed silver and, I suppose, some

halide that didn't have time to diffuse out. In any case, I believe the coater helps

protect it.

 

In the case of color, there is metallic silver and dye left in the negative, so I suspect

that the image isn't so useful. I don't know which process the 20x24 uses.

Maybe if you use the usual bleach from color processing to remove the silver,

there would be a negative dye image left. But I believe that the background is

close to black, so it isn't very visible. OK, bleach to convert the silver to some

white silver compound that isn't so light sensitive. But that probably only works

for the outermost color layer.

 

I do remember stories from years ago about 8x10 Polaroid used by art museums,

and maybe also the 20x24.

Thanks so so much for all your help everyone, I will let you know what I did and how it turned out.