back-lit cibachrome

first of all, i truly apologize because i wasn't sure in which place to post this. i have some night

photographs which i believe would be beautiful on a lightbox. i don't know the first thing about

cibachrome or if it's even possible for my photographs. get ready for my series of dumb questions..

 

1. i understand that cibachrome is a transparency. must my photos be in slide form to make a larger

cibachrome? my photographs are digital.

 

2. has anyone constructed their own light box?

 

3. any ideas about expense?

 

 

again, thank you in advance for not laughing at my ignorance. :)

Cibachrome (now ilfochrome) is not actually a transparency. It was, and probably still is by some, considered to be the very best, most vivid way to reproduce transparent film onto paper.

Cibachrome is a method to print a transparency (slide film which is a positive image) Today you can also print from a digital file. The final Cibachrome print is not transparent at all. The material is kind of like a paper but very glossy and made of polyester I believe.

 

If you want a transparent print you want a Duratrans or something similar. I've seen some people use inkjets at home and print on transparencies from Office Depot... You'll see backlit Duratrans at trade shows, subway stations, etc.

 

There are professional expensive light boxes that are usually rented for those kind of trade shows. A friend of mine made his own light box with a large flourescent fixture (4 ft x 2 ft) but the grating on the front kind of interfered with the pic and it wasn't that good because it was from an inkjet on transparencies from Office Depot...

As others have said, Cibachrome/Ilfochrome is NOT a transparent medium.

 

Go to the following site and you can have them print your photo on proper material and mount it in their backlit frames:

 

http://photoglow.com/

Am I remembering incorrectly that at one time (maybe still), Ilford actually did offer a version of Cibachrome as a transparency? When I first got into ciba, I thought that was an available option.

Apparently Ciba/Ilfochrome transparency is a reality. Here's a lab that produces ciba transparencies:

 

http://www.chromacolour.com.au/price.htm

 

They refer to it as something like "transparent display film," but also describe that it is an Ilfochrome material.

Interesting, I thought that cibachrome transparent stuff was long gone! Your link is an Austrailian site...I wonder if anyone in the US is still processing it?

 

It sure looks like photoglow.com is a much less expensive alternative, however....

Jeff, look for email.

Transparent Ilfochrome AND RA paper is available. It'll be much easier to find a lab to do the RA version on a lighjet. They have to adjust the first developer time to 120 sec., if I remember properly.

 

Keith

Oh. Forgot to mention: two versions of the material. one with diffusion and one without.

If you get a transparency made, you'll have to put a diffuser behind it. Plexiglas isn't cheap, nor are the competitive products. At a certain size, which you would have to determine by experimentation, you could just tape a print to the back of a piece of clear and then backlight that. The experimentation would be to determine how long it would hang flat enough to still look good. I suspect that if you were talking about anything up to two feet tall it would look good for quite a while as long as the lights didn't overheat the box too much.

 

Above that size, you would need to sandwich the print between a clear sheet of acrylic in front and something in back. That something would have to be white (Plexiglas actually makes a "sign white" for this purpose) in the case of a transparency, but it could be another sheet of clear if the print were on a white base.

 

It would be best if you were willing to go with sizes that matched standard fluorescent fixtures, because they're cheap compared to having a commercial sign shop build a sign frame for you.

 

Depending on the material, you'll have to get the lamps some distance behind the print to get even illumination. If you paint the inside of your box white, you could probably cover something like 18 x 54 inches with a single two-tube fixture mounted about six inches back from the print, but it might need a diffuser to look good. The further back the lamps are the more even the light will be. Fixtures with diffusers, as commonly used in offices, will let you build your box a little less deep, but figure on at least eight inches total. Four tube fixtures would probably get you up to about 30x54".

 

And yes, I've built lots of light tables and light boxes over the years! Some of them have been for signs, so the face was white plex that we printed. Some were light tables, where the face was 1/4" glass with a frosted glass mounted an inch below the working surface, because frosted glass is expensive and I didn't want to have to replace it after the artists scratched up the front surface with their X-Acto knives.

 

But basically they're just boxes, and you have to play around with the amount of light you need to make it work and the depth needed to make it even.

 

Van

<p>There's another Australian studio called <a

href="http://www.createdforlife.com/">Created for Life</a> located in Gosford, about an

hour north of Sydney. They also do Cibachrome/Ilfochrome. I've never been used them

though...</p>

 

<p>But I have had stuff printed by Chroma Colour on a number of occasions and can attest

to the quality of their work. They even include a pair of white gloves when they ship the

package back to you.</p>

thank you all for your many responses! i may have to experiment due to limited funds..but i'll

let you know how it goes.

Thank you all very much. I have been looking for this information

for years ! (check my bio here:http://www.photo.net/shared/community-member?user_id=2291491)

 

/Clay

Cibachrome, or more properly Ilfochrome, is available as both a clear and a translucent backlit media. Finding someone to make it directly from the film is difficult however. The importer of the material is Wynit, and they should be able to tell you who buys it in the sizes you need. Of course, the readily available options are Duratrans and Fujitrans as well as a variety of backlit inkjet media which are really beginning to look like good competitors.

 

Most labs will want to scan your film though and then expose digitally. In this case, don't skimp on the scan. Get a fluid mounted drum scan and don't settle for anything less. It's poor economy in the long run.

 

john castronovo - tech photo & imaging

What confused me the last few years is that Ilford's

home page is dedicated to black and white only.

No mention of colour products at all.

 

http://www.ilfordphoto.com/products/default.asp

 

/Clay

<p>I think the company was restructured - if that's the right word - following financial

troubles. Ilford Photo handles some stuff, Ilford Imaging handles the rest. Ilfochrome is on

the Ilford Imaging site: <a

href="http://www.ilford.com/en/products/ilfochrome/index.asp">http://www.ilford.com/en

/products/ilfochrome/index.asp</a></p>

Many thanks for the link Kevin,

 

/Clay

The photoglow link is not responding. It did when I first tried it a few days ago, but now it won't (when I have more time to look into it). Dang!