Digital negatives for enlargement

<p>Well I'm finishing up this school year and looking for something fun to do over the summer, and I want to make very large prints in the darkroom. Unfortunately I don't have the money to buy a large format camera. What I do have is an Epson 4880 printer and a digital camera. I found a few threads that told how to make negatives in Photoshop but there was always a debate on what would work. Can I make some big negatives electronically and print them onto transparencies to enlarge in the darkroom with the equipment I have? If so, what should I buy for transparencies?</p>

<p>I take it you're looking to create a print that's larger than what the 4880 can physically handle?</p>

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<p>I take it you're looking to create a print that's larger than what the 4880 can physically handle?</p>

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<p>Not necessarily. I have a 1d Mk III that cant print larger than 13x19 at best. So I'm not looking to make prints larger than what the 4880 can print but larger than what my camera can produce. Plus I'd like to make some experimental prints in the darkroom.</p>

<p>The technique you're probably after is darkroom printing from enlarged inkjet negatives. I've seen some beautiful platinum prints, contact printed from inkjet negatives that began as low resolution digicam files.</p>

<p><em>I want to make very large prints in the darkroom. . . . Can I make some big negatives electronically and print them onto transparencies to enlarge in the darkroom with the equipment I have?</em></p>

<p>Does your school have darkroom facilities that can readily accommodate such printing? Because enlargers for negatives larger than 4x5 (inches) are relatively rare, and making optical prints larger than about 11x14 or 16x20 can involve some headaches, hassles, and equipment issues. Most enlargers will only go so large before you either hit the limit or have to resort to tricks like flipping the enlarger more-or-less on its side and projecting the image onto a wall. Also, at some point you only have trays a certain size and/or so much chemicals--there's a section in Adams's <em>The Print</em> on this.</p>

<p><em>I have a 1d Mk III that cant print larger than 13x19 at best. So I'm not looking to make prints larger than what the 4880 can print but larger than what my camera can produce.</em></p>

<p>Maybe you've heard that you can't get blood out of a turnip? If you can't produce it with the 1D Mk. III and the 4880, you can't produce it with a printed negative and an enlarger. Your statement seems to reflect some misunderstandings. Of course you can print larger than 13 x 19 with your current camera and printer (the 4880 would allow at least 16 x 24, right? and you could send your files to a service for much larger prints), it's just that as you print bigger, the quality suffers somewhat. If anything, the apparent resolution / sharpness / tonality will suffer <em>more</em> by printing negatives on the 4880 and then printing those in the enlarger. You still have all of the same quality limits you had before, and then to them you add enlarger alignment, enlarger lens flare, enlarger focus, film flatness, paper flatness, etc.</p>

<p>If you want to experiement, have at it, have fun. Just don't expect some noteworthy increase in quality. But the most rewarding approach might be printing negatives at the print size then contact printing (negative in contact with the paper, no enlarging). In this way you can produce 'real' silver-halide prints, even on fiber-based paper if you want, at reasonable prices, and you can also experiement with various alternative processes that require contact printing.</p>

<p>It's near impossible to get satisfactory results enlarging digital negatives printed on the 4880 (or any other home inkjet, for that matter). However, it is pretty easy to make high quality contact prints. What sort of "experimental prints" are you talking about.</p>

<p>The most recommended (and still, in my opinion, the best) material for this is Pictorico OHP film. I've printed negatives on that for use with regular silver gelatin, AZO paper, and a lot of "alternative" processes including platinum, Vandyke, cyanotype, carbon, and gum. You can learn a lot about the different ways of doing this, and the problems you can encounter, over in the <a href="http://www.dpug.org/forums/f8/">"digital negatives" section</a> of the <a href="http://www.dpug.org/forums/home.php">DPUG forum</a> (formerly "hybrid photography" forum).</p>

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<p>I have a 1d Mk III that cant print larger than 13x19 at best. So I'm not looking to make prints larger than what the 4880 can print but larger than what my camera can produce.</p>

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<p>OK, I'm having a bit of trouble understanding what you're getting at here. It sounds like you have both a Canon 1D III and some sort of 35mm film camera. You're probably not satisfied with darkroom printing from your 35mm camera at sizes beyond 8x10 or 11x14, right? There's a number of reasons for that, and things you can do with film (lower speed, higher resolution films) that can get you past this, if you're interested.</p>

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<p>You cannot make decent negatives using an inkjet printer for use in an enlarger as the ink dots will show in prints above 7x5 as well as not producing sharp edges (I know, I have tried it). However. You can make decent contact negatives using an inkjet printer. You can use inkjet OHP transparencies which will give you shorter exposure times than another material I use. This is 'Brochure Paper'. It is cheaper than OHP transparencies and it will give an acceptable negative. As it seems that you just want to try the idea out have a go at it. Two pieces of advice I should give you are. 1. Make a colour negative, if you can. I found that I got better gradation than with a BW negative. 2. Print it with black ink only. You will need to reverse the negative before you print it as it will be reversed again when you place the negative 'print side down' on the paper in your darkroom. I used an Epson R300, which is quite an old model now, but still managed to get some respectable prints. You should also download the 'FREE' piece of software called 'ChartThrob'. It is designed to work in Photoshop. You will need this to get your inkjet printer output and your exposure calibrated. It sounds much harder than it is to do.</p>

<p>Have fun. It is really straightforward, honestly!</p>

<p>Why do you think the 1d III can't print higher than 13x19? With good technique and subject you should get good prints at the sizes that the 4880 can print. </p>