Transparency Enlargements

[frank_horn]

Has anyone availed themselves of enlargements of transparencies. In

other words, a 5x7 or 8x10 transparency from a 35mm slide? How did

you like it? What did you use this for?

[al_kaplan1]

Over the years I've had a sries of mostly disapointing prints made from transparencies, some via internegative, some Cibachrome, some Type R. I had one Kodachrome 8x10 print made by Kodak in 1962 to hang on the wall. It still looks good! Kodachrome prints were supposedly made the same way as Kodachrome film.

[dr5 examples]

I used to do large format dupes at the duping lab I worked for. They looked great. We had a couple of customers that routinely had 35mm blown up onto 4x5 film. They said that it was much easier to sell images if you could put a big tranny onto a lightbox. Of course our 70mm dupes were almost the same size and were less expensive to boot... Big transparencies always look good when done properly, the big question is, for how long? If you want to display them on a light box, duping film will fade fairly quickly. There is (was?) a material called duratran that was specifically designed for displaying backlit materials. I seem to recall that they never looked as good as using duping material, but they lasted a lot longer, and you could get them in larger sizes.

 

Isaac

[gerry_szarek]

Back 10 years ago, I was using my Phillips Enlarger with a JOBO CPP2 processor, Kodak Paper and chemicals. It was a blast! Up to 16X20 prints. The key is using a 3 bulb enlarger, with a great 50 lens ie Rodenstock / Leica / Nikon. The next thing you need is temperature controlled drum, JOBO is your only choice. I had a cheap color analyzer that worked OK. The paper should be stored in a freezer, chemicals mixed up the day of use or maybe that week.

 

Good luck.

Gerry

[frank_horn]

The ones I refer to are done on transparency film, not paper. What I was thinking of, is a lampshade made of large transparencies. They might be sandwiched between two panes of glass. With the light on a lot, it probably would cause the color to fade.

[awahlster]

Frank I have though of this same thing here in Silverton, OR. we have Silverfalls State Park 10 major waterfalls on a 7 mile trail I thought how cool to make large transperancies of each one and then have a friend who does stained glass make a leaded shade for a small lamp I made in High School. If it was made so the transperancies could be easily replaced if in a couple of years the color faded just change out the transperancies. You could make a couple of sets at a time and store the replacements in the dark they would look good for many years. I was going to do mine with a old Kodak in 2.5 X 4.250 format 116 film. It would be easier that way then making copies of smaller slides and the quality would be super. Only I was thinking of converting the camera to use 120 film so it would be 2.25 X 4.25 great format for water falls!<div></div>

[ellis_vener_photography]

8x10 and even 11x14 enlarged dupe transparencies (duped from 35mm or medium format transparencies) were a mainstay in the portfolios of high end advertising and annual report photographers from about the early 1980s through I uguess the late 1990s. Some still use them to great effect. Depending on who is doing the dupe work and the presentation (as well as the original photography), the effect can be stunning.

[sal dimarco]

Upon a rare occasion, I have supplied clients with a 4x5 dupe of a 35mm original, because they wanted to make a very big enlargement. Many years ago, there was a Kodak product called Duratrans which was a tranparency material used for back lighted displays. Remember the old Kodak massive enlargements in Penn Station in New York City. But, I haven't heard of it in a long long while.

Happy Snaps,

[karl_knize]

For many years, my commercial color portfolio was 8x10 dupe

trans., which was the standard for a competitive book. For the

most part, duping is quite easy, and I did my own on my Omega

with a Dichro head (with the exception of 8x10 to 8x10), but even

that's not entirely necessary. Before the Omega, I did them with a

condenser enlarger and filter packs, which worked fine but had

more contrast than the Dicro lamphouse. For your purpose,

however, dupe trans isn't the way to go, as they will fade before

your eyes in strong steady light with UV. Better to make or buy

Duratrans, which is a C-41 process and designed for prolonged

backligting. As with duping,you can make them yourself on your

enlarger and it's no big trick to establish a filter pack. I'm not

sure, but Kodak may even included a recommended

filtration/starting point as it does with dupe film. You can shoot

neg film, make your own enlargements and send them to any

reasonable quality lab with an RA-4 processer. The hardest part

may be ordering the materials, as this isn't generally a

consumer product . A place like B&H is a good place to start.