Contact printing

R

RML

Guest
I don't know if this is feasible, cheap and common but maybe you can enlighten me.

I recently bought some 120 film. The negs *from 6x6 to 6x9) look great but when I scan them on my Canon Lide20 flatbed scanner, the scans don't have the contrast and detail I see in the neg. No doubt my scanner is cheap and my scanning skills suck eggs. :)

I've come to think that a (aaagh!) print may be a better place to start. I'm not ready or willing to invest in an enlarger and a proper dark room. I'm more inclined to making contact prints. Maybe even contact prints made right there in sunlight.

My questions for you are: is this possible? If so, what do I need? What kind of paper? What kind of chemicals? Can I use caffenol, which I like very much? Where to get more information (in a structured way, not the jumble APUG forums are, though these are full of information that is useful once I've started things). Is what I'm after called "printing-out"?

I want it cheap and easy, yet with good detail and of good quality. I know I'm asking a lot but a man has to aim high. :)
 
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Im not familiar with that scanner, but if it does not have film scanning capabilities (a light source on the top opening part of the scanner,) then you wont get good results.

If this is a case, then, there is however, a solution!!!

Take your negatives and place them on the scanner bed...

take a piece of white paper and put them over your negatives...

then take a desk lamp and put the desk lamp over the scanner with the light shining on the white paper...

keep the scanner top open, and scan with the light from the lamp shining on the paper.

the paper is used a a diffuser (sort of like ground glass) and will allow light to travel through the negative allowing for a more proper rendition of the contrast and detail.

have fun!!!!!
 
6x6 and 6x9 are a little small for contact printing but I have lots of old 6x6 and 6x9 prints from the 30's and 40's so why not?

All you need is a piece of glass, a 15 watt bulb a few trays and the chemicals. Use any cheap paper to start with to get the hang of the process and then branch out. Just place the neg on the paper, expose with the 15 watt bulb from about 3 or 4 feet away.

You may want to wrap the bulb in a few layers of toilet paper to diffuse the light a bit.

If it was good enough for Weston it's good enough for me.

As for using sunlight check out The Chicago Albumen Works Centenial POP paper
 
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One possible thing to consider, if you don't want to get into yet another set of chemicals (I don't know if there is a coffee-based paper developer, but Caffenol won't work, I don't think), is to just buy a better scanner. You will need some sharpening to get the detail out of it, but a $200 or so Epson flatbed with a big enough transparency adapter will give you what you need.

Otherwise there are, as Kevin mention, not a whole lot of requirements to getting contact prints. And 6x9 looks quite nice as a contact print.

allan
 
kmack said:
6x6 and 6x9 are a little small for contact printing but I have lots of old 6x6 and 6x9 prints from the 30's and 40's so why not?

All you need is a piece of glass, a 15 watt bulb a few trays and the chemicals. Use any cheap paper to start with to get the hang of the process and then branch out. Just place the neg on the paper, expose with the 15 watt bulb from about 3 or 4 feet away.
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I'll second this advice. I printed much this way for about a year when I first moved to New Mexico. I was shooting mostly 2x3 stuff through a Crown Graphic, and the prints were quite lovely. If you are planning on scanning the prints I'd think most any paper would work, but if the contact is the final product you might consider some graded paper over VC. I used Seagull graded back then. Contrast is then controlled most easily by dilution of developer for 'in-between' grades (ie: 2 1/2) You would need a space to serve as a darkroom- and a safelight to see what you are doing, but running water in the space is not required. My second darkroom was just a spare bedroom- I washed in the bathtub. The fancier the darkroom the more conviences it has I think- and simple can be very nice.

There was a great touring (I think) Weston exhibit I saw in Boston a few years back that had his darkroom replicated. Very Weston it was- utilitarian and not much more! And those prints still hold up today.

I've found the Albumen Works paper a bit flat for my 'normal' negs, but the color is really lovely. no developer or real darkroom needed with that stuff, nice and simple.
 
I make digitally enlarged negs on "OHP white film" on an epson 2200 and contact print them with pretty nice results. I print on Ilford Warmtone MGIV matte and glossy FB and use a 15 watt bulb in a reflector (shop light) wrapped in a white kitchen trashbag to diffuse it, it's my ghetto darkroom ;)

Todd
 
If you're interested in digitally enlarged negs, take a look at APUG's sister site, hybridphoto.com. There are a few ways of doing it, but you can start with what you have using overhead projector film and an inkjet printer.

Centennial POP (which is a gelatin silver printing out paper, not albumen paper, even though it's sold by the Chicago Albumen Works) does need a substantially contrastier neg than you would use for enlarging if you want a normal contrast range in the print. You can take an ordinary neg, though, and make a contrastier digital neg, and of course the digital neg can be larger than the original. I don't do this myself, because I have large cameras to make large negs, but there's a lot of interesting discussion about this on hybridphoto, and there is some very interesting work being done by using digitally enlarged negs for alternative processes.

For more reading and supplies, like Centennial POP and Pictorico OHP film, chemicals and printing frames, check out--

http://www.bostick-sullivan.com/
 
Great! I knew I'd get some useful advice here. :)

So, let's assume I'd get a some paper like these:
http://cgi.ebay.nl/25-sheets-B-W-4x...QQcategoryZ4200QQtcZphotoQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
http://cgi.ebay.nl/ERA-10x12-FB-Pho...QcategoryZ15226QQtcZphotoQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
or
http://cgi.ebay.nl/LUCKY-10x12-RC-P...QcategoryZ15226QQtcZphotoQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Will these do? Can I just palce the neg on the paper, put a glass plate over it, and expose with a light bulb? It sounds too easy! :)
What kind of chemicals would I need? I just recently bought a new 1 litre bottle of fixer for my B&W films. Will that work with paper too?

As you can see, I'm dumb when it gets to darkroom work. :p
 
David Goldfarb said:
For more reading and supplies, like Centennial POP and Pictorico OHP film, chemicals and printing frames, check out--

http://www.bostick-sullivan.com/
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Bostick & Sullivan that's hard core LF and Alt Process country ;)

They are great to deal with, I picked up a VanDyke kit and some Gold and Platinum
toner from them when they had a sale recently.

RML said:
Will these do? Can I just palce the neg on the paper, put a glass plate over it, and expose with a light bulb? It sounds too easy!
What kind of chemicals would I need? I just recently bought a new 1 litre bottle of fixer for my B&W films. Will that work with paper too?
Click to expand...

Yep; that easy.
I don't think the caffinol will work as a developer for paper but any non-hardening fixer like the Ilford Rapid fix will work for paper. I use a little vinegar as a stop bath. Dektol is a good cheap developer for RC papers. You can do a little research for others (You don't need a developer for POP, but you should use a toner).
 
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Edward Weston just used a light bulb and a contact printing frame. He had a cloth over the bulb to provide some diffusion and he was able to adjust the height of the bulb over the paper to vary the exposure. BUT (after his platinum period) he used silver chloride contact printing paper, which is much slower than enlarging paper. The last such paper made was Kodak Azo, which ceased production a couple of years ago. To learn about Azo, go to www.michaelandpaula.com and read the articles and check out the Azo forum.

You can use enlarging papers in the same way, but you'll need to use a very low wattage bulb, perhaps even with some diffusion or ND gels to get exposure times into a manageable range.

Basic chemicals to start with for contact printing on enlarging paper would be Kodak Dektol, Kodak Indicator Stop Bath, and Kodak Rapid Fixer. There are also comparable Ilford chemicals as well as others.
 
Sprint chemistry is simple to use- everything is diluted 1:9 with water and the developer has a long life in the bottle mixed for use or straight. Drawback is that it comes in 1Liter bottles, but you could pour the stock into smaller bottles and it would keep a really long time. Oxygen eats developer, so keep the bottles nice and full. Another convert! The wet darkroom is great fun!
 
Hi All,

I too am interested in contact printing, but I've only performed the film development side of the process up to now. The scanning is getting to be a bit tedious, so I'm looking for a way to reduce the number of negs that I scan.

So, is the actual chemical/printing process for contact prints the same as for standard prints - once I have exposed the negative on the paper? If so, I'll read up on the step-by-step process - trays, chemicals, etc. I am also interested in the minimalist approach regarding equipment.

Thanks,
Duane
 
dagabel said:
Hi All,

So, is the actual chemical/printing process for contact prints the same as for standard prints - once I have exposed the negative on the paper? If so, I'll read up on the step-by-step process - trays, chemicals, etc. I am also interested in the minimalist approach regarding equipment.

Thanks,
Duane
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Yes it is the same.

Wayne
 
dagabel said:
Hi All,

I too am interested in contact printing, but I've only performed the film development side of the process up to now. The scanning is getting to be a bit tedious, so I'm looking for a way to reduce the number of negs that I scan.

So, is the actual chemical/printing process for contact prints the same as for standard prints - once I have exposed the negative on the paper? If so, I'll read up on the step-by-step process - trays, chemicals, etc. I am also interested in the minimalist approach regarding equipment.

Thanks,
Duane
Click to expand...

If you've done the film part, you're already more than half way there. You can use the same stop bath and fixer you do with your negatives. Some film developers will work, though my understanding is it won't work nearly as well than with developers made specifically for paper.

Almost the same steps for developing film after the exposure:
1. Develop
2. Stop bath/water
3. Fix
4. Wash
5. Hang
6. Enjoy
 
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