8x10 contact prints from digital negatives.

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jwcat

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I know Ed Weston did this. I have “The Print” book but would like to read about Weston’s methods. Any leads?

Of course he used analog negs, but that is not a problem.

I have not been able to log on to RFF in some time.
 
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Google search Ron Reeder ... specialises in contact printing from digitally created negatives and sells an instructional book.
 
Weston was quite the purist, single incandescent light bulb and a metronome. Harder to do these days with our faster, mostly VC papers. But 810 contacts are very simple assuming one can keep things clean.
 
Buy some Lodima from Paula Chamlee, it’s the closest to the chloride contact papers that Weston used. Otherwise use Adox Lupex. Expose in a contact print frame under a bulb. Develop the paper in an amidol developer - I think Photographer’s Formulary has a pre-made version of Weston’s amidol developer, or you can use Michael Smith’s formula at the Lodima site. Fix, wash thoroughly and there you go. As Bob points out, it’s very, very simple, as long as you can keep everything clean.

Edward Weston’s Daybooks have a lot of details in them, but in bits and pieces here and there, so you need to read it carefully.

Marty
 
Freakscene said:
Buy some Lodima from Paula Chamlee, it’s the closest to the chloride contact papers that Weston used. Otherwise use Adox Lupex. Expose in a contact print frame under a bulb. Develop the paper in an amidol developer - I think Photographer’s Formulary has a pre-made version of Weston’s amidol developer, or you can use Michael Smith’s formula at the Lodima site. Fix, wash thoroughly and there you go. As Bob points out, it’s very, very simple, as long as you can keep everything clean.

Edward Weston’s Daybooks have a lot of details in them, but in bits and pieces here and there, so you need to read it carefully.

Marty
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Thanks, that is what I need, I think. :)
 
I've never made a contact print, but it looks way easier than an enlarger print. No need to focus, figure out your cropping, etc. Instead of emulating Weston, which is a lost cause really and who wants to do what someone else has already done?, I would go a different route. What look are you after? Developing in Rodinal will give you very different results than something like D76.

I would just use Tri-X and D76 as my starting point after reading up on all the online info about making digital negs (Photorio). Adox MCC 110 is a great paper to start with because you seldom have to do anything but make one test print or test strip.
 
The wizard of making contact negatives from digital images for printing is/was Dan Burkholder. His techniques and so forth are documented in books available from his website:

http://www.danburkholder.com

a more specific link to the digital negative techniques:
Dan Burkholder: Digital Negative Companion

If you want to make large format negatives for contact printing from digital images, his techniques will save a huge amount of trial and error time.

I did this stuff in the 1990s with my buddy Don K.

G
 
Also if made from digital? Wouldn't the limitation be the printer and one can only get what the printer is capable of in a positive print as well?
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Dont know..
I use an 8x10 Ebony cam on old AZO chloride paper..and right outta the gate..it demolishes any print I ever made on any other format..w/o even trying..
Th prints basically...glow..

You might want to go to the Large Format community..they have experienced folks there in what you are asking..
 
Godfrey said:
The wizard of making contact negatives from digital images for printing is/was Dan Burkholder. His techniques and so forth are documented in books available from his website:

http://www.danburkholder.com

a more specific link to the digital negative techniques:
Dan Burkholder: Digital Negative Companion

If you want to make large format negatives for contact printing from digital images, his techniques will save a huge amount of trial and error time.

I did this stuff in the 1990s with my buddy Don K.
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The technology has moved on from the approach in Dan Burkholder's book. The easiest way to get really good results doing this currently is to use PiezeDN. https://piezography.com/piezodn It sorts a lot of the issues with UV density that traditional inks have, and makes negs you can print on platinum, palladium or on silver. Recommended.

retinax said:
Also if made from digital? Wouldn't the limitation be the printer and one can only get what the printer is capable of in a positive print as well?
Click to expand...

To an extent. The PiezoDN negs can make prints as good as an 8x10 camera, but you need to understand post processing and have an appropriate file to input.

Larger than 8x10, analogue negatives probably still produce better contact prints unless you have a very high resolution camera, but then you run into HUGE issues with camera manageability. There is always a trade-off between practicality and output. One thing to remember is that the inkjet printer can provide the same ppi to its maximum size, irrespective of the input. This helps with tonality. It's a similar effect to that which Cal describes for Piezo prints - as you print larger you see more detail. The printer isn't inventing it, it's just that a 17x22 inch or larger print has more effective resolution than a 5K (at best) computer screen looking at the whole image. The screen obscures detail, rather than that the print creates more. And it's hard to interpret tone zoomed in, whereas it magnifies detail.

Marty
 
Steve M. said:
I've never made a contact print, but it looks way easier than an enlarger print. No need to focus, figure out your cropping, etc. Instead of emulating Weston, which is a lost cause really and who wants to do what someone else has already done?, I would go a different route. What look are you after? Developing in Rodinal will give you very different results than something like D76.

I would just use Tri-X and D76 as my starting point after reading up on all the online info about making digital negs (Photorio). Adox MCC 110 is a great paper to start with because you seldom have to do anything but make one test print or test strip.
Click to expand...

I am not trying to emulate Weston, I just want to make analog paper prints, without buying and trying to find a place for an enlarger.

I have been making Alternative Photography prints for years using digital negatives. When I attended a Pt/Pd workshop with Dan Burkholder in 2008 he made a print on analog paper, but he used his enlarger for illumination. Weston was the master of contact printing so I am just looking for his methods. I will never make a Pepper #31.
 
Godfrey said:
The wizard of making contact negatives from digital images for printing is/was Dan Burkholder. His techniques and so forth are documented in books available from his website:

http://www.danburkholder.com

a more specific link to the digital negative techniques:
Dan Burkholder: Digital Negative Companion

If you want to make large format negatives for contact printing from digital images, his techniques will save a huge amount of trial and error time.

I did this stuff in the 1990s with my buddy Don K.

G
Click to expand...

I attended a workshop given by Dan in 2008 and watched him make a contact print on Ilford paper, it was beautiful.
 
Freakscene said:
...Edward Weston’s Daybooks have a lot of details in them, but in bits and pieces here and there, so you need to read it carefully.

Marty
Click to expand...

+1 for technique.

I recently returned to the Daybooks after decades without reading them, was not the same as it was when I was 20.
 
I used to print large quantities of 8x10 SWG for Hickey Freeman mens clothes marketing press releases and masked x-rays to photo print. This was back in the 70's.

I used a large contact printer that had a diffuse cold light source in a box about 12 x 14 x12 with the light about 10 inches or so from the contact glass. There was enough space to put tissue paper in the box and this would be added or cut out to create dodge and burn effects and to compensate for any unevenness of the light source field.

With this method it was highly repeated to produce a large number of prints with consistent dodging and burning since it was all done by light attenuation or increase from the tissue paper build up or holes. Processing limited runs to about 15 prints per batch or you'd see variation since I was processing all the prints in trays.

I would think this method would work even if you had some type of digitally produced negative and wanted a conventional black and white print on photo paper from that.

Hickey Freeman was extremely particular with matching shading, contrast and tonality on the original artwork. They would compare first and last prints and some others to the original artwork for exactness. Excellent life lesson!

something like this comes to mind: contact printer
 
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