Viewing black and white negatives as positives?

[kevin_v]

I was looking at some drying negatives last night in a dark bathroom with a flashlight, and I found that, by shining the light on the back of the film, the crystals reflected white while the gelatin just let the light pass through creating a positive image. It only worked well with frames with more or less correct exposure and decent contrast, and it certainly doesn't give the same image as one might get with scanning or printing, but it was still pretty cool. I'm relatively new to film photography and was just wondering if anyone else had noticed this effect / used it for anything practical.

 

[Pablito]

photographers have been doing this since the early days of film...

 

[Rob-F]

Yep, it's an old trick. I had forgotten all about it until I read your post. A black velvet background behind the film could really enhance the effect! Thanks for reminding me!

 

[Todd.Hanz]

holding a negative against a dark background like velvet or denim works well too.

Todd

 

[cjbecker]

I do this all the time in the darkroom with the lights and the gray wall.

 

[stratcat]

Interesting. I did not know this. I'm washing a just developed roll; I'll try the trick after it's dry.

 

[George Bonanno]

If you see this effect your negatives are too thin. Meaning underexposed and or underdeveloped. It's not a good thing.

 

[timor]

If you see this effect your negatives are too thin. Meaning underexposed and or underdeveloped. It's not a good thing.

I concur with you. And the opposite is also true, too dense negs could not easily be viewed as positives..