i have a negative that i was printing and noticed it really looked great as a negative image (while i was focusing & sizing the print i was making).... i've heard people talk about printing negative images but i've never seen a description of the process on how to accomplish this.... i'd like to try it for this image

can this be done with just a normal printing set up or do you need additional materials/chemicals? anyone have a url explaining this or is it simple enough to explain here? i'd appreciate it, this forum has been a great help to me!

thanks joe

-- Joe H (joe1013_@excite.com), March 16, 2001

Answers

Joe, it's been a while since I've done this, but you really just need to get your neg. to a positive first. Then project the pos. onto your printing paper...depending on your film size, and what kinds of materials you have at hand, this can be easy, or a pain...think of it like projecting your neg. image onto a piece of film (to make an interpositive), developing/fixing etc. this, and then projecting this interpos. onto regular paper. So, you would probably want to go to a larger size if you were shooting 35mm film to begin with, or else you could try to contact the 35, but that would be a real pain...this kind of stuff is fun though, and you can get into doing it at different densities, and sandwiching the negs/pos to do tone-line conversions and the like, if you use lith film....Kodak has a book called "Creative Darkroom Techniques" that's a good reference for this kind of thing. Good luck.

-- DK Thompson (kthompson@moh.dcr.state.nc.us), March 16, 2001.

Joe, why don't you try it making a contract print first. That may give you all the 'information' you are looking for.

chris

-- Christian Harkness (chris.harkness@eudoramail.com), March 17, 2001.

I think what Chris is trying to say is you should use your positive print as a "negative" with which to make a contact print, which will of course be a true negative image. Just put it emulsion to emulsion with a blank piece of paper, and expose through the back of the paper. You will be amazed at the quality of the resulting print.

-- Ed Buffaloe (edb@unblinkingeye.com), March 17, 2001.

Several years ago I did this by copying my 35mm negs onto 4x5 technical pan film. I used an inexpensive slide copying attachment. I then developed the film in Kodak's Technical Pan Developer per instructions. The resulting 4x5 positives were printed conventionally. Results were very good.

-- Robert Orofino (minotaur1949@aol.com), March 17, 2001.

Ed-

thanks for the two piece of paper technique, i was hoping it could come down to something like that, if i can get it to work it's highest honor would be an 8x10 in my office... i'm thinking this would take lots of light, like under the enlarger wide open empty negative carrier, somewhere in the one to two minute range if i had to guess..... all i have now is RC multigrade so if anyone knows a better starting point than what i just outlined please let me know, this sound like fun and will happen in my next printing session....... say, now i know why that 2nd piece of paper i found after making an enlargement turned out way overexposed when I printed it..... light can pass through paper, hmmm

joe

-- Joe H (joe1013_@excite.com), March 18, 2001.

update- it worked!

thanks for the information everyone, last night i got a great print of what i wanted by just using a print of the positive against a new paper & "contact" printing.... the one i did at f/4 30 sec is very close, i may try reducing 1/3 to 1/2 stop to see what i get but i think that may be underexposed... i'll have to see if i have any more shots to try this with, this one just screamed at me when i first put the negative in the enlarger

thanks again, joe

-- Joe H (joe1013_@excite.com), March 20, 2001.

Joe, don't forget you can use contrast filters with this process [if you use variable contrast paper]

chris

-- Christian Harkness (chris.harkness@eudoramail.com), March 21, 2001.