I ran across an ol'35 mm negative I made and laid aside years ago, it's an early morning picture of a dirt road straight ahead, a barn on the left, a sunrise above left to the barn. I think it needs to become an 11x14 masterpiece, I mean what's the best paper and procedure to make this happen. What I'm tryin' to say is that the sun will take a lot of burnin' to catch up with the rest of the image. Thanks in advance!

-- John L. Blue (bluescreek@hotmail.com), April 26, 2001

Answers

You should never make an 11x14 from a 35mm neg unless it is for poster display purposes. As a fine-art print, you will be much better off making a print no larger than 8x10. Preferrable even smaller.

-- Ricardo Spanks (ricardo_spanks@yahoo.com), April 27, 2001.

John,

Don't listen to Ricardo. I hate the idea of rules and guidelines for something which is such a personal expression, and even more hate it when someone thinks the rules they work by should apply to everyone else!!

I would use a Fiber-based graded paper (my personal preference is Ilford Gallerie grade 3). Graded paper has a higher silver content than multigrade, and gives a deeper tonality. It's a little tougher to work with, because contrast is dictated by your developer and negative (as opposed to contrast filters for multigrade), but worth the extra effort.

Good luck! Jon Osing

-- Jon Osing (josing@bcr.com), April 27, 2001.

I agree with John. - I have made 40 inch by eight foot prints from 35mm Neopan 1600 negatives - in fact Bo Didley bought a bunch of them last July. So, do go for it!!!!!!!!!!

chris

-- Christian Harkness (chris.harkness@eudoramail.com), April 28, 2001.

Sorry Jon! - chris

-- Christian Harkness (chris.harkness@eudoramail.com), April 28, 2001.

Thankyou Richardo and Jon. Ok. Now. Take the negative to a good black and white printer and talk with them about what it is that you want from this image. Is it sharp enough to go 11x14? Is there enough info in the negative to go the distance? Will it be necessary to make a mask to bring down the brightness range of the negative in order to print it at all given that you want the sun "and" the rest of the image to be printable? Lots of possbilities. And print it on FB variable contrast paper whatever the size. Don't make it hard on the printer. Much easier. But talk to the printer personally and discuss what you want from this image. Let him guide the team effort. If you are printing it, at least start with variable contrast FB paper. Don't try to force graded paper to do something it isn't capable of doing. James

-- james (james_mickelson@hotmail.com), May 26, 2001.