we want to reverse the final printed image from a positive to a negative. can you help? don't suppose you have any other fun darkroom playing techniques to be creative with the enlarger and the printing process. thanks

-- sarah merry (sarahridout@yahoo.com), August 12, 2001

Answers

I couldn't explain it better than on this link ...

http://www.frii.com/~jkbl/reversal/

-- Marc Leest (mmm@n2photography.com), August 12, 2001.

One simple way is to create a paper negative. That is, you make a positive print with your enlarger the same size as you want your final negative print to be. You will want to make your positive print reversed from left to right compared to how you want your negative print oriented. Your positive print (the paper negative) should be somewhat flat in contrast.

To create the final negative print, you will lay an unexposed sheet of paper under the enlarger with your negative print placed on top upside down. The two papers should be emulsion to emulsion. (glossy paper gives the sharpest contact, i.e. resolution) Weight them down with a piece of heavy glass and expose to enlarger light.

That's the basic idea. Of course you will want to test strip to adjust contrast and exposure like you would any other image, before going to your final print.

This seemingly simple process actually works quite well. Good luck.

-- Paul Swenson (paulphoto@humboldt1.com), August 13, 2001.

I use PolaPan for the in-camera original (using the special Polaroid processor). Then print your "negative" on paper from there.

For fun I use a Polaroid slide printer to make quick "negative" prints from that PolaPan slide and for more fun I use Polaroid 655 P/N film to make a larger size positive "slide".

-- Bill Lange (frbl@go.com), August 13, 2001.