On Fri, 7 Mar 2003, Tonghang Zhou wrote: > I've never done any printing myself, but I was reading > about making contact prints from negatives, and it would > seem unnecessary to use an enlarger for this purpose.
This is true..however, the negative has to be big enogh to see something in if you'll be doing anything but proof sheets. For instance, I've just (finally!) begun contact printing my 4x5 negs. Well, sorta.. will just (finally!) beGIN contact printing my 4x5 negs. :) > It seems you'll just need a contact frame and a way to A piece of glass laid over the neg and the paper works, too. My $10 antique frame from Ebay is essentially that and the fact that you can tighten the glass against the neg with pressure applied from the metal brackets on the back of the frame. > shine light onto it. Of course I don't know how you'd > control the exposure time. Anyone like to explain this > process? Practice. The last few I've done were at my friends house using his enlarger as a source light. Expsoure times are usually short through his lens, on the order of about 10 seconds. Since I sitll don't have an enlarger (sigh, the saga that NEVER ENDS!), I'll be using a 15 or smaller watt light bulb in a can fixture. I'll probably build a diffusing screen under it by using some transluscent plastic, but I haven't gotten that far, yet. That's about it, though. Sandwich your negative and paper, turn on light for few seconds, then develop liek a regular enlarged picture. -- http://www.infotainment.org <-> more fun than a poke in your eye. http://www.eighteenpercent.com <-> photography and portfolio.
