How print the negative (I.e not transforming into positive)

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cer3bral

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Hello there fellow photo people,

This is my first post, please be gentle.

Ok my querie is this, I want to enlarge some negatives, but I do not want to transform them into positive. I was wondering if anyone is aware of a technique in which I could do this, or would I have to take a positive photo, with slide film for example and then enlarge it that way. To be honest it is important that I can get a print of the negative directly without having to transform it in someway, whether by scanning or photographing. I really appreciate your thoughts on this.

Cheers,

L
 
cer3bral said:
Hello there fellow photo people,

This is my first post, please be gentle.

Ok my querie is this, I want to enlarge some negatives, but I do not want to transform them into positive. I was wondering if anyone is aware of a technique in which I could do this, or would I have to take a positive photo, with slide film for example and then enlarge it that way. To be honest it is important that I can get a print of the negative directly without having to transform it in someway, whether by scanning or photographing. I really appreciate your thoughts on this.

Cheers,

L
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An interesting query

The easiest way i can think of would be to shoot the photos with slide film and print onto photo paper so it comes up as a negative.

Failing that you could scan the negatives in so they appear as a positive, invert them in photoshop and send the images off to a print lab

I'm sure the will be a way to print negatives as negatives but i imagine it will be incredibly complicated
 
Well in the past you could have used cibachrome/ilfochrome paper which was designed for direct printing of slides but sadly its recently been discontinued by Ilford after about 50 years. It used to produce such lovely prints as well :(
 
robhooley167 said:
An interesting query

The easiest way i can think of would be to shoot the photos with slide film and print onto photo paper so it comes up as a negative.

Failing that you could scan the negatives in so they appear as a positive, invert them in photoshop and send the images off to a print lab

I'm sure the will be a way to print negatives as negatives but i imagine it will be incredibly complicated
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I have already scanned them, and have inverted them, just to see the positive, as I am a curious cat. But the thing is, with scanning it is never as good as the negative, in colour or resolution, as you always lose/distort something in the material>digital conversion. That is one reason why I need to find a way that doesnt involve digitization.
 
s162216 said:
Well in the past you could have used cibachrome/ilfochrome paper which was designed for direct printing of slides but sadly its recently been discontinued by Ilford after about 50 years. It used to produce such lovely prints as well :(
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Thats sound interesting, I am sure if it was discontinued recently, I may be lucky in finding some floating around ebay and like. Will have a search.
 
cer3bral said:
Thats sound interesting, I am sure if it was discontinued recently, I may be lucky in finding some floating around ebay and like. Will have a search.
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Ilford did their final production run of Ilfochrome in 2012 so you may be able to find some

I'm not sure about the chemicals or how difficult the process is though

Edit - AG photographic have a section on their website for Ilfochrome, the chemicals are £122 for a 2L kit but they are not sure about stocking it after March 2012, best give them an email

Edit Edit - If you are doing black and white, you could print onto Ilfords black and white direct positive paper? Not sure what size it goes up to though
 
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Yeah thats a bit expensive, just now, would need to wait and be fully prepared to go through with this project. I think I will do some research on the cibachrome, as it seems a good solution, even if complicated, Thanks for the quick replies, I am impressed, any more ideas or suggestions then please do add. Just another thought, are there any filters for the enlarger, that reverses (inverts) the negative so when it hits the paper it is positive, therefore being developed on the paper as negative, or is this just delusional dithering? In other words technically impossible.
 
hello im the thicky in f&c ,so you might have to explain it a bit better for me :)

do you mean make a large print that looks like the negative ? or make a large negative from a smaller one ? and are we talking colour or black and white ?

Donut
 
cer3bral said:
I have already scanned them, and have inverted them, just to see the positive, as I am a curious cat. But the thing is, with scanning it is never as good as the negative, in colour or resolution, as you always lose/distort something in the material>digital conversion. That is one reason why I need to find a way that doesnt involve digitization.
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Just take the neg to a lab and get a print made of the size you want...
Just like we used to in the "old" days.
That's how negs work.
Take photo, develop film, print from neg...simple.
 
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i think you've missed the question Phil .
 
philwillmedia said:
Yep...probably.
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not probably, definitely. Take photo , develop, and print but not in positive. That means the negative that you have, which is the original, you then can make limitless copies, which are usually positive prints. I want a negative print. Not so difficult. For example, if i cut my negative strip into single frames, then placed these in a slide holder and projected them on the wall, I would have an enlargment of the negative. Just like with slide film(which is positive) it doesnt get transformed into negative. Maybe a bit too confusing. :bonk:
 
Here's an idea

Buy a slide copier from ebay and shoot a photo of your negative onto negative film, thus giving you a positive, then print from the positive

This would really only work with black and white film though
 
mustanir said:
You can enlarge the negative onto Ilford Direct Positive paper using your usual darkroom techniques: http://www.ilfordphoto.com/products/product.asp?n=65

You can buy it here: http://www.ag-photographic.co.uk/harman-direct-positive-255-c.asp

It uses normal paper chemicals.
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I seen the paper, and it is under B&W paper, however it is vital that I do it in colour. I have one or two B&W but most are colour negatives, so would have to use a paper like cibachrome. But the chemicals and so are a bit above my budget for now so looking for another technique, if any. i look forward to more interested assistance in this difficult technical problem.
 
I was about to say you could shoot b/w slide and wet print to ordinary paper........so that's out the window now.

I gotta say, the question is not that technical, colour wet printing is never gonna be cheap and easy, but its the only way to do it other than digital scans/prints.


Scan the negs as slides, the scanner will reproduce what is on the negs without inverting colours, print digitally because wet printing is too expensive it appears.
 
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