5x4 Contact Printing

You seem to have covered everything. My apologies if I seem to be teaching you to suck eggs. I suppose some kind of air removal must be the next thing. Might that solve one problem, only to give you Newton's Rings?
As far as I know, Weston never ventured above 10"x 8" and often smaller.
 
In my limited experience with non-silver processes, I seem to remember that a denser neg of higher contrast was considered more useful. No suggestion that it should be bullet-proof, just that it should match the character of medium being used.
As all non-silver processes seem to be contact printed, is it possible that this has been over-generalised to all contact printing?
 
I'm just wondering why some posts, even from Ian, and mine following your post included, are missing now??

Again, but short answers now:
Ian, I believe in test strips being helpful for contactprinting, too.

David, sorry for some confusions.
I'm far from being a master printer.
So I love to get helpful informations, but also have some work done in my darkroom.

My LED light manages both VC and Splitgrade printing.
The redesigned Durst 138 condenser head now could be described as a point light with a diffusor in front of the LEDs.

At this time I don't fear Newton's rings.
They exclusiveley seem to come from contact between glass and film, and hopefully not from paper and film.

All I can say from some experience with contact printing my own negatives is that the one day I have had problems with a harder negative which lead me to use an old Ilfospeed G1 paper which then came out fantastic.

What i have seen from my favourite papers Foma Brom and Foma Tone which are quiet different is that most depends on my paper. It has to fit the negative.
Otherwise I should tune my negatives to the paper.
Or to the process, but I only have done a handful of Bromoil and have no other experience with alt processes.
Contact printing to me shows a relatively typical silverprinting behaviour.

Best,
Reginald
 
Most printing frames seem to have some kind of soft backing. Felt or baize in older ones and foam in later ones. That might help to press out any residual air. You might need to experiment.
I seem to recall that the X-ray film I used (for X-rays, not photographs) had quite a thick base, although this was some time ago and things may have changed.
Could this thickness, with a double emulsion, be a source of unsharpness? I'm thinking of unsharp masking, the darkroom kind, not the software version, where two images are slightly separated to "un-sharpen" the mask.
 
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In spite of the double emulsion and a thick polyester base which both are often described as contraproductive to sharpness, contact printing from 12x16" my Xray negatives doesn't seem to give such a great unsharpness to my prints.

But.
Mostly I use ULF and Xray widely open for soft focus things.
To me and to my photography Xray is sharp enough wich may not mean the same to others having other requirements or definitions or of sharpness.

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David M said:
Most printing frames seem to have some kind of soft backing..Yo might need to experiment.
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Of course further experiments are needed.
My idea for soft backing is a relatively hard gum base where I have to bring my paper.
This green ones, with wide squared lines on top.
 
A a 'portable' soviet 35mm enlarger ( big thank you to @Ian Grant ) greatly improved yesterday's contact printing session. Progress :D. I can now wrangle this new-fangled multigrade paper ;)

I'd still like to try some Adox Lupex. The demise of Silverprint :( makes it harder to find here in the UK and post-brexit shipping from FotoImpex needs a larger order.

Would anyone be prepared to sell me some Adox Lupex, or other Silver Chloride contact printing paper, from a stash? I use 5x7 mostly.

Alternatively, would anyone like to work with me on a combined FotoImpex order, and perhaps even split a box of 100 5x7 Adox Lupex and also add other things to the order?

Wendy

AnalogueWendy said:
. . . Am considering investing in some Adox Lupex and a light bulb. Will be quite an investment as Lupex 5x7 only comes in 100 sheets packs.
OR maybe I should just find some Ilford filters to add to the many diffusers taped over my flash.

Would anyone like to sell me a smaller quantity of Adox Lupex 5x7, or split a box with me?


Wendy
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Probably as a last option, I could order a pack in germany, followed by somehow expensive shipping to you.
 
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