Thomas Weber - Photography
Printing of the Positivs, the Photos:
Contact Printing versus Enlarging.
Enlarging:
Paper negatives can be enlarged like any other negative else. The opaque paper will disperse the light passing through and the prints will have a very soft and not sharp appearence. These prints follow more the original "Kalos" style which Talbot liked so much. The expression is quite similar to pinhole photography.
Contact Printing:
If cristal sharp and contrasty prints are prefered then contact copies are the sole option. Consequentely, the print will have the size of the negative. If a print should be larger, the size of the negative has to increase. For the prints baryt paper is recommended. The quality of the grey tone scale and the haptic feeling is outstanding. The useful gradation of the paper is between 1 to 3, normally.
No matter the selected procedure, the necessary duration for printing should not be underestimated. Three hours of printing time in the darkroom for one negative is quite normal. Sometimes one negative might consume one full working day.
Test copies could be printed on PE-plastic-paper and then this old and slow procedure converts into a rapid one which offers results in a few minutes.
© Thomas Weber 2010 - 2024
