ENLARGED NEGATIVES: THEORY & PRACTICE (c) John Rudiak, Taos, New Mexico, 1998 The vast majority of antique and/or alternate photographic printing processes are contact printing processes, so the negative must be as large as the print we wish to make. The emulsions and sensitizers used are very slow compared to normal silver gelatine developing out printing papers and are also usually insensitive to visible light and must be exposed to sources rich in ultraviolet radiation, so conventional enlarging is impractical. The many alternative processes have different requirements for the negatives used and it is rare to have one negative work for a number of different printmaking processes so becoming a skilled negative maker is essential. The only evidence of your visual/emotional experience is the print you make validating this experience, so we owe it to ourselves to become the best printmakers that we can . Since the print qualities are dictated by the qualities of the negative, the importance of making the best negative possible cannot be overlooked. Although there are several methods for making enlarged negatives (direct duping film, rephotographing a print with a larger camera, reversal processing of negative film, etc.) the method which affords us the most control is to first make a film interpositive and then use that to generate the enlarged negative. This gives us two opportunities to choose film, adjust contrast and density, to dodge and burn and retouch while getting to the final negative, and sometimes once is just not enough. It can be argued that this method means we are working with a second generation copy with the attendant losses of information, but by generating either the positive or negative through contact the losses are significantly minimized. The equipment and laboratory used to generate enlarged negatives are the same as used for conventional silver printing but the degree of precision must be elevated, as the materials used are much more sensitive than store bought photo paper, so modifications will have to be made to the working environment. As a bonus, these changes will only improve the efficiency of the lab for all photo work. Because we will be using films, the darkroom becomes analogous to the inside of a camera with us walking around in it, and stray light that we wouldn't notice under bright safelights poses a very real threat for fogging. If the darkroom is light-tight enough to load fast film without fogging it we can turn our attention to the enlarger. Every enlarger I have seen leaks enough light to fog film and we need to plug up these leaks before exposing any film. Put a lens cap on the enlarging lens, put a negative carrier in , turn out the room lights and wait a few minutes for your eyes to adjust, and turn on the enlarger. All that light hitting the walls, ceiling, and you is non image-forming, fogging light and must be eliminated. Velcro and strips of black cloth are very helpful here. Now that we have the enlarger plugged up, put a piece of white paper in the easel, take off the lens cap, open the lens, darken the room and turn on the enlarger. The light illuminating the walls, ceiling and you is now caused by bounce from the easel and will fall back onto the film and fog it. Paint the walls and ceiling around the enlarger a very dark grey (black seems too depressing) and wear a black shirt when making negs. Some of the films you might use have no antihalation backing on them, so paint your easel flat black. Now we should have a darkroom. There are some other situations in our lab that need our attention to make the transition from silver printing to negative making. Consistency is essential if we want to reproduce results, or make changes to contrast and density in a predictable manner. A voltage stabilizer to control the current going to the timer and enlarger is well worth the investment. Even if your lab is on a single circuit from the fuse box so that the refrigerator in the next room kicking on during an exposure doesn't affect the light output, there is enough normal line fluctuation from the electric company to noticeably change exposures. Electronic timers are much more consistent than their mechanical counterparts so their use is highly recommended. Sometimes it is desirable to make changes in exposure of fractions of a second, and this is not possible with a mechanical timer. A light integrator like the Metrolux, which controls exposure by measuring the total amount of light falling on the print represents the utmost in consistency. While on the subject of the enlarger, let's turn our attention to the lens. The films we will be using are much faster than enlarging paper, so exposure times are naturally shorter, and the light intensity will have to be reduced. Simply stopping down the lens to 22 or smaller is not the answer. High quality enlarging lenses are sharper at wider apertures due to the effects of diffraction. You can check this by putting a negative in the enlarger and examining the grain with a high quality grain magnifier (focusing aid). Start with the lens wide open and notice how crisp the edges of the grain appear. Slowly stop down the lens and watch what happens to the crispness of the grain - on or about f/11 you should begin to notice a loss of sharpness, which tells us not to stop down any more if maximum sharpness is desired. If you want to cut down the amount of light beyond this use a neutral density filter. Now that we have tightened up the exposing procedure, we should move on to processing our film. You can't do much worse than processing sheet film like you do paper, that is to say, in trays. Consistency is not possible. Film developers are not designed to live in trays and will oxidize in short order. Processing the first test strip in a tray weakens the solution to the extent that the next sheet processed will receive less development than the test. Using a processor like a Jobo is a wonderful luxury and has changed my life in the darkroom, but there is life before the Jobo. For many years I processed sheet film in color print processing drums which were rolled on a motor base. There are many of these devices in the used photo equipment market with drums that will handle film sizes up to 16X20 inches. Another inexpensive alternative is the BTZS sheet film tubes sold by Darkroom Innovations. Before we leave our discussion of the working environment we need to address the subject of safelights. This is definitely a case where less is better. All the films used have recommended safelight requirements, either dark red or light red for orthochromatic (blue sensitive) films to none for panchromatic emulsions. No matter what the safelight, if films are exposed to these lights long enough they will fog. Another danger is the safelight causing a sub threshold exposure to the film. This is an exposure that is just barely insufficient to initiate development but still causes electrochemical changes to the emulsion relative to its ability to react with the developer. If this film is exposed and developed, areas which would normally remain clear will show some density. This will not show up with traditional fog tests. The best safelight for film is no safelight. With this in mind it is wise to take a look at the LED displays used on digital timers, especially since they are in close proximity to the enlarging easel. If the timer has a dimmer switch turn it down so that it is barely visible and aim it away from the easel. If no dimmer, several layers of lithographers tape (the clear red stuff) is good insurance. Now that we have the lab in shape for negative making let's take a look at the films with suitable characteristics for the job at hand, starting with making the interpositive. This film should be fine grained, capable of lower than normal contrast, and have a long straight section on its HD curve with minimal toe and shoulder. The correct positive should look like a flat print when viewed on the light box, with no areas of clear film (some density in all non- specular highlights) and no shadow areas near the D-Max of the film. This places all the printable information from your original negative on the straight portion of the film curve insuring good tonal separation. One film with these characteristics is Ilford's Commercial Ortho Plus, a graphic arts film which I have been using successfully for the past five years. Another alternative would be T- max 100 which is not a graphic arts film but has characteristics which make it suitable for many aspects of photography including copying, masking, color separations, and normal picture taking. It is the closest thing available to an all purpose film and may cause the disappearance of a number of other Kodak film stocks. These films are readily available in sizes up to 8X10. Should larger size film be required, The film stock referred to as Fine Grained Positive (not the same as Kodak Fine Grain Positive) supplied by Photo Warehouse is available in sizes up to 20 inches and acts much like the Ilford Commercial Ortho. There are some situations where using a film positive the same size as the final negative is advantageous. If the original negative is smaller than 4X5 inches, generating the positive by contact (to avoid going through two enlargements with attendant loss of quality) to arrive at the final negative will result in grain from the positive influencing quality of the negative due to the degree of enlargement. To make an 8X10 or larger negative from a 35mm original, it is better to make an 8X10 or larger positive and contact to make the negative. An other situation would be if the original negative is larger than 8X10. All the above films respond favorably to processing in Kodak's HC110 or Ilford's Ifotech developers.

And now to the final negative. This is the phase where most of the controls such as contrast adjustment, dodging and burning and retouching are applied. One film ideally suited for this application is Kodak's Professional Copy Film, number 4125. It is specifically designed for generating copy negatives, having a uniquely shaped shoulder on its film curve which enhances highlight separation to counteract the highlight compaction usually occurring when making copies. It is also unique in that contrast is influenced not only by development time but exposure as well, increasing exposure resulting in increased contrast. It is retouchable on both sides, and is available in sizes up to 20X24. The disadvantages are that it is very expensive and supplies, especially in the larger sizes, are limited, as it seems that Kodak only makes this particular film once a year and supplies are exhausted before the next run. This is a great film and is highly recommended but at the time of this writing has been unavailable for two months. While I wholeheartedly recommend this film for enlarged negatives (I have been using it for 15 years) I believe its future as an available product is limited. As digitally produced negatives for reproduction occupy an ever increasing share of the market, the future of specialty films like Pro Copy is uncertain at best. An alternative must be found and camera oriented films promise the best availability. Fortunately some of the new generation films have very gentle shoulders and are adaptable for use in generating enlarged negatives. The aforementioned T-Max 100 would be a good choice but is unavailable in sizes larger than 8X10 except through special order (cost prohibitive). Photo Warehouse markets an ISO 125 Pan film for camera use which is available in sizes up to 20X24 which I have been using lately for enlarged negatives with great success. Selenium toning the final negative mimics the highlight characteristics of the Pro Copy and the film responds favorably to increased development which is necessary to achieve the higher than normal contrast required for most alt process negatives. Because we need to work from a positive that is lower in contrast than a normal negative designed for printing, and we need to generate a final negative that is higher in contrast than a normal printing negative, conventional film developers are often incapable of generating sufficient contrast before general fogging sets in, lowering contrast. The solution to this problem is to use developers capable of generating higher contrast negatives than normal film developers. For instance, if we develop a negative in HC-110 for ten minutes and it is not contrasty enough for its intended use, increasing the development time will likely result in chemical fog rather than increased contrast. The next developer to try is D-19 which is capable of generating a higher contrast negative than HC-110. If ten minutes in D-19 isn't contrasty enough, D-11 can make a contrastier negative than D-19. In the unlikely event that D-11 isn't contrasty enough, there is D-8, an extremely contrasty developer. With these four developers you should be able to handle any situation. These are all comercially available Kodak developers and the formulas are published so they can also be mixed from scratch. Once the final negative is generated there are other modifications that can be employed to get us closer to the perfect negative, which will affect local areas or the entire negative. Selenium toning the negative will result in a contrast increase, with more effect to the highlights. Selenium toner can be applied locally with a brush to increase density. Detail can be enhanced by retouching with a soft lead retouching pencil. The entire negative can be chromium intensified, or bleached and redeveloped in a pyro based developer. New coccine can be applied to lighten areas in the print. These controls will be discussed in more detail later. Once the final negative is generated there are other modifications that can be employed to get us closer to the perfect negative, which will affect local areas or the entire negative. Selenium toning the negative will result in a contrast increase, with more effect to the highlights. Selenium toner can be applied locally with a brush to increase density. Detail can be enhanced by retouching with a soft lead retouching pencil. The entire negative can be chromium intensified, or bleached and redeveloped in a pyro based developer. New coccine can be applied to lighten areas in the print. These controls will be discussed in more detail later. Having discussed the theoretical considerations involved in producing an enlarged negative tailored to a particular printing process, let's proceed into the darkroom and make a 16X20 negative from a 4X5 original to be used for platinum printing. The negative, shot on 4X5 Tri-X on an overcast day was developed to print on grade two paper with a condenser enlarger. (Figure 1) This is large enough to make a contact generated positive. Adjust the enlarger so that 1 foot candle of light falls on the baseboard (this is equivalent to EV 1 at EI 50). Using a standard level of illumination for generating negatives simplifies procedures and makes comparisons meaningful. Make a test strip on Ilford Commercial Ortho Plus of 2 second intervals and process for 6 minutes in HC-110 dilution B at constant agitation. Choose the exposure which first shows density in all the highlight values, which in this case is six seconds. Also check the deepest shadows and notice that they are noticeably less than the film D-Max, indicating that the development time is acceptable. Now expose and process a sheet at six seconds and develop for six minutes (figure 2). Generating the positive is pretty straightforward and some exposure and contrast latitude is permissible so long as there is some density in the highlights and the shadows are less than D-Max. Put the positive in the enlarger and position the head to make a 16X20 enlargement. Take out the negative and adjust the illumination on the baseboard to 1 footcandle. In this instance we get 1 footcandle at f/22. A two stop neutral density filter is placed in the filter drawer so we can work at f/11, the smallest aperture on this lens before diffraction starts to degrade the image. Make a test strip on the negative film (in this case the Photo Warehouse ISO 125 Pan Film) in two second intervals and process in HC-110B for 7 minutes. Choose the exposure which just starts to show density in the shadow areas that you want to print black. This places the printable information above the toe of the film curve and will provide good shadow separation. In this case it is the 4 second exposure. Because this negative doesn't need any dodging or burning, we will use the four second exposure. If the negative needed this, we would increase the time to 16 seconds by putting another two stop ND filter in the filter drawer, giving us enough time for dodging and burning. Now we look at the highlights to check the negative's contrast. I like to make my platinum negatives so they have a density range of 1.9. If a densitometer is available this is easy to check. If you already have a negative that printed well in platinum, compare the test to that. If this is your first negative for platinum, make a print of the test adjusting the exposure so the shadows in the four second segment look right. Now check the highlights. If they are too dark, which they are in this case, more contrast is needed. The maximum amount of development available is different for each film/developer combination, but a safe assumption would be a 10 minute limit for full strength developers. Since this test negative was developed at 6 minutes and the print highlights are noticeably too dark, it is unlikely that a ten minute developing time would achieve sufficient density. Of course a densitometer would corroborate this, but lacking this piece of equipment means sneaking up to the proper printing contrast to make the right negative which will be used to compare to future negatives in respect to density and contrast. The next step up the contrast trail in respect to developers is D-19, which is only moderately contrastier than HC-110, and in this case it is unlikely that this developer will provide enough contrast. The next contrastier developer of this series is D-11. A strip of film is exposed at four seconds and processed for 7 ½ minutes which looks very good. A test print of this strip shows that it is very close to the correct contrast for the platinum process but still a tiny bit flat. A 16X20 sheet of film is exposed at 4 seconds and processed for 8 ½ minutes to raise the contrast slightly, and a test is made from a part of the negative containing highlight values. It looks very, very good at this point, but would be magnificent with a little more sparkle in the high values. While increasing the development time to 10 minutes would likely achieve the desired result, we can avoid using another large, expensive piece of film by selenium toning the negative we have just made to achieve the half grade contrast boost in the high and middle tones. Use selenium toner 1:3 for ten minutes. The next step is to make a full size print to see if any post processing enhancements are needed. In this case none are required. Because the original subject was a low contrast scene and the print shows good shadow and highlight separation without blocking, all we have to do is sign it. Were it necessary, there are a number of methods available to locally control density. If you have slight shadow information that barely prints and you would like these areas to have more presence in the print, building up density on the emulsion side of the negative with a retouching pencil is very effective. This technique works on the near highlights and midtones also. If broad areas need to be lightened, a solution of new coccine (a red, water soluble dye) can be painted onto the negative. Start thin (a pinkish solution of the dye) and build up layers until the desired effect is obtained. Because new coccine is water soluble and isn't fixed into the gelatin it is removable by washing. Another effective way to locally increase density in irregularly shaped areas of the print is to "spot" them with concentrated selenium toner (1:1). This is permanent and more effective in the denser negative areas. Of course wash the negative after this procedure. If negative density needs to be removed, the area can be gently rubbed with Kodak Abrasive Reducer, which seems to be a pumice based paste, to darken respective areas of the print. Should you have pinholes or dust holes in the negative, opaque them out so you can spot them later on the print. Now we should have as good a negative as we can make. It is well worth putting the effort into this stage of the printmaking process because the print you make can't be any better than the negative it came from, and the better the negative, the easier it is to print, and the less stressful the darkroom becomes. Printmaking should be a joy- not a struggle. (c) 1998 John Rudiak