Making traditional negatives for contact printing

Most hand-applied emulsions require such a great amount of exposure that direct enlarger projection onto them is not possible. Contact printing is required under a strong UV light source. A few  options are available to the traditional photographer wishing to work in the darkroom instead of the computer to make contact size negatives, film shot in camera, litho film shot in a pinhole camera or litho film printed in the darkroom.

Traditional film shot in camera: Processed film from traditional cameras can be used but your print size is limited to your camera format. Many practitioners use large format cameras for this reason. For a full tonal range in the print, the negative should have a long density range of at least 1.8, extending from base+fog at around 0.2 to a Dmax of 2 or more. This is achieved by “overdeveloping” the negative to the extent of 70%-80% more development.

Litho film shot in a pinhole camera: Standard continuous tone panchromatic film is expensive in large sizes, and must be handled and processed in complete darkness because of its sensitivity to all colors of light. Therefore, it’s usually more practical to use “litho or ortho film” (orthochromatic–not sensitive to red light), which is much less expensive, available in many sizes and can be processed for continuous tonality or high contrast under red safelight. Litho films were designed to record extreme contrast for the printing industry. Artists have discovered they can obtain continuous tone by developing in dilute paper developers or making their own developers to control the films contrast. With litho film you can make your own pinhole camera and shoot original negatives to the size of your final print.

Litho film printed in the darkroom: Below are four methods of making contact sized litho films in the darkroom. Each of the following methods varies somewhat in the complexity of the operation and the degree of tonal information it yields.

1) Enlargement of original negative to full-size ortho positive, contact printing of full-size positive to make full-size negative: This is expensive because you are using full-size film for both generations.

Exposure: Choose your original negative, keeping in mind that any lack of detail in the original will be amplified in the following generations of litho’s. Test strip onto the emulsion side of the litho film. The emulsion side looks lighter then the base under red safelight. Process the film and inspect it in regular room light.

Be careful not to scratch the soft litho emulsion during processing. Therefore, carry out all processing emulsion side up.

Develop with constant agitation for 5 minutes in diluted paper developer (dilute 2-3 times more then you would normally for paper development). The developer will exhaust quickly so replenish or change often.
Stop for 30 seconds.
Fix for 1 minute.
Use fixer remover to speed up wash time.
Tray wash with frequent agitation for 5-10 minutes.
Treat with a wetting agent.
Hang to dry by one corner in the drying cabinet.

When enlarging try to maintain the most even tonal range as possible with good detail retention in all areas. This will prevent too great a loss of detail when contacting to the negative stage.

When you have determined the best exposure, make the full exposure for the positive litho. Treat litho film essentially as you would normal printing paper, and do all dodging, burning, and other manipulations as well. All errors will be amplified in future generational processing.

Contacting from the positive to the full-size negative should be done so that the emulsion sides of both pieces of film are in contact; this gives the sharpest information transfer. Make sure that the glass you use to hold down the film is clean and heavy enough to cause tight, flat contact. For the most control, contact expose with a light source such as enlarger light through a small lens aperture; this allow for best detail retention. Remember also that dodging and burning can also be done during contact printing if necessary.

Notes:

A) Large sheets of film attract dust rather well, and care must be taken to keep the film surface clean before and during exposure.

B) The litho density required for contact printing onto each of the various hand applied emulsions varies slightly, and you will need to go all the way through a process to find out exactly what is required. Generally though, gum printing requires lithos of slightly greater contrast, and cyanotype or Van Dykes need flatter lithos.

2) Enlargement of original negative onto 4 x 5 ortho film then enlargement of 4 x 5 positive onto full-size litho film: Ilford and other manufacturers make a continuous tone orthochromatic film in 4×5 inch size that has many advantages: the tonal capacity is much better than that of litho film (even when developed for continuous tonality) and thus less detail is lost when enlarging from the ortho positive to the litho negative, and it is much easier to dodge and burn during that enlargement than it is during contact printing.

Exposure: Test strip and expose from the original negative onto the 4 x 5 ortho according to the information indicated in the previous section. Again try for as extended and flat a tonal range as possible.

Processing: Ortho film should be handled as carefully as indicated for litho processing. The only difference in processing instructions should be in the development: Tray develop in stock film developer with constant agitation for 6 minutes. Cover the developer tray with an opaque cover to minimize exposure to the safelight. Expose and process the full-size litho negative as outlined earlier.

3) Copying negative using a slide copier: Another possibility is to copy your original negatives in a slide copying system using negative film. This results in a roll film positive which can then be directly enlarged to the full-size negative litho film, while still preserving the original negative for standard enlargement.

4) Paper positive, contact printed to paper negative: A great financial savings can be made at the expense of quality (or to achieve a personal quality) by substituting printing paper for litho film in method #1. If you decide to make paper rather than film transparencies, be sure to use the thinnest paper possible otherwise your printing times onto hand applied emulsions will be very long. Do not use paper with the manufacturers’ name stamped on the back unless you want it to appear in your print. Processing and exposure of paper negatives should be for slightly a contrasty tonality to account for the density of the paper. The paper negative can be made more transparent by applying a thin coating of hot melted paraffin or a thin coat of oil to the back of the paper. One good thing about making paper negatives is that you have very good control over the tonality and image quality.