Need some help with a contact sheet question I have, is it possible to make the image twice the size and if so how do I go about this procedure, is there a special box or something which will effectively lift the negs a little higher without losing any sharpness in the final product??

Your help will be warmly welcomed.

Regards Paul

-- Paul Gray (leica@swipnet.se), April 05, 2002

Answers

An enlarger?

-- Larry Gebhardt (larry@gebhardts.net), April 05, 2002.

Thanks but I think you might have misinterpreted my Question.

Unless there is an enlarger which accepts 36 negs at the same time.

I need to still print a contact but double the neg size as opposed to the actual size.

Regards Paul.

-- Paul Gray (leica@swipnet.se), April 05, 2002.

Larry had it. An enlarger. An 8 x 10 enlarger will be able to handle a full sheet of 36 mm negatives. Or, if you are digitally inclined, make the regular proof, scan it, enlarge it in photoshop and print it out on a wide carriage photo printer. (Yes, that is a lot of work for a proof.)

Or, you could buy a magnifying glass... 8)

-- Joe Lipka (joelipka@earthlink.net), April 05, 2002.

I have occaisionally made 2x enlarged proofs on 16x20 paper for many years. Yes, it does require an 8x10 enlarger. Pretty to look at, difficult to file. Usually not worth it.

-- Mark Sampson (MSampson45@aol.com), April 05, 2002.

Paul, you probably don't have an 8x10 enlarger, otherwise you wouldn't ask this question. So, instead of buying one you can scan all your negatives toghether on a flatbed scanner whith a transparency adaptor (relatively easy to find) and print them at the size you want (after digitaly inverting them, of course).

The other solution is to print a normal contact sheet and use a 2x loupe. Well, not very original solution, though.

-- George Papantoniou (papanton@hol.gr), April 05, 2002.

Thanks for the response.

I do have a flat bed scanner but not the enlarger, I never new one existed.

I photograph a lot of live bands and I just wanted to give the customer a better way of viewing the shots before ordering them, I normally sit with them with the loupe, but it would be nice to get a contact sheet done which was slightly larger for ease of image choice.

I have tried the flatbed contact sheet method but have never obtain satisfactory results, and the thought of using my neg. scanner for 30 roles terrifies me !!!!

I also get a company to burn the images on a CD itīs great for the customer but expensive for the initial ,picking the frames stage.

Anyhow I will see if I can get a lab in my area with one of these 8x 10 enlargers.

Regards Paul.

-- Paul Gray (leica@swipnet.se), April 05, 2002.

If you have an enlarger that will do 4x5 (much more common than 8x10), you can make 2x enlargements this way. Not as many at a time as with an 8x10 enlarger, but perhaps this could be an option.

-- Jim Rock (jameswrock@aol.com), April 05, 2002.

It's called an enlarged contact. Alot of pro labs will do it on either 11x14 or 16x20 paper, using an 8x10 enlarger and a glass carrier. You can also buy some custom wall mount or tabletop proof printers that will do a fixed 2x or 3x print off an 8x10. Some of these are made using 35mm contact proof frames as the neg carriers....the only commercial source I can think of charges about a grand or so for one. You could probably make one if you were a tinkerer....

I do this on occasion for work though, we have a large amount of old 35mm film that was cut into 3 strip lengths (bad idea). I put two of these side by side in a glass 4x5 carrier & enlarge them onto 8x10 paper....you can get 6 images this way more or less....it's a good way to proof a roll, but an 8x10 enlarger would be perfect.

-- dk thompson (kthompson@moh.dcr.state.nc.us), April 05, 2002.