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making giant prints
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my darkroom is far from set up but, having all the necessary equipment really, I’ve started making really big prints…
I have reclaimed a corner of my shed which got appropriated for storage before i had much of a chance to do anything with it! its light tight apart from the extractor fan… i have:
1 6×6 enlarger on a tiny table
2 safelights
3 basins for chemicals
1 bucket for waternegs and a 1m wide roll of grade 1 bromide paper
I screwed a large sheet of perspex to the wall and made a sort of rudimentary funnel out of a black plastic bin bag stapled to the wall. pointed the enlarger at it, focused onto a sheet of white paper by eye as there’s not enough light for the focus scope at that distance (well i couldnt see a thing so thats my guess). test and stick up the big sheet with blue tack…
development is done with the aid of sponges. timing is guesswork but since you cant really over do it with most of the chemicals i use it doesnt matter…
the setup:
chemical baths:
giant paper:
the big mess…
the drawbacks of this method are many:
the sponges scratch the glossy surface a bit, especially if there’s a grain of dirt…
the floor can get quite wet despite funnel, especially if your a bit liberal with the wash…
you end up with way less chemicals than you started with
the surfaces are not perfectly optically flat and the focus method isnt infallible but my eye is pretty good so I’m alright…
there are often drip marks as its very hard to ensure that it gets perfectly even developmentbut to be honest the results are still pretty nice (in my opinion anyway, I’m blown away by the scale) and its really nice to have a more physical involvement with the print.
I admire your courage in undertaking such a task and your print looks good in the photo shown. Your method of developing needs some refining however and what occurs to me would be to use a 1 m long plastic window box. When you expose your print roll it into a tube shape and wearing rubber gloves place it into the box containing the developer. Now unroll it and re roll it keeping it in the dev. all the time. Doing this several times will make sure all of the print will go through the developer. The developer needs only to be 2″ deep. When satisfied that your print is fully developed drain it back into the window box and move onto the stop box and the fixer box repeating the same procedure.
Good luck with your endeavours.Wow,now that is impressive, I’m surprised tbh how big you’ve printed from a 6×6,I assumed because my enlarger manual says max 20×24 or something similar that that was the limit. I just read the Print by Ansel Adams recently and he used the same method,also using the long containers tex mentioned.Did you get the paper in Ireland, I’d love to give that a go. This site really is a treasure for inspiring idea’s.Well done Isabella
brilliant tex, why didnt i think of that? yes that sounds like a far better solution and would eliminate most of my problems…
dubtom I got it on ebay for about E80/E90 delivered. will definitely be getting another roll or 2 as soon as the funds allow.
Brilliant,and thanks for sharing,this is one of those processes I would love to try but in truth never will which makes it all the more interesting to see someone do it and share the method and results.
Good luck with the refinements as suggested here and please let us share in you wonderful journey of discovery.
Regards Michael.:shock:
more inspiration to get a darkroom up and running !
That image Isabella, looks great and the print is B I G.
fair play to you for attacking this and some good points for developing
by the lads above . . .keep us posted.
A
That’s brilliant… think I’ll have to redo my darkroom plans now to be able to print big prints.
have you heard of this guy from Florida… http://www.clydebutcher.com/” onclick=”window.open(this.href);return false;
Have a look at his darkroom setup, there is a good video on the home page at the bottom.
Isabella,
that looks like a great set-up although I would personally follow Vincent’s (Tex) suggestions with the 1m window box which will be much more convenient for you and less messy for sure.It’s none of my business really but I would negotiate more than just one corner of the place if I were you. Surely to God you can twist the arm of whoever owns all of the other junk (ok maybe it’s not junk) stored there to find a new home for it in the recycle centre? Where do you wash your large prints, btw?
Regards,
George.I told you it was worth posting Isabella and I’m glad you did. It may inspire others to try.
The best way to do large printing is to use a drum like in the attached picture.
You roll the paper and place in the drum, put cap on and pour in developer, roll drum back and forth, pour out developer and pour in stop bath etc. This way minimises the amount of handling required and doesn’t use too much chemistry.
A friend of mine is trying to make/locate an affordable drum so if anyone has any suggestions please let me know.
Peter
Excellent. Thats terrific. Good to see the photos too. Am searching ebay as I type :)
that link to clyde butcher is great John!
and Peter – that drum developer is the biz!
That drum looks fairly easily make able Peter,the pipe can be got in any builders providers,you can also get the stop ends,although securing one side so it’s removable without leaking would probably be a challenge, although you can get rubber stops that may work,a hole drilled for the smaller pipe with a rubber stop are easily got too. The holders looks very similar to the gadgets that hold waste pipe on walls. Standard waste pipe is 4” but you can get bigger
A variation on my original method occurs to me Isabella, but it would require two people to make it work. Each person hold opposite ends of the print with the emulsion side facing up. Let the print hang down between the two of you and lower it into the developer. One person lowers their end until it is covered by the developer and then gently raise it up again as the other person lowers their end, a type of see-saw action. Ensure that that print is travelling through the developer at all times as it moves up and down. Because you can see the image developing you can judge when it is fully developed. If you have a willing friend I think this method would work better than my original suggestion.
If you fail to get the drum I think this would work just as well.dubtom wrote:
That drum looks fairly easily make able Peter,the pipe can be got in any builders providers,you can also get the stop ends,although securing one side so it’s removable without leaking would probably be a challenge, although you can get rubber stops that may work,a hole drilled for the smaller pipe with a rubber stop are easily got too. The holders looks very similar to the gadgets that hold waste pipe on walls. Standard waste pipe is 4” but you can get bigger
Yea Tom I priced all the bits last year but it was working out very expensive. Biggest pipe I could find was about 16 inch diameter which would suit a mitre wide print.
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