A basic dark room used for conventional Black & White Printing is sufficient for making enlarged negatives. The various Alt-Processes practiced the world over the majority of them require contact printing, the final image being as large as the negative or object used in the contact.

In recent years the ways and means of making enlarged negatives have reached new levels of quality and techniques. With the computer age sitting on our shoulders and mankind progressing in a blink of an eye things become out of date so soon that keeping up is impossible in short, there are several techniques of making enlarged negatives. Since the idea of this web site is to keep it simply to help the local Photographer {Students} I will skip the amazing multiplicity available & give guidelines to one of the simplest methods that has worked well for me.

CONTINUOUS TONES NEGATIVE FROM LITHO FILM ::.

Fuji and Agfa import lith film in rolls, which you'll need to scale down to the size needed. Although it would probably be a better idea to some how import sheet film (friendly photo dealer) since it's a lot easer to handle. To hold the film in place you need a good piece of glass that covers the film completely even though most of the time the weather is as such that the film lies flat and you don't need to use the glass.

Litho films are orthochromatic which means they can be handled under a red safelight, and visual inspection is possible during development unlike normal films that need complete darkness during processing. You can make lith negatives or positives by contact emulsion to emulsion, the emulsion side is usually lighter colored & slightly sticky and dull, Or by projection with your enlarger for this purpose selecting any negative or positive (slide) black & white or color. While remembering that litho films are orthochromatic and may not accurately record the red hues from the slide.

FIRST PHASE INTERMEDIATE POSITIVE ::.

01 ::. Place the selected continuous tone negative in the enlarger.

02 ::. Cover the baseboard with a black matt card or paper secure with a tape at the corners.

03 ::. Focus on white paper & remove to place the litho film for exposure, emulsion side up.

04 ::. Suggested aperture is F 11 for the enlarger. Test for the correct exposure as you would for printing paper

05 ::. Next develop /stop / fix but be gentle since this is film not paper. Development is finished when the dark areas are completely opaque.

06 ::. Fix the film till it clears.

07 ::. Based on your test results make the positive and then let it dry.

SECOND PHASE FINAL IMAGE SIZE NEGATIVE ::.

To make the negative of the dried positive simply contact print emulsion to emulsion with the positive and fresh film. Develop as before.

PLEASE NOTE ::.

In case of a positive (slide) being used to make the continuous negative you can do this direct without the need of an intermediate positive. In short project the slide from the enlarger - expose - develop - stop - fix.

::. Develop each of these films (positive or negative) in a diluted version of Dektol or D-76. You'll need to test for the best dilution ratios. The other wise choice would be to try a low contrast developer.

::. Soemarko LC-1 Developer.