![]() I'm not really impressed due to the limitations imposed by the technology in use here. 1 1/2 inch borders on an 8x10 = a 432 dpi image. My favorite print type is the matted look, effected by wide white borders. A rare film-era print netted out that sharp. In short, the 8x10s I'm getting with this system are superior to those gotten via film/enlarger during my long film-shooting pro career, 11x14s abut as good, and 16x20 in some cases.īut apart from such details, the main plusses here are being able to make real prints again, prints that look and feel like real prints, made with your own hands, with any type paper you wish, to any size and shape you wish, fine-tuning the look as you wish, having perfect prints in your hands minutes after shooting, prints that can outlast present sad fade-destined alternatives by generations.Ī 4k screen, already owned by many and purchasable for $500 and up, can be used for an econo version of this setup. The image on an 8x10 print with a half-inch border, for example, has been reduced from the screen's 13" 2880 vertical resolution to 411dpi on the print. The 5k screen is not being enlarged, it's being reduced, with essentially lossless resolution via a process lens and 8x10 "camera". It's equal in real-life sharpness because even though a negative has greater potential resolution an enlarger-made print's resolution falls far short of that. ![]() You can be making real prints in just hours or days from now.īut how good is the print? It's superior to a 35mm film/enlarger print in one way, equal in another: It's superior because its tone curve can be fine tuned in Photoshop as film's never could, the look of the print perfected as not possible with film. I'll supply pix and drawings of each type, and step-by-step how-to for anyone interested. Very handy for making prints of different sizes, with borders of different sizes. The version I presently use projects the image to a horizontal 11x14 four-blade easel. Some surprisingly simple, cheap, and easy to make. I've made several versions of the "camera" used to expose the print. That primitive, essentially free, rig could have served for making small print forever. Resolution of the first 4x5 test prints was about 260 dpi, and looked shockingly good, considering. A regular computer screen was used for the negative image, having a vertical resolution of about 900 dpi. The first, proof-of-concept test version I made cost about $10 is materials, used a lens from a #3 pair of eyeglasses, with an 8-bladed iris made with black tape. An econo version can use a 4k monitor, owned by many already, obtainable used for $500 and up. ![]() The "camera" body and accouterments cost little, if self made. A new or used 300mm process lens most of the rest. The roughly $2,000 cost of the 5k monitor is almost 90% of the cost of the system. Develop the print in a traditional 3-tray wet darkroom, as if from a film/enlarger, and you have a film-enlarger-like print. Photograph that monitor image using a large "camera", using photo paper instead of a negative, paper of whatever print size or shape you want. Shoot digital, perfect the image in Photoshop, convert to negative, reverse the image, display that image on a high resolution monitor-I use the 5k Retina-screen Imac. If your eager to get started on your own I'll be glad to zap you pix and drawing and detailed information. Private message me if you have comments, suggestions or questions. I'll be posting links to photos and drawings too. Here's the draft of a piece about the enlarger. I'm open to suggestions on how to proceed. I'll post my contact information if allowed. I don't know the ropes here, so will someone say how I can get this information to those interested? And make your own prints precisely the way you want them, as in a traditional film/enlarger darkroom. The best of both worlds: shoot digital, with all of its convenience and versatility, but print silver, with its incomparable look and lifespan-and at about one-dollar per 8x10, less expensively than the cheapest fade-prone machine print. ![]() The enlarger can be put together by anyone half-way handy for between $600 and $3,000. I'd like to share the how-to of it with anyone interested, the hope being that the traditional home darkroom will become common again, real, RC or fiber prints common again. I've put together an enlarger that makes traditional, real, silver-gelatin prints, 3-tray wet-darkroom prints, from digital images, results indistinguishable from film/darkroom prints.Īs with a traditional film/enlarger, any brand paper can be used, RC or fiber-based prints can be any shape or size, borders any shape or size.
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