digital to wet print

[dickgillberg]

Advertisement (gone after registration)

I don't now if I post in a wrong forum, but I want to do wet prints of some of my digital pictures. Do I need to take a picture with film of my digital picture or how how do you do it? Scan it with film?

Thanks.

[adan]

There have been several ways to do this.

For a while there were electronic devices that could be put into a normal large-format enlarger - essentially transparent LCD screens - that would display the image inverted to a negative. The enlarger would work in its traditional fashion - light souce shining through the "LCD-virtual-negative" to a lens, and then to the photo paper.

This did not have very good resolution in the beginning, since the LCD screens only usually had 1-3 megapixels - the "dots" would tend to show up if enlarged much.

There was a lab in Cimarron, New Mexico that offered such silver-prints-from-digital, 15 years ago or so. I think they used an early version of the De Vere enlarger - a 4x5 enlarger custom-modified for LCD projection. That now reaches 17 Mpixels and does color: http://de-vere.com/products-504ds-digital-enlarger/

There is/was even a version of this approach that uses a smartphone (and custom app) as the "negative" to be projected: https://petapixel.com/2013/09/03/enfojer-analog-darkroom-printing-digital-smartphone-photos/

But again, low-resolution (20cm x 20cm prints)

There also exist "digital-to-film" devices (a.k.a "film-writers") that can print a digital image onto photographic film, for traditional processing and printing, or to make color slides from color digital images for slide-shows, lectures, etc. Same issue, though - especially 10-15 year ago. Resolution very "technology-limited." Hollywood has, of course, used those for years, on an industrial scale, to edit CGI special effects into movies shot otherwise on film, or to distribute all-digital movies to theaters without digital projection systems.

Another "home-made" technique is to project the digital image onto a screen or wall, and then photograph the projection with a film camera. A bit tricky to get the camera closely-enough aligned with the projection lens to avoid keystoning or fuzzy corners. And the screen or wall has to be perfectly smooth and texture-free.

If rephotographing an image - the bigger the film negative (and the bigger the projection area) the better. No reason not to use MF or even 4x5 if possible.

_______________

I think most people today, working on a small scale, make "final size" negatives by ink-jet printing a digital image - with tones reversed - onto transparent inkjet "film", and then contact-printing that onto photo-paper. The nice option there is that the negative can also be used for alternative contact processes (platinum prints, cyanotype, carbon prints, gum prints, etc.) as well as silver-darkroom prints. A friend of mine (occasionally on this forum) made some very nice platinum or palladium prints from his M9 images this way, just a few years back.

Usually takes a bit of experimenting to get the "negative" density correct, with full shadow and highlight detail.

While the inkjet negative will be limited to 240-300 lines per inch - It is already enlarged to final size, and thus there is no further loss of resolution in the darkroom. With a large-desktop printer (17-inch wide) one can make very sharp 16"x 20" or "A2" negs and prints.

https://www.richardpickup.com/blog/2016/7/7/darkroom-prints-from-digital-negatives

 

Edited December 19, 2019 by adan

[Advertisement]

The Leica Q3 is available for pre-order at B&H Photo Video and Adorama

[jaapv]

There are stil laboratories which can do prints on the Durst Lambda printer, which will project the digital image onto conventional paper by Laser technology.

In our country, for instance

 

https://www.hetbeeldgebouw.nl/producten/lambda-fotoprints-c-prints

 

But there are more.

[dickgillberg]

Thank you! I want a negative that I can process in my darkroom with my 35mm enlarger. I might try to photograph a projected picture first to test it out, as you sad, Andy.  

[A miller]

Seems like too much effort to me.  The hybrid silver gelatin light jet print product that Whitewall offer on Ilford Baryta paper is almost identical to a wet print in look and feel.  I have done wet and prints and prints from Whitewall on Ilford Baryta paper using the traditional light jet followed by chemical washing process and I could hardy tell the difference.

 https://www.whitewall.com/us/photo-prints/baryta-bw

 

[Ko.Fe.]

The very basic info is missing in OP. BW or Color? Both are still done in DR. 

 

BW is something which is widely known and well described up to little details for how to get it right in PP before printing the digital negative in DR.

Transparency films for BW are sold by BH. It is contact prints.

 

 

If OP is requiring for color prints, I suggest to Google C-prints.

 

[Martin B]

Advertisement (gone after registration)

I am using digital negatives quite often to print either from digital files on photosensitive paper or to print a color negative in B&W. The most tedious in this process is to calibrate the used developer to the inkjet printer which prints the digital negative. The process is quite well described by Freestyle Photo:

https://www.freestylephoto.biz/alternative-process/making-digital-negatives

After the tonal adjustment calibration curve is set, the rest is fairly easy: print the B&W negative inverse and horizontally flipped on Pictorico foil with my Canon PIXMA Pro-100 printer. I use a size between approx. 4x4" (for square frames from digitized 6x6 cm negatives) and 4x5" from digital higher resolution files. A few examples below.

Printed this one on Ilford MG fiber paper 11x14". The original is taken with Kodak Ektar 100 color film in 6x6 medium-format. I converted the digitized color negative scan into a B&W digital negative using my calibration curves with Dektol developer. I printed from an approx. 4x4" digital negative. Below the final B&W print, underneath the scanned original color negative photo for comparison.

Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here…

Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

Edited February 26, 2020 by Martin B

[Martin B]

Further prints from digital negatives directly from digital infrared photos:

Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here…

Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

Also the example of my tonal adjustment curve calibration (calibration of Canon Pro-100 printer with Dektol developer):