Re: 8x10 or 11x14 printing suggestions

[mturner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Marc Turner)]

     >What do you suggest I do when contact printing larger film sizes 
     >without an enlarger? After diligently searching everywhere I could 
     >think of, I'm still stumped. I've never had much luck so far with 
     >bare bathroom bulbs.
     >
     >Should I perhaps purchase a cheap 35mm enlarger without a lens?  
     >Should I be concerned with the type of glass I use to stabilize the 
     >film while enlarging?
     >
     >Thanks.
     >
     >--Alan Holloway
     >Austin, Texas
     
     What has been your trouble with bathroom bulbs?  If it is the timing 
     (too dark, too light, hard to get consistency) you might try getting a 
     standard darkroom timer, such as is used with enlargers.  Buy a desk 
     lamp and extension cord and plug it into your timer.  You should be 
     able to clamp or hang the bulb at sufficient distance from your 
     contact printer so that the timing is in the 10 second range, where 
     consistency is easy to maintain (you might have to use a low-wattage 
     bulb as well).  
     
     Your results will be best if the bulb is not frosted (clear glass so 
     you can see the filament) although this probably won't make much 
     difference with a contact print.  You also want to keep light from 
     bouncing around the room too much (it will soften the contrast and 
     reduce sharpness of your image slightly since the light is not all 
     coming from the same direction).  Ideally the room would have black 
     walls, but since you may not want to paint your bathroom black, the 
     best thing to do is to make sure the bulb is sufficiently shaded that 
     the light falls only in a circle around your contact printer.  You 
     might have to extend the existing shade with aluminum foil or 
     something.
     
     Glad to see someone else here in Austin is interested in pinhole.  
     Pity everyone else who is missing our bluebonnets this week!
     
     -- Marc
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End of Infrared-Digest V0 #473
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