hey mike--if you still want to try using film, here's another idea. contact print the 4x5 onto another sheet of film. you can probably use ilford ortho plus, this way you can handle it under a red safelight. it will make the exposure somewhat easier as well, since you can do a test strip more or less and sacrifice a sheet for that. if you have a darkroom, just do it under an enlarger, just like making a contact sheet. put a piece of black construction paper or similar under the whole sandwich as well to keep flare down. Ortho plus is very easy to use in the darkroom. you can tray process it in a paper developer, or you can use regular film developers for lower contrast. It will give you a larger piece of film to scan as well.


If you still want to shoot them--my advice would be to maybe try to do it like duplicating a transparency. Use a slow, low contrast film--standardize on your exposure. There's a neutral density filter, a wratten no.96 I think (I use one at work, can't recall the exact number right now) but it's a one-stop neutral density filter. You lay this over the stage where the transparency is and take your meter reading (TTL) off this if you were making a slide dupe for example. It's like reading off a gray card. This would be a starting point for your exposures--and you could bracket on either side to nail it down. Take notes...then sort out your plates into different batches for contrast and density and work with them from there. you probably need to flop the plates--emulsion side up--on the lightbox to get them oriented right for the film neg in the camera.

hope this makes some sense