What are the ways a photographer's name can be burned onto a print?

[erikg]

Lith film negative. Enlarged or in contact. If you want it in the image area do the exposure separate from image. Used to be common in labs.

[brucemuir]

I once had some 4x5 film holders that had a strip of acetate or other clear material that had a number that would imprint directly to the negative.

I think it was at the closed darkslide end. I'm sure I still have them I just avoided them because I didn't want the numbers obscuring the image border.

[Mike Pieper]

Lith film negative. Enlarged or in contact. If you want it in the image area do the exposure separate from image. Used to be common in labs.

I think this could be it. Now that I think about it, it was lith film that he used to print his name on the medium format contact sheets.

[jnanian]

I once had some 4x5 film holders that had a strip of acetate or other clear material that had a number that would imprint directly to the negative.

I think it was at the closed darkslide end. I'm sure I still have them I just avoided them because I didn't want the numbers obscuring the image border.

i have a grafmatic back that had a wheel with numbers ( and i removed it ) ... it would burn the number onto the film as you said ..
i forgot about that until you mentioned it ... but seeing i never used it, i don't even know if the numbers would have been black or white

john

[brucemuir]

Yea, I had a 2x3 grafmatic that had those too...

I think,
Sounds very familiar.

[X. Phot.]

Just saw this in Popular Science Feb '37 - To leave a white signature, simply write it on the photographic paper with a soft lead pencil prior to exposure. The pencil lead will wash out during development.

I haven't tested this yet. But it sounds reasonable. I can imagine that some papers won't take to pencil lead very well.

[jnanian]

Just saw this in Popular Science Feb '37 - To leave a white signature, simply write it on the photographic paper with a soft lead pencil prior to exposure. The pencil lead will wash out during development.

I haven't tested this yet. But it sounds reasonable. I can imagine that some papers won't take to pencil lead very well.

but x.phot ...
is there an article on leaving a BLACK signature ?
white signatures are easy

[X. Phot.]

but x.phot ...
is there an article on leaving a BLACK signature ?
white signatures are easy

I started to read another article elsewhere that described making an opaque mask to cover the entire photographic paper. In the area of the mask that should contain the signature block, a window was cut to the appropriate size. The window contains a piece of film that has an image the signature (in negative). After exposing the primary photograph, the mask is placed over the photographic paper and the signature is exposed to the desired density.

I believe Polyglot, Erikg and others have mentioned a similar method.

[David A. Goldfarb]

Lith film negative. Enlarged or in contact. If you want it in the image area do the exposure separate from image. Used to be common in labs.

This is usually how this would be done. If enlarged, a second enlarger could be set up to project the signature. If contact printed, it could be done most easily with a contact proofer that had a box with individually switchable bulbs and a timer, and it would make the exposure when the lid was closed.

[holmburgers]

I used a piece of tracing paper the other night to print my exposure times onto some contact sheets and it ended up looking really cool. But of course that's white...

Writing your name on acetate with a nice black ink pen, and then copying this onto a high-contrast film (with as much density in the blacks as possible) would give you two different signatures; one to use in light areas and one to use in dark areas. Something like Worker's flash-light would have to be devised of course.

Imagine the possibilities with color papers and different colored inks, gels, lights...

It'd be really cool to just find some pen-light with a really narrow beam and you could sign your print directly.

Lastly, how about a rubber stamp pressed on a pad of Farmer's Reducer. But what chemical to create the black???