Super-sized contacts/proofs - how to do it?

[gamincurieux]

Hi, can anyone advise how to do super-sized contacts/proofs? You know, the bigger-than-normal ones some labs offer. Could this be done by me at home I wonder, does it require special equipment? I'd love top be able to do them, particularly for certain special negs. Many thanks, Paul

[2F/2F]

You need an enlarger with a glass negative carrier. You can do some frames, but not a whole roll, with a 4x5 carrier. To do the whole roll, you need an 8x10 (or larger) enlarger.

I suppose without this equipment, you could lay the filmstrips out on a super-clean light box, put a piece of glass over them, photograph them (preferably on 4x5), reversal process the film, and then print from that positive image of the negatives.

I have rented a lab with an 8x10 enlarger when I have done this.

[DanielStone]

I remember seeing this offered a few years back by a lab here in LA, can't remember which one. It was nice though, and I guess a lot of people would use it. I believe they were using an 11x14 horizontal enlarger with a glass carrier to sandwich the negs on, then printing them onto 16x20 paper. They called them "super proofs".

if you shoot 6x7, you can't proof all 10 shots onto an 8x10 piece of paper at once, so, therefore the 11x14 enlarger.

-Dan

[erikg]

Super proofs, I wonder if any labs still do them. They were fairly common at the lab I worked at. They were done there in one of the mural cameras, a horizontal unit with a 10x10 glass carrier. Never saw any 2 1/4 film proofed that way, I would think that's because a normal contact sheet would be large enough for the art directors to see. They were neat to look at, the super proofs that is, not the art directors.

[gamincurieux]

Mm, well this seems a little difficult to do at home.

[2F/2F]

Any lab with an 8x10 enlarger will do them. A and I in Los Angeles offers them as one of their services (prices listed on Website).

[gamincurieux]

Was just hoping to be able to do it at home, myself, here in the land of Oz, you know....

[2F/2F]

Doing them yourself might be out, but there must be a professional lab somewhere on the continent that will do them for you if needed.

[jp80874]

Hi, can anyone advise how to do super-sized contacts/proofs? .... Many thanks, Paul

Buy a very large camera (20x24) and make contact prints, one image at a time.

John Powers

[gamincurieux]

You mean take a shot with a large camera of a regular 8x10 contact sheet?