I hear you can make a print (that will be reversed) of a print... I don't have the negative. How do I do this? Thanks

-- Linda Cooper (svcguru@mcs.net), May 18, 1999

Answers

Why do the words "copyright infringement" suddenly come to mind? It's easy to do, but if you are trying to make a copy of someone elses work I for one am not willing to help.

-- Fritz Brown (brownf@idhw.state.id.us), May 18, 1999.

Linda e-mailed me and told me that the image in question is a portrait of her children that she gave the negative of to her children but wants to make another copy of. My sensitivity evident in my earlier post is aimed at people trying to make unauthorized copies of other peoples work. If anyone intends to do such a thing dont read further!

OK, contact printing from one print to another is dead simple. Just lay the print emulsion side down onto a piece of paper and expose through the paper using your enlarger without a negative as the light source. Do a test strip to get at the right exposure time. It will be fairly long since the light is being muted by the paper. When you develop the paper you will see that you now have a negative. Very carefully evaluate the densities of the negative to find the exposure time tht gives a good negative and that important highlight and shadow details havent been lost. You may have to drop the paper grade if you are having dificulty. You want a fairly low contrast paper negative so you should probably start off with grade 1 or 2 paper and soften it if necessary. Once you have settled on the paper grade and exposure time, print a good full frame negative.

When you have printed a good paper negative, process it normaly and make sure you wash it well. Dry it as normal and then contact print that again to get a positive duplicate of the original print. If you are careful in preparing the paper negative and subsequent printing, you should end up with a high quality duplicate.

Once again I apologise for the implications of my first post. Good luck on your endeavor.

-- Fritz M. Brown (brownf@idhw.state.id.us), May 18, 1999.

I think I was a little confusing at one point in my instructions. You lay the print on top of the paper and expose through the print, not through the new piece of paper. Sorry if I was unclear.

-- Fritz M. Brown (brownf@idhw.state.id.us), May 18, 1999.

How about just making a copy negative and making a print the old fashioned way?

-- James D. Steele (jdsteele@erols.com), May 26, 1999.