I want to get into print making.

[Matthew Buick]

Hello.

 

As I mentioned in my title I'd like to get into making prints from my 35mm slides. And I'd like a little guidance on what equipment I'll need. I already know I'll need an enlarger. It's just that the ones I've seen are huge and bulky, I'd like something smaller and easier to use while I'm still learning.

 

Also I don't know a thing about prinitng papers. Are different papers required when printing negative and positive? Are different contrasts of paper available? Will I need to do all this in complete darkness?

 

Thanks, I'll be glad to do some real photography soon. :P

[James Steven Beverly]

There are SEVERAL services that can do this for you BUT if you want to do it yourself (and I KNOW you do) you may want to start HERE:

 

http://www.darkroomsource.net/techniques.shtml

 

http://www.dmoz.org/Arts/Photography/Techn...tyles/Darkroom/

 

http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/

 

http://www.apug.org/forums/home.php

 

http://www.photoforum.com/

 

http://www.largeformatphotography.info/forum/index.php

 

http://photo.net/community/

 

http://www.photospot.com/forum/index.php

 

http://www.usefilm.com/photo_forum/

 

http://photography.about.com/

 

THEN for what you need:

 

http://photography.listings.ebay.com/Darkr...istQQsofocusZbs

 

Ain't research a BLAST!! :D

[Mark Dunn]

Yes, the neg and reversal papers are different.

Since the demise of Cibachrome your only option for slides is Kodak paper. The process is expensive, demanding and requires accurate temperature control of several chemicals. There's no contrast control in reversal printing. You do work in complete darkness.

All in a you'll probably be better off going to a professional lab, or scanning into Photoshop and doing your 'lab work' there.

Have you ever printed black and white? If not, you'll be better off getting experience there first.

[Matthew Buick]

That for those answers both of you! I be certain to save all the links you provided. Also I just plan to print black and white till I'm more experienced.

 

I haven't ttried any sort of printing besides a digital compact printer yet. :lol:

[Dominic Case]

Amateur colour enlarging never really took off the way black and white did, for several reasons:

• It was more expensive
  
• It was much more complicated to make a straightforward print
  
• It was even more complicated to do something a little creative
  
• One reason for making your own prints is to be creative - and bvlack and white (arguably) offers more scope for simple creativity anyway.
  

So today, working in black and white is far better as a learning stage. You can actually work in a red light, which IS a help - you can see the print developing for example. The chemistry is more forgiving, you can use a range of different contrast papers, and so on.

 

An enlarger is, necessarily, bigger than a digital compact printer, because of the optics. Older black and white enlargers may have a slightly smaller head as they don't have colour correction filter sets, but the light source might not be so compact. However, I think you can get a decent enlarger on ebay for almost nothing these days, so it's not too lard to find the right one.

[Matthew Buick]

I saw some box shaped bakelite enlargers on ebay for about £12. I get one of those and a red safelight.

 

Also, the digital compact printer was just a little joke. I would count that as real printing experience.