Topic: POP: Making Big Negs With Photoshop

[Ed Wenn]

Team, I'm going to be entering the wonderful world of POP over the next few weeks (and hopefully for the rest of the summer) and I was wondering whether anyone here had any tips re making large negative using Photoshop and printing onto transparency paper (acetates)? I'll be working from the tutorial below unless I hear otherwise and will obviously indulge in a bit of trial and error, but if anyone here has some advice...I'll gladly take it. The text below is about making negs for cyanotypes (hence the suggestion about colouring the negative...I think).

BTW, there's a book on the subject (http://www.alternativephotography.com/books/db_diginegs.html), but I won't be buying it, so please don't suggest I do that. I don't want the spending on this to get out of hand 

So, any improvements on this would be appreciated:

Photoshop
I used Photoshop 4 to do this, which is a very old version, but the principle is the same with all versions. Open the image you want from File/Open. If you do need to alter the size go to Image/Image Size uncheck the Constrain Proportions and Resample Image boxes, this locks all three together and altering any one will alter the others, resize your picture to the negative size you need.

Go to Image/Adjust/Desaturate and then to turn it into a negative use Image/Adjust/Invert and to lower the contrast Image/Adjust/Levels. Now adjust the Output with the bottom sliders from 0 to 255 to about 24 to 200. At this point you could print the negative and use it, but for most printers the image needs to be denser than this.

On the left of the window is a Toolbox and at the bottom the Foreground and Background colours, a mouseover will tell you which is which. Click on the foreground colour and in the window that comes up you will see on the right C.M.Y.K. change these to C=0, M=50, Y=50, K=0 this will produce a nice orange colour in the Foreground box. This colour adjustment can be made using anything from 0-40-40-0 through to 0-70-70-0 conduct your own experiments with these settings.

The next step is to go to Edit/Fill, another window will open, in the Mode box choose Color and OK and the image will change to an orange colour. The last step, if you want to print the negative in contact with the emulsion is to reverse the image, go to Image/Rotate Canvas/Flip Horizontal and you are finished.

Conclusion
Like most instructions they look complicated but the steps are a lot harder to describe than to actually do. I print my negatives onto Overhead Projection Film and use the photo paper setting to do it, this setting puts more ink on the film. Handle the negative carefully and hang it up to dry away from dust, some of the ones I make take up to 12 hours to harden.

[Ed Wenn]

Quick Addition: I think I'll give this stuff (http://www.permajet.com/product/140/Digital_Transfer_Film.html) a go for making the negs.

Thoughts? ....other than that it's very expensive.
 

[Ron]

Good for you, Ed!  Dan's book IS expensive and instead I got it from the library years ago and just made copies    I went about doing trial and error stuff when I was doing Van Dykes a couple years ago.  I made digi negs on overhead transparency paper (fast drying) and dove in, making many successful Van Dykes.  I have only done 2 maybe 3 digi negs on POP and they came out OK, but I never really explored it since I just contact print my 4x5 negs now.  Anyways, I know the orange fill your lesson mentions is important.  It will aid in holding some of the UV back and that way things don't progress too rapidly and it kinda densifies the neg.  Plus, I have been told over and over that Pictorico film is THE way to go for printing digital negatives.  Since I was doing Van Dykes, I wasn't as concerned about perfect negs and grain and such.  So, for just starting out, I'd use fast drying inkjet overhead transparency paper.  Get the least expensive kind you can find.  I am quite familiar with POP, so I can help you with that when you have questions.  Oh, are you using the Sun or blacklights, etc. to expose?  Also, don't go out and get anything special for a printing frame - I taped a piece of glass to a board and was fine before I ever got a real printing frame.  Best of luck!

[Francois]

Alternative photography is the place to go for the info. They have a big how-to section on digital negs.
Check these out
http://www.alternativephotography.com/articles/art026.html
http://www.alternativephotography.com/articles/art088.html

This is a very different technique that looks very interesting
http://www.alternativephotography.com/articles/art056.html
It's called the color ratio method... in my way of looking at it, it probably will produce a wider array of tones than the other methods.

There's also something I've been wanting to try for a long time: printing on an ordinary acetate using a laser printer and then expose. If the laser printer isn't too old, you will get a contrasty negative with a very fine dot pattern... could just be the thing you're looking for (maybe get it printed free at the office during lunch time?)... It should also be easier to print (at least in theory).

[Andrea.]

I've done a few using this material and PC Elements but none has been entirely successful. Prefer 5x7 negs developed in PQ universal.

[LT]

Ed - you might find some helpful info at http://www.hybridphoto.com/forums/ .... but then again, you might not.

[Janet_P]

Good luck with this Ed. I have bought all the elements to create Cyanotype prints, including some black lights but I still haven't got round to doing it, so I shall be following your progress with interest.

Janet

[Susan B.]

Ed--

I've worked with Dan personally. Wonderful guy.
Email me directly and we can chat at length.

[filmwast]

and printing onto transparency paper (acetates)?

I used to have a photocopier that printed onto acetates from a positive. Assume this would lack the details your after. Note how informed I am not. Skj.

[al]

and printing onto transparency paper (acetates)?

I had a go at this once using a lovely new laser printer.  The acetate sheet got totally mangled in the printer, and started to smell like it was melting!!  It took me ages to get the thing apart to remove all the heat distoreted crap and I used up a large proprtion of my lifetime's supply of swear words, as the printer was about 2 days old.  I haven't had the balls to try it again!

So my tip is check the printer is suitable, and if it's a laser, if something gets jammed switch off damn quick!

[Ed Wenn]

All, many thanks for the tips and the encouragement. I think my next step will be to try it a few times, make some silly mistakes, swear a lot and then get back in touch with specific questions (and any half-decent results too of course  ).

My plan re light source is to use the sun initially...nothing like adding an extra variable into the process.

[Francois]

The acetate sheet got totally mangled in the printer, and started to smell like it was melting!! 

I actually did acetates on my venerable old Laserjet and had no problems. I had it inserted through the envelope bypass route which is less curvy on mine.

Also check the back of the box of acetates, it usually has a long list of compatible printers. Mine are made by 3M (model PP2500) and worked great. Note that transparencies made for non laser printers won't work since they can melt while going through the fuser assembly

make some silly mistakes, swear a lot

Don't worry Ed, the swearing won't come from printing on acetates... the printer part is the easy part

[JOhn Reeves]

this is how I got sucked into this camera mess.
I first rigged the scanner at work to scan some negatives and then I printed the negative onto acetate. I played hooky from work and sensitized a bunch of paper and found a few "frameless" frames to use as the negative/paper holder. It worked fairly well. Not the best image quality, but I was onto something.

There's a student at the KC art institute who made some 30" acetate negs via a large format copier. Her cyanotypes were quite nice. She did it right.
post some results.