Video showing the process behind creating a 120x150cm print for art photographer Dag Alveng. Created from a 8x10″ negative. The artist's homepage: www.alveng.com
My grandfather made a living doing mural prints from 8x10s, and many other formats. There's photos of me as a baby swimming in his troughs. I like to think that's where I found my love of the darkroom. It makes me feel like I'm connected to him. Thanks for sharing this video and keeping the art alive
The Holterman Collection in Australia includes wet plate negatives that have survived from the gold rush days that are 90 x 160cms...that is negatives that are effectively grainless because the emulsion was in liquid form, and so allow very high levels of enlargement...from the late 19th century...film technology is just amazing...
Good point, wasnt good enough of a story teller to realize that when I made this video xD Here it is in digital small version: www.brandstrup.no/artists/dag-alveng
@@OysteinG Awesome Video. the handling of the process is more important to me than the result. Could you please explain what you were doing in the smaller tray while rolling up the print? Where all those trays custom made? Such a clever system. Thanks for sharing.
I noticed some comments about the enlarger and how it can be done. Forgive me if it’s been answered. But when I was an apprentice in the 80s we used a durst 5x4 plate enlarger that would rotate 90% and ran on a rail system fitted in the floor. We then enlarged on to the wall. Any size neg upto 5x4 plate. Start test print at F8. And may take upto 20 mins to allow us to doge and burn.
Maybe not.Only the enlarger that can rotate its head can do.Or elevate the enlarger and project the negs on floor.U need a excellent enlarging lens like apo rodagon g which can offer a nice 20X print.And color enlarging work for such a huge size is obviously not easy because of the difficulties of paper processing. @@konukuauleki
I'm an aspiring photographer in the making. I'm only in my first year in photography but i'm very fascinated by the development of it. This was amazing, thankyou for this .
Most decent enlargers can be rotated to project horizontally to create mural sized prints. If your really handy research Ansel Adams enlarger and make one yourself.
I have developed oversize papers on the diagonal of a tray by suspending the paper in a U and running the edges up and down in alternation. You could do it in a trough. You might need to attach the 40" edges to rigid rods to keep the corners from falling over, or have two people working the paper from both ends.
I wonder if they were using RC or Fiber-based paper? RC would be a lot more flexible for such an intensively hand's-on process. It's a beautiful shot! Love those giant negs!
why would anyone waste a print that large and detailed on RC paper? The paper wont last and there is just too much involed to make the print to just make a temprary print.
How exactly did you dry, press, and mount the print? I’m about to print 4’x8’ and I’ve only ever printed up to 20”x20”. I feel like it would roll up if I tried to hinge mount the whole thing.
You can briefly see the mounting process at the end of the video. We cover aluminum sheets with 2-3 thin layers of glue, that we carefully even out and keep clear of dust and particles. We then transfer the print directly from washing to the aluminum, by super carefully rolling it out while flattening it to the sheet gradually. Unfortunately this is the hardest part of the whole process, and it has happened more than once that we have had to do the whole print over again!
Hi, I was wondering where and how you managed to get such a large piece of paper for this? Ilford won't make bigger than 20x24 and Adox no bigger than 16x20
Incredible! I’m curious - does the the folding of the paper not create marks? Or you are using RB paper? My experience is that FB papers are quite delicate. Also, the uneven application of developer does not affect the image developing? I hope to try this at one point - inspiring work!
Thanks! Again sorry for not showing the finished print at the end, as everyone is complaining about :P We have haad few issues with paper wrinkles, but it is definitely one of the most important factors to keep in mind. As long as you do all rolling carefully, is usually turns out good!
OMG what are you doing to process this man. We just used (professionally) PVC pipes cut in half with ends on them blocked. I've processed. I've processed every material including RA4 using this 1/2 pipe method.
Amazing print! But I wonder which steps are stop bath and fix bath? Should these steps be done under safe light? I thought the liquid you pour into the large tank should be developer? Though confused about some steps, but great work! Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for the nice reply! If I remember correctly with didnt use stop, but it of course had to be fixed before turning lights off. I have however edited out the first fixing in the big bath, but the rolling in the smaller tubs, is for archive quality fixing. This can be done in light, since it has already gotten a lot of fixing in the big bath before this. Using this method we guarantee 100+ years lifetime on the print.
How do you know the exposure time with such a large print? Do you make a smaller print first and then calculate how much longer based on the extra distance? Do you have to consider reciprocity failure of the paper emulsion when doing this?
it would have been great to have seen the finished print rather than seeing links to another video, why? when I never saw the end of the video I was watching!!!!!
Wow... really nice video. May I know please where to get photography papers of this size? Or how to máme them? I have been searching everywhere. Thank You
Thanks bro! Photo paper in this size, is unfortunately not very common anymore, and thus often has to be specially ordered. We got ours through a local photo importer in our country, and I would start contacting businesses in your country, I if were you :)
@@OysteinG Thank You very much for your answer... Hope I can watch more of your videos... For me... I do not even know how to search for this sort of papers. Every time I search large photopapre it shows the only options for printers. From HP,Cannon etc. Do you what exactly shall I search? Thank You very much... And keep doing the amazing work! :)
Heilt fantastisk, utruleg bra arbeid. Du fortjener ei flaske med mikrobryggeri øl og ein sigar for kvart print du lagar, ja tillegg til den vanlige prisen som du tek for arbeidet sjølvsagt.
Wow that's crazy big for a silver print. It looks like you went straight from developer to light on. Did you not use stop bath before putting on the lights??
......i was searching how to best print 50x60cm, but this is great to watch. I do have a couple of question: - are you seriously going into the developer and fix with your bare hands? - where was your stopbad?? - how much liter of chemicals did you use? For example the development bath?? thanks for sharing
Thanks for kind words! - I'm aware that not using gloves isn't optimal, but I'm luckily not suffering from any damage today. - The stop bath is not shown in the video, but we use stop bath too. - We used plastic cans for mixing chemicals before pouring over. I believe it was approx. 5 liters per round. Happy developing!
I like projection on the the wall hands-on. Ansel Adams built a career doing this, he took an enlarger head mounted on wheels on railroad car tracks so he could easily move the enlarger closer and further away from the wall. It's documented in his book, "the print"
If you work in one tray pouring the liquids in, how do you get the developer out after some minutes to fill in the stop and later the same with the fix?
+Fanjan Combrink Thank you for watching! Instructions for darkroom printing are too long to post here, but you can read one of numerous guides on the net here: aphototeacher.com/2010/02/28/printing-photographs-in-the-darkroom/
hey! may i ask which enlarging lens you are using? I wanna do big prints as well, although not as big as yours, so i'm wondering whether i should invest in some more expensive enlarger lenses.
Such nice and inspiring video! Just too bad that there was no response to none that asked info on the enlarger/lenses used. Share knowledge is what we are here for!
Thanks for the nice words, and sorry for not answering before! It's so long ago, I honestly can't remember either the enlarger or the lens, but the enlarger is very similar to this one: Honestly can't remember anymore, but its quite similar to this one: www.durst-pro-usa.com/HL2501AF.php
Mmmmhh.. doubting a lot about pouring developer directly from bottle and agitating such large tank that way.. How uniform is developing ? can be made professionally and saving a lot of dev / fixer in a different way..
Every artist should know about safety, and day after day, for long periods of time immersing the hands in developer and fixer is bound to bring on health issues.
lol you must not do darkroom stuff yourself. Everyone knows that the chemicals for black and white are harmless to touch. Most people don't wear gloves.
Seeing how you "lost" 2:58, I'd say I was successful at making interesting videoes already back then. The lack of showing the whole print in the end has already been thouroughly critiqued, as you already knew when you wrote your slightly hateful comment ;) Wish you all well and hope you'll become better at constructive criticism in the future!
Hi, I was wondering where and how you managed to get such a large piece of paper for this? Ilford won't make bigger than 20x24 and Adox no bigger than 16x20
I don´t remember anymore, but I believed we ordered it through a national distributor, in custom orders. I'm guessing it gets more and more difficult to get these papers, but it should still be possible!
Adox makes a 20x24 semi matte paper. Ilford added the MG Art paper to its line a few years ago and that came in 20x24 flat pack with an option for roll paper but you had to order alot of it.Test Test and take notes. Film Lives.
